Social Gospel
The Social Gospel is a
History
The term Social Gospel was first used by Charles Oliver Brown in reference to Henry George's 1879 treatise Progress and Poverty,[5] which sparked the single tax movement.
The Social Gospel affected much of Protestant America. The Presbyterians described their goals in 1910 by proclaiming:
The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.[6]
In the late 19th century, many Protestants were disgusted by the poverty level and the low quality of living in the slums. The social gospel movement provided a religious rationale for action to address those concerns. Activists in the Social Gospel movement hoped that, if by public measures as well as enforced schooling, the poor could develop talents and skills, causing the quality of their moral lives to improve. Important concerns of the Social Gospel movement were labor reforms such as abolishing child labor and regulating the hours of work by mothers. By 1920, they were crusading against the 12-hour day for workers at U.S. Steel.
Washington Gladden
Washington Gladden (1836–1918) was an American Congregational clergyman. His words and actions earned him the title of "a pioneer" of the Social Gospel even before the term came into use. Gladden spoke up for workers and their right to organize unions.[7]
For Gladden, the "Christian law covers every relation of life" including the relationship between employers and their employees.[8] His 1877 book The Christian Way: Whither It Leads and How to Go On was his first national call for such a universal application of Christian values in everyday life. The book began his leadership in the Social Gospel movement.[9] Historians consider Gladden to be one of the Social Gospel movement's "founding fathers".[10]
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)
Another of the defining theologians for the Social Gospel movement was Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist pastor of the Second
In 1892, Rauschenbusch and several other leading writers and advocates of the Social Gospel formed a group called the Brotherhood of the Kingdom.[12] Pastors and leaders will join the organization to debate and implement the social gospel.[13]
In 1907, he published the book Christianity and the Social Crisis, which would influence the actions of several actors of the social gospel.[14] His work may be "the finest distillation of social gospel thought."[15] Rauschenbusch railed against what he regarded as the selfishness of capitalism and promoted instead a form of Christian socialism that supported the creation of labor unions and cooperative economics.[16]
A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917)
The social gospel movement was not a unified and well-focused movement, for it contained members who disagreed with the conclusions of others within the movement.[17] Rauschenbusch stated that the movement needed "a theology to make it effective" and likewise, "theology needs the social gospel to vitalize it."[18] In A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917), Rauschenbusch takes up the task of creating "a systematic theology large enough to match [our social gospel] and vital enough to back it."[18] He believed that the social gospel would be "a permanent addition to our spiritual outlook and that its arrival constitutes a state in the development of the Christian religion",[19] and thus a systematic tool for using it was necessary.
In A Theology for the Social Gospel, Rauschenbusch states that the individualistic gospel has made sinfulness of the individual clear, but it has not shed light on institutionalized sinfulness: "It has not evoked faith in the will and power of God to redeem the permanent institutions of human society from their inherited guilt of oppression and extortion."
The "Kingdom of God" is crucial to Rauschenbusch's proposed theology of the social gospel. He states that the ideology and doctrine of "the Kingdom of God," of which Jesus Christ reportedly "always spoke"[21] has been gradually replaced by that of the Church. This was done at first by the early church out of what appeared to be necessity, but Rauschenbusch calls Christians to return to the doctrine of "the Kingdom of God."[22] Of course, such a replacement has cost theology and Christians at large a great deal: the way we view Jesus and the synoptic gospels, the ethical principles of Jesus, and worship rituals have all been affected by this replacement.[23] In promoting a return to the doctrine of the "Kingdom of God", he clarified that the "Kingdom of God": is not subject to the pitfalls of the Church; it can test and correct the Church; is a prophetic, future-focused ideology and a revolutionary, social and political force that understands all creation to be sacred; and it can help save the problematic, sinful social order.[24]
In this book, he explains that Christians must be like the Almighty who became man in
Settlement movement
Many reformers inspired by the movement opened settlement houses, most notably
Progressives
In the United States prior to the
Mark A. Matthews (1867–1940) of Seattle's First Presbyterian Church was a leading city reformer, who investigated red light districts and crime scenes, denouncing corrupt politicians, businessmen, and saloon keepers. With 10,000 members, his was the largest Presbyterian Church in the country, and he was selected the national moderator in 1912. He built a model church, with night schools, unemployment bureaus, kindergarten, an anti-tuberculosis clinic, and the nation's first church-owned radio station. Matthews was the most influential clergymen in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the most active Social Gospelers in America.[30]
The American South had its own version of the Social Gospel, focusing especially on Prohibition. Other reforms included protecting young wage-earning women from the sex trade, outlawing public swearing, boxing, dogfights and similar affronts to their moral sensibilities. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, took on new responsibilities with the enlargement and professionalization of missionary women's roles starting in 1886 with the Southern Methodist Woman's Parsonage and Home Mission Society.[31] By 1900, says historian Edward Ayers, the white Baptists, although they were the most conservative of all the denominations in the South, became steadily more concerned with social issues, taking stands on "temperance, gambling, illegal corruption, public morality, orphans and the elderly."[32]
New Deal
During the
Examples of the Social Gospel's continued influence can still be found in Jim Wallis's Sojourners organization's Call to Renewal and more local organizations like the Virginia Interfaith Center.[citation needed] Another modern example can be found in the work of John Steinbruck, senior pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC, from 1970 to 1997, who was an articulate and passionate preacher of the Social Gospel and a leading voice locally and nationally for the homeless, Central American refugees, and victims of persecution and prejudice.
Social Gospel and Labor Movements
Because the Social Gospel was primarily concerned with the day-to-day life of laypeople, one of the ways in which it made its message heard was through labor movements. Particularly, the Social Gospel had a profound effect upon the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The AFL began a movement called Labor Forward, which was a pro-Christian group who "preached unionization like a revival."[33] In Philadelphia, this movement was counteracted by bringing revivalist Billy Sunday, himself firmly anti-union, who believed "that the organized shops destroyed individual freedom."[33]
Legacy of the Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement peaked in the early 20th century, but scholars debate over when the movement began to decline, with some asserting that the destruction and trauma caused by the
While the Social Gospel was short-lived historically, it had a lasting impact on the policies of most of the mainline denominations in the United States. Most began programs for social reform, which led to ecumenical cooperation in 1910 while in the formation of the Federal Council of Churches. Although this cooperation was about social issues that often led to charges of socialism.[33] It is likely that the Social Gospel's strong sense of leadership by the people led to women's suffrage, and that the emphasis it placed on morality led to prohibition.[33] Biographer Randall Woods argues that Social Gospel themes learned from childhood allowed Lyndon B. Johnson to transform social problems into moral problems. This helps explain his longtime commitment to social justice, as exemplified by the Great Society and his commitment to racial equality. The Social Gospel explicitly inspired his foreign-policy approach to a sort of Christian internationalism and nation building.[37]
The Social Gospel Movement has been described as "the most distinctive American contribution to world Christianity."[10]
The Social Gospel, after 1945, influenced the formation of
Reinhold Niebuhr has argued that the 20th century history of Western democracies has not vindicated the optimistic view of human nature which the social gospelers shared with the Enlightenment.[40] Labor historians argue that the movement had little influence on the labor movement, and attribute that failure to professional elitism and a lack of understanding of the collective nature of the movement. Labor did not reject social gospellers because they were unaware of them but, rather, because their tactics and ideas were considered inadequate.[41]
Canada
The
The Social Gospel was a significant influence in the formation of the People's Church in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1919. Started by Methodist minister A. E. Smith, the People's Church attempted to provide an alternative to the traditional church, which Smith viewed as unconcerned with social issues. In his autobiography All My Life Smith describes his last sermon before starting the People's Church, saying "The Church was afraid it might give offense to the rich and powerful."[49] The People's Church was successful for a time, with People's Churches founded in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, and Calgary.[50] In Winnipeg, Methodist minister and Social Gospeler William Ivens started another workers church, the "Labor Church," in 1918.[51] Both Smith and Ivens tried to take leaves of absence from their Methodist ministries, which were initially granted. Upon a decision to bring all such special cases before the Methodist Stationing Committee, however, the decisions were rescinded.
In literature
The Social Gospel theme is reflected in the novels
Members of the Brotherhood of the Kingdom produced many of the written works that defined the theology of the Social Gospel movement and gave it public prominence.[13] These included Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) and Christianizing the Social Order (1912), as well as Samuel Zane Batten's The New Citizenship (1898) and The Social Task of Christianity (1911).
21st century
In the United States, the Social Gospel is still influential in
See also
- Catholic social teaching
- Catholic temperance movement
- Catholic Workers Movement
- Chartism
- Christian humanism
- Christian left
- Christian pacifism
- Christian Social Union (Church of England)
- Christian socialism
- Christian vegetarianism
- Emerging church
- Evangelical left
- The Gospel of Wealth
- George D. Herron
- Kingdom movement
- Methodist Federation for Social Action
- Peace churches
- Prosperity theology
- Quakers
- Salem Bland
- Temperance movement
Notes
- premillennialisttheology, which held the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and Christians should devote their energies to preparing for it rather than addressing the issue of social evils.
- ^ John Witte Jr. wrote:
Concurrent with this missionary movement in Africa, both Protestant and Catholic political activists helped to restore democracy to war-torn Europe and extend it overseas. Protestant political activism emerged principally in England, the Lowlands, and Scandinavia under the inspiration of both social gospel movements and neo-Calvinism. Catholic political activism emerged principally in Italy, France, and Spain under the inspiration of both Rerum Novarum and its early progeny and of neo-Thomism. Both formed political parties, which now fall under the general egis of the Christian Democratic Party movement.
Both Protestant and Catholic parties inveighed against the reductionist extremes and social failures of liberal democracies and social democracies. Liberal democracies, they believed, had sacrificed the community for the individual; social democracies had sacrificed the individual for the community. Both parties returned to a traditional Christian teaching of "social pluralism" or "subsidiarity," which stressed the dependence and participation of the individual in family, church, school, business, and other associations. Both parties stressed the responsibility of the state to respect and protect the "individual in community."[38]
References
- ^ Tichi 2009, pp. 206, 220–221.
- ^ Gill 2011, p. 33.
- ^ Ahlstrom 1974; White 1990.
- ^ Muller 1959.
- ^ Marty 1986, p. 286.
- ^ Rogers & Blade 1998, pp. 181, 183.
- ^ Byers 1998, pp. 356–357.
- ^ Gladden 1909, pp. 252, 292.
- ^ Sklar 2005, p. 105.
- ^ a b "Biography". Washington Gladden Society. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ^ Alexandra Kindell, Elizabeth S. Demers Ph.D., Encyclopedia of Populism in America: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, US, 2014, p. 594
- ^ Donald K. Gorrell, The age of social responsibility: the social gospel in the progressive era, 1900–1920, Mercer University Press, US, 1988, p. 18
- ^ a b Hans Schwarz, Theology in a Global Context: The Last Two Hundred Years, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, US, 2005, p. 145
- ^ Christopher H. Evans, The Social Gospel in American Religion: A History, NYU Press, US, 2017, p. 78
- ^ Shepherd 2007, p. 739.
- ^ Kutler 2003.
- ^ Kee et al. 1998, p. 478.
- ^ a b Rauschenbusch 1917, p. 1.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, p. 2.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, p. 5.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, p. 131.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, p. 132.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, pp. 133–134.
- ^ Rauschenbusch 1917, pp. 134–137.
- ^ Susan Curtis, A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture, University of Missouri Press, US, 2001, p. 111
- ^ Hopkins 1940.
- ^ Luker 1991.
- ^ Marty 1986.
- ^ Bonner 2004, p. 370.
- ^ Russell 1979.
- ^ Tatum, Noreen Dunn (1960). A Crown of Service: A story of women's work in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from 1878–1940. Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press.
- ^ Ayers 1992, p. 170.
- ^ a b c d Kee et al. 1998, pp. 479–480.
- ^ Handy 1966; White & Hopkins 1975.
- ^ Visser 't Hooft 1928.
- ^ Ahlstrom 1974; Handy 1966; Hopkins 1940; White & Hopkins 1975.
- ^ Woods 2006, pp. 27, 430, 465–466, 486.
- ^ a b Witte 1993, p. 9.
- ^ Evans 2001, p. 149.
- ^ Reinhold Niebuhr, "Walter Rauschenbusch in historical perspective." Religion in Life (1958) 27#4 pp. 527–536.
- ^ John R. Aiken, and James R. McDonnell, "Walter Rauschenbusch and labor reform: A social Gospeller's approach." Labor History 11.2 (1970): 131–150.
- ^ "A Brief History of the NDP". Retrieved 14 October 2009.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Mooney 2006.
- ^ Guest 1997, p. 70.
- ^ Guest 1997, p. 59.
- ^ Carniol 2005, p. 45.
- ^ Christie & Gauvreau 2001, p. 124.
- ^ Christie & Gauvreau 2001, p. 214.
- ^ Smith 1949, p. 60.
- ^ Mitchell 1994, pp. 129–143.
- ^ Goldsborough, Gordon (2018). "Memorable Manitobans: William 'Bill' Ivens (1878–1957)". Winnipeg, Manitoba: Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ^ J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Infobase Publishing, USA, 2005, p. 500
- ^ Mark Juergensmeyer, Wade Clark Roof, Encyclopedia of Global Religion, Volume 1, Sage, US, 2012, pp. 704–5
- ^ Christopher H. Evans, The Social Gospel in American Religion: A History, NYU Press, US, 2017, p. 202
Bibliography
- Ahlstrom, Sydney E. (1974). A Religious History of the American People.
- ISBN 978-0-19-503756-2.
- Bonner, Jeremy (2004). "Religion". In Newby, Rick (ed.). The Rocky Mountain Region. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
- Byers, Paula K., ed. (1998). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 6. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research. ISBN 978-0-7876-2546-7. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Carniol, Ben (2005). Case Critical: Social Services and Social Justice in Canada (5th ed.). Toronto: Between The Lines.
- Carter, Paul A. The Decline and Revival of the Social Gospel: Social and Political Liberalism in American Protestant Churches, 1920–1940 (Cornell UP, 1956). online free to borrow
- Christie, Nancy; Gauvreau, Michael (2001) [1996]. A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900–1940. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Evans, Christopher H. (2001). The Social Gospel Today. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press.
- Gill, Jill K. (2011). Embattled Ecumenism: The National Council of Churches, the Vietnam War, and the Trials of the Protestant Left. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-87580-443-9.
- LCCN 09028138. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Guest, Dennis (1997). The Emergence of Social Security in Canada (3rd ed.). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
- Handy, Robert T., ed. (1966). The Social Gospel in America, 1870–1920. New York, Oxford University Press.
- Hopkins, C. Howard (1940). The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
- Kee, Howard Clark; Albu, Emily; Lindberg, Carter; Frost, Jerry W.; Robert, Dana L. (1998). Christianity: A Social and Cultural History (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
- Kutler, Stanley I., ed. (2003). "Social Gospel". Dictionary of American History. Vol. 7. New York: Thomson Gale. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-8078-4720-6.
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- Mitchell, Tom (1994). "From the Social Gospel to 'The Plain Bread of Leninism': A.E. Smith's Journey to the Left in the Epoch of Reaction after World War I". Labour / Le Travail. 33: 125–151. JSTOR 25143791.
- Mooney, Elizabeth (2006). "Social Gospel". The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
- Muller, Dorothea R. (1959). "The Social Philosophy of Josiah Strong: Social Christianity and American Progressivism". Church History. 28 (2): 183–201. S2CID 145174362.
- Rauschenbusch, Walter (1917). Theology for the Social Gospel. New York: Macmillan Company. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- JSTOR 23335460.
- Russell, C. Allyn (1979). "Mark Allison Matthews: Seattle Fundamentalist and Civic Reformer". Journal of Presbyterian History. 57 (4): 446–466. JSTOR 23328145.
- Shepherd, Samuel C. Jr. (2007). "Social Gospel". In ISBN 978-1-4129-5262-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8142-0939-4.
- Smith, Albert (1949). Ally My Life. Toronto: Progress Books. ISBN 978-0-919396-41-8.
- Tichi, Cecelia (2009). Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (and What They Teach Us). Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3300-1.
- Visser 't Hooft, Willem A. (1928). The Background of the Social Gospel in America.
- White, Ronald C. (1990). Liberty and Justice for All: Racial Reform and the Social Gospel (1877–1925).
- White, Ronald C.; Hopkins, C. Howard (1975). The Social Gospel: Religion and Reform in Changing America.
- ISBN 978-0-8133-1843-1.
- Woods, Randall B. (2006). LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. ISBN 978-0-684-83458-0.
Further reading
- Bateman, Bradley W. (2008). "The Social Gospel and the Progressive Era". Diving America: Religion in American History. Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: National Humanities Center. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
- Batten, Samuel Zane (1911). The Social Task of Christianity: A Summons to the New Crusade. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Curtis, Susan (1991). A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-4167-5.
- Deichmann, Wendy J., and Carolyn DeSwarte Gifford, eds., Gender and the Social Gospel (University of Illinois Press, 2003).
- Dorn, Jacob H. (1993). "The Social Gospel and Socialism: A Comparison of the Thought of Francis Greenwood Peabody, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch". Church History. 62 (1): 82–100. S2CID 154191803. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ——— , ed. (1998). Socialism and Christianity in Early 20th Century America. Contributions in American History. Vol. 181. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISSN 0084-9219.
- ISBN 978-0-88864-070-3.
- Evans, Christopher H. (2017). The Social Gospel in American Religion: A History. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-6953-4. excerpt
- Fraser, Brian J. (1990). The Social Uplifters: Presbyterian Progressives and the Social Gospel in Canada, 1875–1915.
- Gladden, Washington (1891). Who Wrote the Bible? A Book for the People. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Hartley, Benjamin L. (2010). Evangelicals at a Crossroads: Revivalism and Social Reform in Boston, 1860–1910. Durham, New Hampshire: University of New Hampshire Press.
- Hutchison, William R. (1975). "The Americanness of the Social Gospel; An Inquiry in Comparative History". Church History. 44 (3): 367–381. S2CID 162701961.
- Latta, Maurice C. (1936). "The Background for the Social Gospel in American Protestantism". Church History. 5 (3): 256–270. S2CID 162333417.
- ISBN 978-0-226-50895-5.
- Mathews, Shailer (1916). The Spiritual Interpretation of History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ——— (1928). Jesus on Social Institutions. New York: Macmillan.
- Minus, Paul M. Walter Rauschenbusch: America Reformer (1988)
- Peabody, Francis Greenwood (1900). Jesus Christ and the Social Question: An Examination of the Teaching of Jesus in Its Relation to Some of the Problems of Modern Social Life. New York: Macmillan (published 1901). Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Rader, Benjamin G. (1966). "Richard T. Ely: Lay Spokesman for the Social Gospel". Journal of American History. 53 (1): 61–74. JSTOR 1893930.
- Rauschenbusch, Walter (1907). Christianity and the Social Crisis. New York: Macmillan. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ——— (1914). Dare We Be Christians. New York: Pilgrim Press. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Sheldon, Charles M. (1897). In His Steps: "What Would Jesus Do?". Chicago: Advance Publishing Co. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- Smith, Gary Scott (1991). "To Reconstruct the World: Walter Rauschenbusch and Social Change". Fides et Historia. 23 (2): 40–63. ISSN 0884-5379.
- "Social Gospel Movement". Ohio History Central. Archived from the original on 16 December 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-88271-011-2. Retrieved 24 July 2018.