Social Gospel

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The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially justice, inequality, liquor, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, weak labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Theologically, the Social Gospel leaders were overwhelmingly post-millennialist. That is because they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort.^[1] Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the Progressive Movement and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues.^[2] Important leaders include Richard T. Ely, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.

Although most scholars agree that the Social Gospel movement peaked in the early 20th century, there is disagreement over when the movement began to decline, with some asserting that the destruction and trauma caused by World War I left many disillusioned with the Social Gospel's ideals^[3] while others argue that World War I actually stimulated the Social Gospelers' reform efforts ^[4]. Theories regarding the decline of the Social Gospel after World War I often cite the rise of neo-orthodoxy as a contributing factor in the movement's decline ^[5]. Some believe that many of the Social Gospel's ideas reappeared in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "Social Gospel" principles continue to inspire newer movements such as Christians Against Poverty.

Part of a series of articles on Christianity
Social Christianity
Major figures
Francis of Assisi Wilhelm E.F. von Ketteler Pope Leo XIII · Adolph Kolping Edward Bellamy Margaret Wedgwood Benn Phillip Berryman · James Hal Cone Dorothy Day · Toni Negri Leo Tolstoy · Oscar Romero Gustavo Gutiérrez · Abraham Kuyper Daniel Berrigan · Philip Berrigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Walter Rauschenbusch Desmond Tutu · Tommy Douglas
Organizations
Confederation of Christian Trade Unions Catholic Worker Movement Christian Socialist Movement
Key concepts
Subsidiarity · Christian anarchism Marxism · Liberation theology Praxis School · Precarity Human dignity · Social market economy Communitarianism · Distributism Catholic social teaching Neo-Calvinism · Neo-Thomism
Key documents
Rerum Novarum (1891) Princeton Stone Lectures (1898) Populorum Progressio (1967) Centesimus Annus (1991) Caritas in Veritate (2009)
Christianity Portal
v • d • e

Contents 1 United States 2 Canada 3 In literature 4 The 21st century 5 See also 6 References 7 Further readings 7.1 Primary sources 7.2 Secondary sources

[edit] United States

The Social Gospel affected much of Protestant America. The Presbyterians described its goals in 1910 by proclaiming:^[6]

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.

In the late 19th century, many Americans 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 by public health measures as well as enforced schooling so the poor could develop talents and skills, the quality of their moral lives would begin 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.

Many reformers inspired by the movement opened settlement houses, most notably Hull House in Chicago operated by Jane Addams. They helped the poor and immigrants improve their lives. Settlement houses offered services such as daycare, education, and health care to needy people in slum neighborhoods. The YMCA was created originally to help rural youth adjust to the city without losing their religion, but by the 1890s became a powerful instrument of the Social Gospel.^[7] Nearly all the denominations (including Catholics) engaged in foreign missions, which often had a social gospel component in terms especially of medical uplift. The Black denominations, especially the African Methodist Episcopal church (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church (AMEZ) had active programs in support of the Social Gospel.^[8] Both evangelical ("pietistic") and liturgical ("high church") elements supported the Social Gospel, although only the pietists were active in promoting Prohibition.^[9]

In the United States prior to World War I, the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the progressive movement which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering and poverty in society. During the New Deal of the 1930s Social Gospel themes could be seen in the work of Harry Hopkins, Will Alexander and Mary McLeod Bethune, who added a new concern with African Americans. After 1940, the movement withered, but was invigorated in the 1950s by black leaders like Baptist minister Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. After 1980 it weakened again as a major force inside mainstream churches; indeed those churches were losing strength. Examples of its continued existence can still be found, notably the organization known as the Call to Renewal and more local organizations like the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

[edit] Canada

The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, a political party that was later renamed the New Democratic Party, was founded on social gospel principles in the 1930s by J.S. Woodsworth, a Methodist minister. Woodsworth wrote extensively about the social gospel from experiences gained while working with immigrant slum dwellers in Winnipeg from 1904 to 1913. His writings called for the Kingdom of God "here and now".^[10] This political party took power in the province of Saskatchewan in 1944. This group, later led by Tommy Douglas, a Baptist minister, introduced universal medicare, family allowance and old age pensions.^[11] This political party has largely lost its religious basis, and became a secular social democratic party.

[edit] In literature

The Social Gospel theme is reflected in the novels In His Steps (1897) and The Reformer (1902), by the Congregational minister Charles Sheldon, who coined the motto "What would Jesus do?" In his personal life, Sheldon was committed to Christian Socialism and identified strongly with the Social Gospel movement. Walter Rauschenbusch, one of the leading early theologians of the Social Gospel in the United States, indicated that his theology had been inspired by Sheldon's novels.

In 1892, Rauschenbusch and several other leading writers and advocates of the Social Gospel formed a group called the Brotherhood of the Kingdom. Members of this group produced many of the written works that defined the theology of the Social Gospel movement and gave it public prominence. These included 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).

[edit] The 21st century

In the United States, the Social Gospel is still influential in mainline Protestant denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church; it seems to be growing in the Episcopal Church as well, especially with that church's effort to support the ONE Campaign. In Canada, it is widely present in the United Church and in the Anglican Church. Social Gospel elements can also be found in many service and relief agencies associated with Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church in the United States. It also remains influential among Christian socialist circles in Britain in the Church of England, Methodist and Calvinist movements.

In Catholicism, liberation theology has similarities to the Social Gospel.

[edit] See also

• Christian socialism
• Evangelical left
• The Gospel of Wealth
• Liberation theology
• Social justice

[edit] References

[edit] Further readings

[edit] Primary sources

• Batten, Samuel Zane. The Social Task of Christianity: A Summons to the New Crusade. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1911.
• Gladden, Washington. Who Wrote the Bible? A Book for the People. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891.
• Mathews, Shailer. Jesus on Social Institutions. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
• Mathews, Shailer. The Spiritual Interpretation of History. William Belden Noble lectures. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1916.
• Peabody, Francis Greenwood. 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, 1900.
• Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the Social Crisis. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
• Rauschenbusch, Walter. A Theology for the Social Gospel. New York: Macmillan Co., 1917.
• Sheldon, Charles Monroe. In His Steps: "What Would Jesus Do?". London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1897.
• Sheldon, Charles Monroe. The Reformer]]. Chicago: Advance Publishing Co., 1902.
• Strong, Josiah. The New Era; Or, The Coming Kingdom. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893.
• The New Era: Or, The Coming Kingdom (1898) by Josiah Strong complete text from Google Book Search
• Thomas, Lewis Herbert, ed. The Making of a Socialist: The Recollections of T.C. Douglas. Edmonton, Alta.: University of Alberta Press, 1982.

[edit] Secondary sources

• "Social Gospel." Encyclopedia Americana. 30 vols. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 2003.
• Sydney E. Ahlstrom. A Religious History of the American People (1974)
• Susan Curtis. A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture (1991)
• Jacob H. Dorn. Socialism and Christianity in Early 20th Century America. (1998), online edition
• Brian J. Fraser. The Social Uplifters: Presbyterian Progressives and the Social Gospel in Canada, 1875-1915 (1990)
• Robert T. Handy, ed. The Social Gospel in America, 1870-1920 (1966).
• Charles Howard Hopkins. The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865-1915. (1940) online edition
• William R. Hutchison. "The Americanness of the Social Gospel; An Inquiry in Comparative History," Church History, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Sep., 1975), pp. 367-381 online in JSTOR
• Maurice C. Latta, "The Background for the Social Gospel in American Protestantism," Church History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sep., 1936), pp. 256-270 online at JSTOR
• Ralph E. Luker. The Social Gospel in Black and White American Racial Reform, 1885-1912. (1998) excerpt and text search
• Martin E. Marty, Modern American Religion, Vol. 1: The Irony of It All, 1893-1919 (1986); Modern American Religion. Vol. 2: The Noise of Conflict, 1919-1941 (1991)
• Dorothea R. Muller. "The Social Philosophy of Josiah Strong: Social Christianity and American Progressivism," Church History 1959, v 28, #2 pp. 183-201] at JSTOR
• Benjamin G. Rader, "Richard T. Ely: Lay Spokesman for the Social Gospel." Journal of American History. 53:1 (June 1966). in JSTOR
• Jack B. Rogers, and Robert E. Blade, "The Great Ends of the Church: Two Perspectives," Journal of Presbyterian History (1998) 76:181-186.
• Gary Scott Smith, "To Reconstruct the World: Walter Rauschenbusch and Social Change," Fides et Historia (1991) 23:40-63
• Willem A. Visser 't Hooft, The Background of the Social Gospel in America (1928).
• Ronald C. White, Jr., Liberty and Justice for All: Racial Reform and the Social Gospel (1877-1925) (1990).
• Ronald C. White, Jr. and C. Howard Hopkins. The Social Gospel. Religion and Reform in Changing America (1975).

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