Christian Socialism and the Social Gospel

Origins of German Christian Socialism

Johann Heinrich Wichern

Initiated German Christian socialism.
A reformer, prison director, and inventor of the Advent wreath.
A Hamburg theologian who established the foundation for the diagonal system and modern social education.
Sought to aid and 'save' children through his work.

The Rauhes Haus

Founded by Wichern in 1833 at 25 years old.
Aimed to rescue neglected and difficult-to-educate children.
Was not a workhouse nor an orphanage but an institution providing family-like conditions.
Emphasized freedom for children within a family setting.
Brothers (trained craftsmen) instructed and lived with the children.
The pedagogy was influenced by Pessellosi's principle of holistic life education, including vocational skills.
The facility gained popularity and became a model for modern youth welfare.

The Advent Wreath

Invented by Wichern in 1839 due to his work with children at the Rauhes Haus.
Originally had 19 small and four large candles, with one lit each day.

Wichern's Broader Goals

Sought to reform the church as a whole, going beyond youth welfare.

The Social Gospel in America

The Gilded Age

The Industrial Revolution and the rise of 'robber barons'.
Social Darwinism: the idea that society follows the laws of the jungle, justifying wealth accumulation and conspicuous consumption.
Generated a backlash due to the vast inequalities.

Industrialists and Philanthropy

Figures like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Stanford, and Vanderbilt became philanthropists.
Some, like Jay Gould, took a 'damn the public' approach to wealth.
The rich accumulated wealth while workers in their factories earned meager wages, living in slums and lacking access to the institutions established by the wealthy.

Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Published in 1889, arguing that those blessed by God with wealth had an obligation to use it for the advancement of society.
Carnegie funded public libraries, charities, and institutions like Carnegie Hall and the Endowment for International Peace.
However, he was a tyrannical employer who opposed labor unions and used violence against his workers.

The Social Gospel Movement

Emerged in reaction to the Gilded Age and the Gospel of Wealth.
Emphasized emulating the life of Jesus and helping the needy.
Rejected hoarding money.
Heavily influenced the Progressive Movement and countered social Darwinism.

Propaganda and Artwork

The Ram's Horn Magazine: devoted to the social gospel movement.
Artwork: "The Businessman and the Devil" criticized capitalists hoarding money.
Art Young: created political cartoons satirizing social issues like child labor.
A 1917 drawing depicted a wanted poster for Jesus Christ, accusing him of sedition and anarchy.

Washington Gladden

An early advocate of the social gospel movement.
Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Columbus for 32 years.
In 1905, he condemned the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) for accepting a 100,000 gift from John D. Rockefeller, calling it 'tainted money'.

Walter Rauschenbusch

A prominent figure in the social gospel movement.
In 1885, pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in New York City (Hell's Kitchen).
Identified with liberal theologians like Ritzel and Harnack.
Advocated for the kingdom of God as a theme uniting religion, science, piety, social action, Christianity, and culture.

Shifting Focus from Individual to Society

Rauschenbusch sought to shift the emphasis from individual salvation to society.
He drew authority from the Hebrew Bible prophets and the teachings of Jesus.
The prophets emphasized ethics and care for the poor and oppressed.
Jesus identified with the common folk and focused on humankind and the kingdom of God.

Rauschenbusch's Influence

Joined the faculty at Rochester Theological Seminary.
Published "Christianity and the Social Crisis," reaching a larger audience.
His later works, including "The Social Principles of Jesus" and "A Theology of the Social Gospel," were widely circulated.
Institutional manifestations included the Christian Socialist Fellowship in 1906 (from which Norman Thomas emerged), efforts within Northern Protestant churches, and formal recognition by the Northern Baptist in 1908.

Interdenominational Movement

The social gospel movement was interdenominational.
In 1908, at the founding of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ, its goals were adopted.

Settlement Houses

A response to the needs of immigrants.
Modeled after English settlement houses.
The most famous was Hull House in Chicago (1889), founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.

Christianity and the World Wars

World War I

The 'first calamity of the twentieth century' that destroyed the pre-1914 world.
Toppled four empires, created the first communist state, and destroyed the confidence of Western civilization.
Involved over 60,000,000 soldiers from two dozen countries.
Resulted in 10 million military deaths, millions maimed, and ~7 million civilian deaths.

Religion's Role in WWI

Military sought to address spiritual needs by including clergy as chaplains.
Clergy were considered noncombatants.
Religion shaped attitudes, drove hatred, offered consolation, and guided behavior.
Many believed God was on their side, discouraging peace negotiations.

Theology of Crisis

The theological angst created by the war led to the theology of crisis.

Karl Barth

A key theologian emerging from World War I.
Served in a working-class parish in Switzerland and was alarmed by Germany's militarism.
Studied the Bible, especially Paul's Epistle to the Romans, influenced by Martin Luther.
Developed a conviction about Christ's resurrection.

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1919)

Criticized liberal theology for domesticating God.
Emphasized God's judgment and absolute sovereignty.
Spoke dialectically to shock readers into seeing the radicalness of the gospel.
His theology became known as the theology of crisis and initiated neo-orthodoxy.

Church Dogmatics

Started in 1931, growing out of class lectures.
Eventually filled four volumes in 12 parts.

The German Church Struggle

Barth was immersed in the struggle against Nazism.
A founder of the Confessing Church, reacting against the ideology of blood and soil.
The 1934 Barmen Declaration pitted the revelation of Jesus Christ against Hitler and national socialism.
Barth was fired for refusing an oath to the Führer but was offered a position in Basel.

Opposition to Nazi Ideology

Barth championed the Confessing Church, Jews, and the oppressed.
Nazi ideology distorted Nietzsche's philosophy and created a state religion based on antisemitic writings of Martin Luther.
The Barmen Declaration (May 1934) became pivotal for the Confessing Church.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Born into an aristocratic family.
Graduated from the University of Berlin in 1927, spent time in Spain, and lectured at the University of Berlin.

The Cost of Discipleship (1937)

Bonhoeffer wrote this call to faithful and radical obedience and rebuke of comfortable Christianity.
Taught pastors in an underground seminary barred by the government.
Joined the German secret service as a double agent to help Jews and plot against Hitler.
Arrested and imprisoned for two years.

Theology in Prison

Reflected on the meaning of Jesus Christ and outlined a new theology.

World War II

Shifted theology to Christian realism, stemming from Reinhold Niebuhr.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Witnessed Detroit's growth in the auto industry in the 1920s.
Served in Protestant organizations and moved to Union Theological Seminary in 1928.

Moral Man and Immoral Society

Informed by his experiences during the Great Depression.
Explored moral problems related to social groups satisfying their own interests.

Shift in Political Orientation

The global events of the late 1930s prompted a shift from pacifism and socialism to a realist political philosophy.
Defended democracy.

H. Richard Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr's younger brother, taught at Yale Divinity School.
Argued that God is always understood differently at different times and in different social locations.

Christ and Culture

H. Richard Niebuhr's most famous work.
Gave a history of Christian responses to culture (Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ in culture in paradox, and Christ transforming culture).

Christian Realism

The Niebuhr brothers promoted Christian realism to understand fascism, Nazism, and World War II.

Modernism, Ecumenism, and Fundamentalism

Modernism

Modernist Theologian Shailer Mathews

Shailer Mathews

Traditional creeds were less important than imitating Jesus to improve lives.
Dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago (1908-1933), helped turn it into a modernist center.
Editor of prominent religious magazines and president of the Federal Council of Churches, promoting the ecumenical movement.

The Faith of Modernism

Used modern science to find permanent values of inherited orthodoxy to meet modern needs.

Modernist Beliefs

Believed in God imminent in nature and revealed in Jesus Christ and human history as love.
Believed in Jesus Christ as the one who revealed God as savior.
Believed in the Holy Spirit as the God of love.
Believed in the Bible as a trustworthy record of God's progressive revelation.
Believed in God's forgiveness and the transformation of lives through fellowship with God.
Believed in the practicability of Jesus' teachings in social life.

Ecumenical Movement

Began in the 1880s with the Evangelical Alliance formed by Josiah Strong.
In 1908, the Federal Council of Churches was founded, with Disciples participating.

Christian Unity

Entrance into Christian unity was a focus in the early 20th century.
The Federal Council of Churches transformed into the National Council of Churches by 1950.
Sponsored the Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible due to emphasis on higher criticism.

Backlash in Protestant World

In 1943, the National Evangelical Association became the counterpart to the National Council of Churches.
John Mott promoted ecumenism through missionary work.
The World Council of Churches formed in 1948 promoted documents like Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry.
The movement started to promote mergers of denominations.

Fundamentalism

A response to modernism, higher criticism, and the ecumenical movement.
An interdenominational movement of the 20th century.
Emerged from the late 19th century with dispensational theology (John Nelson Darby), Dwight Moody, and the Cyrus Schofield Bible.
Headquartered out of Princeton's rationalism that promoted a literal approach to the Bible.

Beliefs

Literal Bible interpretation.
Reaction to liberal Protestantism and modern science.

The Fundamentals

The project began with 90 essays published between 1910 and 1915.
Conceived in 1909 by Lyman Stewart, founder of Union Oil, a devout Presbyterian and dispensationalist.
Funded anonymously, essays were written by 64 authors from major Protestant denominations.
Mailed to ministers, missionaries, professors, YMCA/YWCA secretaries, Sunday school superintendents, and other religious workers.
Over 3,000,000 volumes or 250,000 sets were sent out.
Defended Orthodox Protestant beliefs, attacked higher criticism, liberal theology, Romanism, socialism, modernism, atheism, etc.

Key Beliefs of Fundamentalists

Biblical inerrancy and literal interpretation.
Divinity of Jesus and the virgin birth.
Penal atonement through crucifixion.
Bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Second coming of Jesus.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

Gave a sermon in 1922 called "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"
A call for open-minded, intellectual, and tolerant fellowship.
Cost him his post at New York's First Presbyterian Church.
Joined Riverside Church, built for him by John D. Rockefeller.

Separate Schools and Bible Colleges

Established to train pastors.
J. Gresham Machen became the chief spokesman for the movement.

The Scopes Trial (1925)

A test case between fundamentalism and science.
John Scopes, a biology teacher, challenged the law forbidding the teaching of evolution.
Clarence Darrow defended Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan prosecuted him.
Scopes was found guilty, but fundamentalists faced public ridicule.
The trial was made into a play called "Inherit the Wind."

Ku Klux Klan

Rebirth in the 1920s.
Targeted Jews, Catholics, and other minority groups, preaching 100% Americanism, Anglo-Saxon purity, Protestant superiority, and traditional morality.
Incorporated fundamentalist beliefs.

Neo-Evangelicalism

A response among Orthodox evangelical Protestants in the 1930s that sought separation from fundamentalist Christianity.
Harold Auchengay coined the term in 1947.
Disagreements arose about how Bible-believing Christians should respond to an unbelieving world.
Neo-evangelicals urged direct and constructive engagement with culture.
Expressed embarrassment about being known as fundamentalists.

Fundamentalist Opponents

Saw neo-evangelicals as too concerned with social acceptance.
Believed in confronting Christian apostasy and immorality.
Criticized Billy Graham for working with liberal denominations and Roman Catholics.

Neo-Evangelical Criticism

Neo-evangelicals argued for reasserting the gospel as distinct from liberal innovations and fundamentalist harshness.
Sought engagement with the modern world but remained separate from worldliness.

Organizations

Formed the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942.
Youth for Christ became the training ground for new leadership.
Billy Graham held large rallies and had a popular radio show.

Critisims and Publications

Billy Graham held the first crusade in 1947.
Christianity Today began publication in 1956.
Harold Auchengay, Carl F. H. Henry, and Billy Graham led the movement.
Fundamentalists critiqued Graham for not segregating his crusades.

The New Christian Right

Evangelicals climbed the socioeconomic ladder and acquired a new interest in politics.

Theological Divisions

Progressives versus orthodox.
Neo-evangelicals versus fundamentalists.
Theological orthodoxy became the most important dividing line.

Political Alliances

Provided the framework for political alliances and the Christian right.

Leaders

Included charismatic Pat Robertson, Presbyterian D. James Kennedy, and Southern Baptist Jerry Falwell, leading to their active use of popular media

Dominance of Evangelical Broadcasting

Starting in the 1960s, religious broadcasting became dominated by evangelicals.
Jerry Falwell had a radio show and television program.
In 1977, Pat Robertson founded the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Paul Crouch and Jim Baker followed with their own networks.
This began the merging of religious and political conservatism.

The Moral Majority

Founded in 1979 by Jerry Falwell.
Dissolved in the late 1980s, but played a key role in mobilizing conservative Christians.
Dedicated to bringing back traditional family values.
Supported political figures who supported their interests.

War Against Sin

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade, Falwell declared a war against sin, opposing abortion, homosexual rights, pornography, and crime.
Founded Liberty University to promote fundamentalist theology and social values.

The Christian Coalition

Formed in 1989 as a grassroots vehicle by Pat Robertson to mobilize Christian voters.
Pat Robertson created a mailing list of conservative Christians interested in politics forming the basis of the new organization
Director Ralph Reed was instrumental in the Coalition
Produced voter guides for presidential elections.

Theological Models of the Civil Rights Movement and Post-Colonial Eras

Liberation Theology

Incurred a break from an elitist notion of the church, returning control to the people
Came out of Latin American independence movements.
Innovated in from Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez

Martyr

Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador was assassinated when he became an advocate for the poor
Funeral was attended by over a quarter of a million people.