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. Social Gospel principles continue to inspire newer movements such as Christians Against Poverty. The movement applies Christian principles to social problems, especially poverty, liquor, drugs, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, poor schools, and the danger of war. Theologically, the Social Gospel leaders were overwhelmingly post-millennialist. That is they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by humanly effort. They mostly rejected the pre-millennialist theology (which was strong in the South) that believed the Second Coming will be soon, and Christians should devote their energies to prepare mostly for it, rather than deal with social evils. Their millennial views are very similar to those mostly shared by Christian Reconstructionists, except that Social Gospel leaders are predominently liberal politically and religiously (in contrast to the politically liberatarian and religiously fundamentalist views among Reconstructionist).

Part of the Christian "modernism" trend with a strong emphasis on social justice, the movement is a rival to the later movements of evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity.

The Social Gospel was a driving force in much of Protestant America. The Presbyterians said it best in 1910: [Rogers and Blade 1998]

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 early 20th 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 remove those evils. 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 men 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.

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 combatting 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 Alxander 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 the those churches were losing strength. Examples of its continued existence can still be found, notably the organization known as the Call to Renewal.

The Social Gospel movement in the United States was parallel to the Christian socialism movement in Britain at about the same time. The two movements came together in Canada, where they were especially influential. Many ministers became active in the socialist movement in the form of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and later the New Democratic Party. Tommy Douglas, a Baptist minister, was leader of the CCF from 1942 and the premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, where he led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada. From 1961 to 1971 he led the New Democratic Party at the federal level.

The Social Gospel was reflected in the novel In His Steps, written by the Congregational minister Charles Sheldon, who coined the motto "What would Jesus do?." Sheldon was committed to Christian Socialism and identified with the Social Gospel. One of the early theologians of the Social Gospel was Walter Rauschenbusch, and he indicated how Sheldon's novel inspired his theology. Social Gospel is still influential in Canada's United Church and in the Anglican Church but has less influence 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. In the Anglican Church, the social gospel has found expression in pacifism.

List of prominent Social Gospel advocates

Prominent Social Gospel advocates have included:

• Dorothy Day, American Catholic leader in 1940s
• Tommy Douglas, Canadian leader in 1930-1960s
• Diane Drufenbrock, nun and Socialist Party USA Vice-Presidential candidate
• Washington Gladden, American leader in 1890s
• Adolf von Harnack, German leader in 1900s
• Jesse Jackson, American black leader and Baptist minister
• Martin Luther King, Jr., American black leader 1950s and 1960s
• Charles Clayton Morrison longtime editor of the Christian Century in US
• Walter Rauschenbusch, American leader in 1900s
• Josiah Strong, American leader in 1891
• James Shaver Woodsworth, Canadian leader 1920s

See also

• Christian left
• Evangelical left
• Postmodern Christianity
• Socialism and Faith Commission of the Socialist Party USA

References

Primary sources

• Walter Rauschenbusch. A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917).
• Walter Rauschenbusch. Christianity and the Social Crisis. (1907)
• 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 (1984)

Secondary sources

• 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 Greenwood Press,
• Charles Howard Hopkins. The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865-1915. (1940)
• Ralph E. Luker; The Social Gospel in Black and White American Racial Reform, 1885-1912.
• Martin E. Marty, Modern American Religion, Vol. 1: The Irony of It All, 1893-1919 (1986)
• Martin E. Marty, 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] online at JSTOR at most academic libraries.
• 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
• Ronald C. White, Jr. and C. Howard Hopkins. The Social Gospel. Religion and Reform in Changing America (1975).