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{{Short description|Social movement}}
The '''Social Gospel''' is<!--See section on 21st Century--> a [[social movement]] within [[Protestantism]] that aims to apply [[Christian ethics]] to [[social issue|social problem]]s, especially issues of [[social justice]] such as [[economic inequality]], [[poverty]], [[alcoholism]],
==History==
The term ''Social Gospel'' was first used by [[Charles Oliver Brown]] in reference to [[Henry George]]'s 1879 treatise
The Social Gospel affected much of [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestant America]]. The [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|Presbyterians]] described their goals in 1910 by proclaiming:
<blockquote>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.{{sfn|Rogers|Blade|1998|pp=181, 183}}
</blockquote>
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 [[Compulsory education|enforced schooling]], the poor could develop talents and skills, causing the quality of their moral lives
===Washington Gladden===
For Gladden, the "Christian law covers every relation of life" including the relationship between employers and their employees.{{sfn|Gladden|1909|pp=252, 292}} 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.{{sfn|Sklar|2005|p=105}} Historians consider Gladden to be one of the Social Gospel movement's "founding fathers".<ref name="Washington Gladden Society">{{cite web |title=Biography |url=http://www.washingtongladdensociety.org/biography.html |publisher=Washington Gladden Society |access-date=24 July 2018}}</ref>
===Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)===
Another of the defining theologians for the Social Gospel movement was
In 1892, Rauschenbusch and several other leading writers and advocates of the Social Gospel formed a group called the [[Brotherhood of the Kingdom]].<ref>Donald K. Gorrell, ''The age of social responsibility: the social gospel in the progressive era, 1900–1920'', Mercer University Press, US, 1988, p. 18</ref> Pastors and leaders will join the organization to debate and implement the social gospel.<ref name="Hans Schwarz 2005, p. 145">Hans Schwarz, ''Theology in a Global Context: The Last Two Hundred Years'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, US, 2005, p. 145</ref>
In 1907, he published the book ''Christianity and the Social Crisis'', which would influence the actions of several actors of the social gospel.<ref>Christopher H. Evans, ''The Social Gospel in American Religion: A History'', NYU Press, US, 2017, p. 78</ref> His work may be "the finest distillation of social gospel thought."{{sfn|Shepherd|2007|p=739}} 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.{{sfn|Kutler|2003}}
==== ''A Theology for the Social Gospel'' (1917) ====
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===Settlement movement===
{{main|Settlement movement}}
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.
===Progressives===
In the United States prior to the [[First World War]], the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the [[progressive movement]] which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering and poverty in society. [[Denver, Colorado]], was a center of Social Gospel activism.
[[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.{{sfn|Russell|1979}}
The American South had its own version of the Social Gospel, focusing especially on Prohibition.
===New Deal===
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===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).
===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 [[First World War]] left many disillusioned with the Social Gospel's ideals{{sfnm |1a1=Handy |1y=1966 |2a1=White |2a2=Hopkins |2y=1975}} while others argue that the war stimulated the Social Gospelers' reform efforts.{{sfn|Visser 't Hooft|1928}} Theories regarding the decline of the Social Gospel after the First World War often cite the rise of [[neo-orthodoxy]] as a contributing factor in the movement's decline.{{sfnm |1a1=Ahlstrom |1y=1974 |2a1=Handy |2y=1966 |3a1=Hopkins |3y=1940 |4a1=White |4a2=Hopkins |4y=1975}}
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.
The Social Gospel Movement has been described as "the most distinctive American contribution to world Christianity."<ref name="Washington Gladden Society"/>
The Social Gospel, after 1945, influenced the formation of [[Christian democracy]] political ideology among Protestants and Catholics
[[Reinhold Niebuhr]] has argued that
Paul Lubienecki wrote that "contrary to analysis of some historians the historical evidence demonstrated that the [Social Gospel] Movement failed in its campaign to be the leading voice of the worker and to convert the urban immigrant masses".<ref name="lubie">{{cite journal |last=Lubienecki |first=Paul |year=2021 |title=Social Reconstruction: American Catholics Radical Response to the Social Gospel Movement and Progressives |journal=Journal of Catholic Education |volume=24 |issue=1 |publisher=LMU Loyola Law School |url=https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2145&context=ce |page=88 |doi=10.15365/joce.2401052021}}</ref> Lubieniecki notes that social gospel appealed predominantly to the white American Protestant middle-class and ultimately related more with the middle class than with the working class.<ref>As early as 1887, a “Protestant activist” warned his colleagues that “the Protestant churches as a rule, have no following among the workingmen. Everybody knows it.” See John T. McGreevy, Catholics and American Freedom. A History. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003), 128.</ref> Social gospel ministers did not connect to the struggling ethnic urban poor, and social gospel congregations would often relocate their parish into well-off neighborhoods, abandoning poor districts. This resulted in the Catholic parishes being established in working class areas instead.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Adele Francis |last=Gorman |title=Evolution of Catholic Lay Leadership, 1820-1920 |journal=Historical Records and Studies |volume=50 |issue=1 |year=1964 |page=135}}</ref> Lubieniecki also argued that the social gospel movement limited its appeal because of anti-Catholicism and antisemitism - Rauschenbusch stated that social concerns could not be sufficiently addressed by non-Protestants, and regarded Catholicism as inherently anti-democratic and contrary to the American values of individual liberty. Likewise, some social gospel ministers believed that Jews and Catholics threatened the American social order.<ref name="lubie"/>
== Canada ==
The [[Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]], a political party that was later reformulated as the [[New Democratic Party of Canada|New Democratic Party]], was founded on social gospel principles in the 1930s by [[J. S. Woodsworth]], a [[Methodist]] minister, and Alberta MP William Irvine. 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".<ref>{{cite web |title=A Brief History of the NDP |url=http://www.ncf.ca/ip/government/fedelect/nat/ndp/about/brief.history |access-date=14 October 2009}}{{dead link |date=July 2018 |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> This political party took power in the province of [[Saskatchewan]] in 1944.
The Social Service Council (SSC) was the "reforming arm of Protestantism in Canada", and promoted idea of the social gospel.{{sfn|Guest|1997|p=70}} Under the "aggressive leadership of [[Charlotte Whitton]]", the Canadian Council of Child Welfare, opposed "a widening of social security protection..." and
The Social Gospel was a significant influence in the formation of the People's Church in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1919. Started by Methodist minister [[Albert Edward Smith|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."{{sfn|Smith|1949|p=60}} The People's Church was successful for a time, with People's Churches founded in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, and Calgary.{{sfn|Mitchell|1994|pp=129–143}} In Winnipeg, Methodist minister and Social Gospeler [[William Ivens]] started another workers church, the "Labor Church," in 1918.<ref>{{cite web |last=Goldsborough |first=Gordon |year=2018 |title=Memorable Manitobans: William 'Bill' Ivens (1878–1957) |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/ivens_w.shtml |location=Winnipeg, Manitoba |publisher=Manitoba Historical Society |access-date=24 July 2018}}</ref> 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.
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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.<ref name="Hans Schwarz 2005, p. 145"/> 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).
==
In the United States, the Social Gospel is still influential in [[liberal Christianity
==See also==
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* [[Catholic social teaching]]
* [[Catholic temperance movement]]
* [[Catholic Workers Movement]]
* [[Chartism]]
* [[Christian humanism]]
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* [[Emerging church]]
* [[Evangelical left]]
* [[Methodist Federation for Social Action]]▼
* ''[[The Gospel of Wealth]]''
* [[George D. Herron]]
* [[Kingdom movement]]
▲* [[Methodist Federation for Social Action]]
* [[Peace churches]]
* [[Prosperity theology]]
* [[Quakers]]
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|year=1992
|title=The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction
|isbn=978-0-19-503756-2
|url=https://archive.org/details/promiseofnewsout0000ayer
|url-access=registration
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|first2=Michael
|year=2001
|orig-
|title=A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900–1940
|location=Montreal
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* {{cite book
|last=Hopkins
|first=
|year=1940
|title=The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915
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|issn=1755-2613
|jstor=3161456
|s2cid=145174362
}}
* {{cite book
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* {{cite encyclopedia
|last=Shepherd
|first=Samuel C.
|year=2007
|chapter=Social Gospel
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* {{cite book
|last=Witte
|first=John
|author-link=John Witte Jr.
|chapter=Introduction
|year=1993
|editor-last=Witte
|editor-first=John
|editor-link=John Witte Jr.
|title=Christianity and Democracy in Global Context
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|year=2006
|title=LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
|isbn=978-0-684-83458-0
|url=https://archive.org/details/lbj00rand
|url-access=registration
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|isbn=978-0-8018-4167-5
}}
* Deichmann, Wendy J., and Carolyn DeSwarte Gifford, eds., ''Gender and the Social Gospel'' (University of Illinois Press, 2003).
* {{cite journal
|last=Dorn
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|issn=1755-2613
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|s2cid=154191803
|access-date=24 July 2018
}}
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|publisher=New York University Press
|isbn=978-1-4798-6953-4
}} [https://www.amazon.com/Social-Gospel-American-Religion-History/dp/1479888575/ excerpt]
}}▼
* {{cite book
|last=Fraser
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|issn=1755-2613
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}}
* {{cite journal
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|issn=1755-2613
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}}
* {{cite book
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|publisher=Macmillan
}}
* Minus, Paul M. ''Walter Rauschenbusch: America Reformer'' (1988)
* {{cite book
|last=Peabody
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|access-date = 28 July 2018
|url-status = live
▲ }}
* {{cite book
|last=Strong
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|location=New York
|publisher=Baker & Taylor Co.
|isbn=978-0-88271-011-2
|access-date=24 July 2018
}}
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