The Role of Walter Rausehenbusch in Christian Ethics

Senior Essay

James R. Anderson

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Divinity

Interdenominational Theological Center 671 Beckwith Street, S.W. , 30314

April 15, 19611. ‘4%fl~~4 Table of Contents

Preface I. Introduction II. Social Factors in the Rise of the III. Rauschenbusch’s Awakening to Social Issues IV. Social Basis of hie criticism of Capitalism V. Rauschenbusch’s requisites for a Christian Social Order A. Social Justice B. Collective Property Rights C. Industrial Democracy D. Approximate Equality E. Cooperation VI. Centrality of the Kingdom of God concept in his thought VII. A for the Social Gospel A. Contribution of Social Gospel to Theology B. The task of the Church VIII. A program of Reform for the Social Order IX. Forces inhibiting the Social Gospel X. Evaluation Bibliography Preface

In an attempt to set forth the role that Walter Rauschenbusch played

in Christian social ethics, it would be very easy for me to define his

role as a prophet of “the social gospel movement,”

His writings and lectures are so vast that, in writing this paper,

I have had a great problem of eliminating material and, at the same time,

aim for accuracy. I have attempted to set forth his role by beginning

with the social forces of the day in which he lived that gave rise to the

social gospel and continuing through the forces which inhibited it. The

Social Gospel Movement had a considerable impact. It quickened many lay

consciences. It raised profound questions about business ethics and the morality of the laws of the market place. Most important, it broadened and strengthened the moral foundations of the progressive movement.

Also, to understand the role he played, it is necessary to under stand his Kingdom of God concept, and proceed to the point where he gives the Social Gospel a theology. He saw that the real problem of Christian social ethics was to derive from the gospel which he defined as “good news”. a clear view of the realities with which even we today must deal in our common or social life, and also to preserve a sense of responsi— bility for achieving the highest of order, freedom, and justice despite the great hazards of man’s collective life.

I wish to express my deep gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Samuel C.

Kincheloe for their assistance and loyal support, without which this uosnpuy •~ sewer

~q;ssod ueeq s*eq ;ou pynoo zeded The Role of Walter Rauschenbusch in Social Ethics Introduction

Walter Rauschenbusch was born in Rochester, , in 1861. He was educated in Rochester and . While in school, Rauschenbusch prepared himself for the foreign missionary service, but was rejected because of a suspected flaw in his Old Testar-ent theology. The seventh of a line of ministers in a family whose religious heritage rooted deep ly in pietism, Rauschenbusch, at the age of twenty-five, accepted the pastorate of a Baptist Church in New York. He spent eleven years in ministering to this poverty-stricken congregation and this proved to be a great dynamic experience in his life. Here the conventional pietism of his fathers failed to meet the complete needs of the endless pro cession of men out of work, out of clothes, out of shoes, and out of hope. This wore away the heart of the sensitive young . In the turmoil and toil of the great American metropolis, a new gospel came to Rauschenbusch. In his work, Rauschenbusch was influenced some by , Mazzine, Karl Marx, and Tolstoi. “But above all the crying need of the comfortless multitude and the senseless inadequacy of competitive strife, the apparent possibility of cooperative service and the jubilant remedy of the message of the Kingdom took hold of his susceptible soul.”1

w. C. Meyer, salter Rauschenbuach. Professor and Proohet, The Standard. (1912) p. 662. 1].

It was in 1886 that Rauschenbusch was first awakened to the world

of social problems. In 1891, he traveled and studied abroad, devoting

considerable time to sciology and to the teachings of while he

was in Germany, He never forgot about the needs of the people, and

while reaching the heights of idealism in his message, he always kept

close to humanity; for it was because of his unique personality and

the force of his ideas that he reached prominence as a prophet of the

social gospel movement, Because of his concern, he later provided

Protestantism with a vital, stimulating, and unsurpassed formulation of

the Christian Socialogy it had so long sought.

Beginning with an analysis of the social and ethical aspects of

the religion of the Old Testament, Rauschenbusch pointed out neglected

areas in Biblical interpretation and asserted the interest of the

Hebrew prophets in morals, in the social and political life of their nation, and in the condition of the poor and the oppressed, Jesus, he saw as the divine founder of a new society, whose plan for salvation in cluded all human needs and powers and relations, Rauschenbusch then contrasted the contemporary social impotence of Christianity with the social power of the early Church, and analyzed the place of the Church in modern society. He believed that the social movement needed to be grounded in religion and that the new type of religious experience ought to find conscious and social expression.

God, for Rauschenbusch, was the common basis of all life, the ground for spiritual oneness of races, and the hope for its future unity,

Consciousness of solidarity, he said, is the essence of an ethical and social religion. “We love and serve God when we love and serve our fellows, whom He loves and in whom He lives. We rebel against God and 111

repudiate His will when we set our profit and ambition above the welfare

of our fellows and above the Kingdom of God which binds them together.”1

Rauschenbusch’s central concept was the Kingdom of God, which he

believed to have been the heart of Jesus’ teaching0 He saw the Kingdom

as a collective conception involving the whole social life of man, He

based his criticism of modern society and his program for its reformation

on his belief in an immanent, active God upon whose indwelling could be

predicted the solidarity of that human society whose progressive perfec

tion would realize the divine Kingdom of righteousness and justice. He

continued to describe the social order in solidaristic terms, declaring

that St. Paul’s comparison of the Church to the human body was the

highest possible philosophy of human society.

It is the writer’s opinion that to understand the role ther

Rauschenbusch played in social ethics, we must consider it in terms of his pietism and the centrality of the Kingdom ideal in his thought as he attempts to establish the social nature of Christianity.

1Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, (New York, 1917). p. 182. za a a nsa 21 a ZcssL ~anL

During the years following the Civil War, a new era in the American way of life opened. During the period of reconstruction, the forces of industrial revolution, stimulated by the demands of the great conflict,

swept triiaphantly to victory over the agricultural economy that ree mained for the nation’s youths. By 1880, a vigorous capitalism had laid the foundations of modern American in an industrial order that was rapidly transforming the rural United States into a closely knit nation of swarming cities. The post war moral reaction severely strained certain traditional ethical and social standards. Corruption in local, state, and national government was widespread and in many places unshamed, and business ethics suffered a decline. In an atmosphere of optimism and moral laxiety, speculation flourished until the panic of 1873 brought the sobering realization that progress could not be built on watered stocks or blueprints. The lesson was made painfully clear to the working classes by unprecedented unemployment and desperate poverty. Bread lines appeared in the city streets of a nation rapidly becoming the richest country in the world. But the kings of industry and finance paid little heed and an exaggerated individualism continued to ride roughshod over hiaan rights. This very violent birth of a new world called forth heroic efforts on the part of a minority of Protestant leaders who saw the very genius of Christianity contradicted by the assiaptions of the new capitalism. -2-

Their attempts to re—orient the historic faith of America to an industrial

society comprised the social gospel0 The forces that gradually effected the new social viewpoint in American Christianity did not come from the

outside alone, but from the inside as well, and about the middle of the century, a noiceable change in the religious climate could be seen and as the subtle factors slowly permeated the religious mind, the reaction to the stimulus of a new industrial, urban, and scientific environment produced what has come to be known as the social gospel.

The first expressions of the new social viewpoint were attempts to re-orient the philathropic urges of the historic faith to the needs of the modern world with seriously modifying changes of the old doctrines.

Social reform was approached by way of the traditional conception of stewardship that was to be applied by individuals to business and indus try. During the years that saw the bitterest industrial struggles and the most glorying gaps in social conditions between classes in the nation~s history, the evolution of social Christianity was slow, and this was due to the preoccupation of the Churches with interests that had consumed with the social, missionary, or charitable energies for decades, as it was to their theology. All other social interests had been submerged in the slavery crusade, and now that emancipation was an accomplished fact the religious conscience concerned itself with the further well being of freedmen, through wide—spread programs of educational, mission ary, and welfare activity in the South, In dealing with the historic problems, the Church had developed a technique well suited to them, and her social inertia during the eighties must be attributed in part to the reluctance to exchange her time-tested methodology for the untried -3-

modern schemes proposed to meet the new needs of the day.

Social Christianity, therefore, was forced to concern itself with

practical as well as theoretical changes. So when the attention of

Protestant leaders began to turn toward the whole social system, as it

must do, it was with slowly clarifying ideas and techniques that the

prophets of a kingdom of God on earth took up their task.

Other factors were even more significant. The movement took root

and grew vigorously among the Congregationalists, the Unitarians, and

Episcopalians-three American religious bodies that inherited the State-

Church tradition of responsibility for public morals.

The Congregationalists and Unitarians participated generously in the

liberal theological trends of the nineteenth century,

Rauschenbusch’s Awakening to Social Issues

Among the poor working people of his Church in Rochester, New York,

his social education began. It came from personal contact with the bitter

poverty, from seeking how men toiled all their lives in hard work and

had nothing at the end, from having to hold funeral services for little

children who had died from malnutrition and from diseases caused by

awful living conditions in the tenement districts of . His

experience during the latter part of his eleven-year pastorate served to

increase his social sense and to confirm his judgement that something

was radically wrong with the Capitalistic system itself, for he once

said, “Industrial crises are not inevitable in nature; they are merely

inevitable in Capitalism,’~

1 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916), p. 238. -4-

In the face of such conditions as these, Rauschenbusch discovered

that when he sought to apply his previous religious ideas, they did not

fit. When he became interested in social questions, he found that his

friends did not regard social work as Christian work, but he refused to

give it up. Through a new study of the Bible, he became convinced that

his social concern was in keeping with the teachings and ideas of Jesus.

He later said, ~ owe my own first awakening to the world of social

problems to the agitation of Henry George in 1886, and wish to record my life long debt to this single-minded apostle of a great truth.~

In his writings for various newspapers, Rauschenbusch’s ideas about

religion and social conditions began to clear up. He was faced with the

problem that: on the one hand he had his own personal religious life, and on the other hand he had caught a larger social outlook. This social vision did not come through the Church, In fact, his social interest was held down for years by the Church, His problem now was how to com bine his social outlook with the personal religious life that was so strong in him. He felt that he needed a unity of life and desired a faith that would cover his whole life and include all his interests.

People did not want to hear his social message for they did not connect it at all with religion. They were willing to hear all he had to say about religion, but wanted none of the social stuff. So Rauschenbusch felt that he had to get a faith that would include both, something that would furnish a basis for the Christian teaching of a social gospel,

The ordinary religious conceptions seemed to him to cover only a

1Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912), p. 394. -5- part of the gospel, the regeneration and sanctification of the individual.

He felt that God had spoken to him through Jesus’ teaching too strongly

for him to let go. Then the idea of the Kingdom of God offered itself to him as a solution for his problems, for here was a religious concep tion that embraced all his troubles. It touches everything with religion, it carries God into everything that we do, and there is nothing else that does it in the same way.

For him, the Kingdom of God was of great importance. He felt that it was needed at the center of theology, that there was need for it as an all—powerful impulse to missionary effort, the need for it as the basis for the work of social regeneration to which he believed that his generation was called. He realized, however, that the application of the idea of the Kingdom to ethical questions and to practical aims of

Christianity called for patience and much hard work.

He used his writings to express his views on various subjects. He wrote on economic and industrial issues, on politics, on separation of

Church and State, on religion, and the Kingdom of God, but he found it very hard to arouse the working people to a consideration of the whole social problem.

Many enthusiasts for the social gospel put all the blame for human evil on society; hange the environment and all the problems will be solved, they seemed to say. But Rauschenbusch knew better. While he proclaimed the necessity of social change vigorously, he just as vigor ously proclaimed the necessity of personal reformation and rebirth.

Rauschenbusch had his awakening to the social ills and he had felt the pangs of poverty, insecurity, the tragedy of malnutrition, and seen the wastefulness of life through disease and crime. -6-

So he set out to create an adequate social reform that would be rooted only in religion which was less concerned with getting men to

Heaven than about fitting them for their proper work on earth; which does not set itself against the secular life in contrast, but one that

enters into the secular life and subdues it by its power, rules it by its laws of love, and transfigures it by its truth.

Social Basis of his Criticism of Capitalism

Being well read in socialism, Rauschenbusch stripped the critical weapon of Capitalism of all its crosser features and used it to demon strate the unchristian character of a social order that tempts, defeats, drains, and degrades, and left men stunned, cowed, and shamed in their manhood. However, there are in our society certain institutions that had been partly Christianized: the family, the Church, the agencies of education, and politics in so far as it had been democratized.

The whole process of Christianizing society, as Rauschenbusch saw it, was therefore to strengthen its fraternal and cooperative elements, and their extension into the competitive and primitive realms.

The first of the basic tenets of Capitalism to come under Rauschen busch~s scrutiny was competition—--”the law of tooth and nail.” One nation after another had been forced to restrict the murderous effects of this shortsighted and suicidal policy, It was a denial of frater nity and whenever it was allowed full freedom, it would bring back the savage era, dechristianizing the social order. This brought into play the lower instincts of selfishness, covetousness, and craft, rather than mutual interest, good will, comradeship, and solidarity-—the marks of a Christian social order. -7—

Secondly, Rauschenbusch saw “the last entrenchment of autocracy” in

the dictatorial and monopolistic character of great corporations. He

saw the crux of the problem as being the lack of industrial democracy—-

the antithesis of modern trend toward freedom and equal rights for all.

Workers he felt, comprised a subject class, owning no tools, having no

voice in industrial management, and holding no control over their own

production. This contradicted American ideals, and Rauschenbusch re

garded them as a menace to American institutions and was a barrier to

Christianizing our social order.

Rauschenbusch’s third count against Capitalism cited the evil effects

of the modern economic organization as was evidenced in the adulteration

of foods, short weights, spurious advertising, over-production, and

similar practices perilous not only to the consumer but also to business

and national morality. The manifold forms of dishonesty met with in

business were the natural results of a relation based upon individual

selfishness, and not upon fraternity or solidarity. Rauschenbusch saw

in this system, where the middle man was the controlling factor, that

the dominant motive was not to supply human needs but to make a profit.

The subserviency of Capitalism to the profit motive made it a mamrnonistic organization with which Christianity could never be content.

Capitalistic business for Rauschenbusch was to be distinguished

from the home, the school, the Church, and the democratized state as an

unregenerate part of the social order, not based on freedom, love and mutual service, but on autocracy, antagonism of interests, and exploita tion.

Rauschenbusch contends here that Capitalism has invaded several of the regenerate spheres: The life of the masses has been kept low by -8-

poverty. Beauty has been sacrificed to profit. The home, sanctuary of

God’s gift of love, has been broken into and crippled; prostitution

multiplies. Capitalism sets private good before public wealth--corrupting

our legislatures, executives, and courts, influencing the press, and

vindictively opposing those who stand up for the common good.

Religion declares the supreme value of life, said Rauschenbusch,

while business worships profit. By splitting society into warring

classes, Capitalism reduces the Christian ideal of unity and solidarity

to a harmless sentiment,

Based on the principle of autocracy, Capitalism suppresses the

Christian sense of the worth of personality, the love of freedom, and

the independence of action,

Christianity, for Rauschenbusch, proclaimed all men equal; Capital~

ism, Rauschenbusch said, “If we can trust the Bible, God is against Cap

italism its methods, spirits, and results.’~

Rauschenbusch’s Requisites for a Christian Social Order

To balance off the Christian version of the socialist critique of

Capitalism that he had presented, Rauschenbusch proceeded to lay down

five fundamental requisites for a Christian economic order: social

justice, collective property rights, industrial democracy, approximate

equality, and cooperation.

1. Justice:

The most striking of these was the demand for justice,

1Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology For The Social Gospel, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1918). p. 184. -9-

which underlaid all the others and which Rauschenbusch re garded as the fundamental step toward Christianizing the social order. Justice out to be corrected particularly in three areass private property in land and resources, pri vate control of transportation and coanunication, and pri vate monopoly of inventions and industrial processes—-all of which situations had been intensified by the rise of corporate combinations able to fix prices and dictate wages. The first of these three could be eliminated, said Rauschenbusch, by adequate taxation of land values. Public ownership or the restriction of corporations to fair in comes would control the second, while a public grant or royalty system would remedy the third. 2. Prooertvs Rauschenbusch believed in property and a joy as a means of grace for the conmon man. Property is needed for the support of the well-rounded life. Therefore, he de clared, “A condition in which millions of people have no share at all in the productive capital of the nation, and hardly enough even of furniture, clothing, and food to cover their nakedness and nourish their bodies, debases hwnanity, undermines the republic, and desiccates religion”1 The workingman needs property, but today ownership

½alter Rauschenbusch, Cliristianizino the Social Order, (New Yorks The MacMillan Company, 1912), p. 341. -10-

must acquire new forms, consisting in a small share of and

a right in a collective accumulation which belongs to a

larger group jointly. Extension of this principle would

provide sickness and old—age protection. The workers’

minimum-property rights in industry must be recognized in

his tenure of a job as long as he does honest and effi

cient work.

3. Democracy:

Political democracy without economic democracy is as

uncashed promissory note, a pot without the roast, a form

without substance. Rauschenbusch frankly favored labor in

its struggle with Capital. Employers resisting the work

er’s demand for the democratic conduct of industry be

likened to Louis XIV, and declared that labor organiza

tions had never inflicted as much wrong as they had suf

fered. Not only should unionization be tolerated, but

that the law should recognize, facilitate, and regulate

it. The transition to industrial democracy will test both

the Americanism and the Christianity of employers.

4. Equality:

In his demand for approximate equality, Rauschenbusch

asserted that we ought at least be able to refrain from

perpetuating and increasing the handicap of the weaker

groups by the existing enormous inequalities of property.

The growth of the great fortunes he saw as an institu

tional denial of the fundamental truths of our religion.

5, Cooperation; —11—

An economic basis of cooperation is necessary for the

realization of genuine social fraternity, said Rauschen

busch, who regarded contemporary trends toward business

combination as evidence of a gradually evolving coopera

tive system0 However, he declared that the unsocial per

versity of Capitalism holds us back unduly, as is illus

trated in many cities where a genuine desire for coopera

tive management of utilities is frustrated by a group

bent on profit Capitalism likewise opposes labor’s

efforts to achieve solidarity0 Business itself would like

to unite even more than it has, but the public has found

that dangerous. And so our public life has become a huge

tragi-comedy in which we are all trying not to do what

we all know we shall have to do anyway. This contends

Rauschenbusch, is the enchanted maze into which the wily

Devil of Profit has conjured us.

Centrality of the Kingdom of God in his Thought

Rauschenbusch’s central concept was the Kingdom of God, which he believed to have been in the heart of Jesus’ teaching. Aware of the in fluence of Darwinism upon theology, he declared that the Kingdom idea was the result of translating the theory of evolution into religious terms, He saw the Kingdom as a collective conception involving the whole social life of man. The doctrine is itself the social gospel.

Without it, the notion of social redemption would become but an annex to the orthodox scheme of salvation. Rauschenbusch bases both his criticism of modern society and his program for its reformation on his -12- belief in an immanent, active God upon whose indwelling could be pre dicated the solidarity of that human society whose progressive perfection would realize the divine Kingdom of righteousness and justice. Rauschen— busch realized that because of the withdrawal of the Kingdom idea during the Reformation, theology lost its contact with Jesus and it became, to a certain extent, incapable of understanding Him, and this was his at tempt to rediscover the teachings of Jesus in our day. When theology placed its emphasis upon the Church, which is a fellowship for worship, the religious enthusiasm that might have saved mankind from its greatest sins was diverted to ceremonialism. The Kingdom, says Rauschenbusch, is a fellowship of righteousness, and when it ceases to be the dominating religious reality, the Church becomes the summum bonum and its promotion the promotion of Christianity. The result was the removal of such dogmas as the medieval conception of the supremacy of the Church over the state.

In the absence of the Kingdom’s ethical dynamic, unjust social conditions were allowed to develop, the practical program of the Church remained narrow, and theology was confined to unproductive pursuits. Without the

Kingdom of God idea, Rauschenbusch felt that movements toward democracy and social justice would be left without religious support. The Kingdom of God breeds prophets and the Kingdom is to theology what outdoor color and light are to art.

A Theology for the Social Gospel

In religion, theology-— which is the intellectual theorization of religious truth and experience-—has always had a place, but it has had to fight to keep it. Man is a rational being, who will act from day to day in a state of mental disorder unless he feels that there is a funda— -13-

mental, if invisible, order underneath. Even for religion, permanent

stability required an intellectual formulation. A man’s creed, it has

been said, is like his spinal column; it should not be too much in

evidence when you look at him, but it is necessary if he is to hold to

gether. Moreover, all the vertebrae of which it is composed must be in

right relation to one another. Probably no one gave quite the thought

to this so early in the course of the social movement as Walter Rauschen—

busch. He saw that the movement was not simply a matter of individual

reform, or even an application to society of the teachings of Christian

ity about justice and love. It was revolutionary in its implications

and it needed to be fitted into Christian theory; and if it would not

fit, then the theory must be adjusted to make room for it, Unless the

social movement had its place in the whole theological system, its effort

would be weak and intermittent and based on emotion rather than intelli

gence. It might even part company with religion altogether, which would

cause irreparable damage to both Christianity and the social movement.

“We need a theological basis for our social interest. Our present theology is individualistic. It deals with the salvation of the individual. Anything con cerning the salvation of the race has to be added as a sort of annex or outhouse, which has no room or the foundation. There is one idea which has come mightily to the front in the last twenty years, partly in answer to the socialogical need of the day, and that idea furnished the foundation both for the salvation of the individual and for the salvation of the race, It is the vast idea of the Kingdom of God, the great idea of the Old Testament and the center of the Gospel.”1

1Article on “The Service of the Church to Society” in the’Treasury”, September, 1899. -14-

Rauschenbusch had the ability to see things in the whole. He knew, there

fore, at an early date that the concept of the Kingdom of God must have

theological formulation.

In 1911, he discussed the question of theology for the social gos

pel. This idea of the Kingdom, he said, has grown up in a shanty and

has not been enclosed in the main house of the Church, It has, therefore,

not been understood, but rather been greatly misunderstood by the

Christian Church, The need is to “build it up solid on the foundation

of faith.”1

The real opportunity to formulate his thinking came in 1917, when he

was invited to deliver the annual lecture to the Annual Convocation of

the Yale School of Religion. These lectures were expected to deal with

some theme of doctrinal theology and here in a systematic way, he re

lated the Social Gospel to the theological expression of the Christian

religion.

Rauschenbusch desired a theology that comprehends all of man’s

spiritual interests, that will meet the needs of social redemption as well as individual salvation.

One of the most individualistic of all religious practices is .

I remained, for Rauschenbusch, to point out that it originated in a mass movement of reform under ; that when it was transferred to infants, new social elements sprang up in the practical necessities of a social backing for the young candidate in the form of sponsors; that even now—-after all the changes in significance that have taken

1Message of the Men and Religion Movement, Vol. II, 1912. -15- place in the history of the rite——it can be invested with social signifi cance.

In his book, A Theology for the Social Gospel, Rauschenbusch inter preted many traditional Christian doctrines in social terms. His treat ment of sin and salvation is illuminating, inasmuch as it rested upon the solidaristic view of society. From the individual standpoint, he said that sin was selfishness. A democratic idea of God will render this conception realistic, however, because humanity is always involved in sin in any kind and God is identified with humanity. We love and serve God as we love and serve our fellows. But sin is more than indi vidual; it is transmitted socially through custom; the institutions of society acquire what may be called the superpersonal forces of evil.

The salvation of these entities is to be accomplished by bringing them under the law of Christ.

Rauschenbusch did not repudiate the old gospel. He gave it a cut ting edge by adding the new social gospel. He introduced a new idea in to the Christian synthesis, including all the old, and added a vast con tribution of new purpose and power, and furnished a new point of view and a new method of approach to all the old questions.

Another traditional doctrine that was studied by Rauschenbusch was the doctrine of the atonement. This doctrine was also interpreted in terms of social solidarity. Rauschenbusch shows how some half—dozen public sins were combined to kill Jesus, that is insofar as the personal sins of me have built up corporate sins, which says that Jesus came into collision with the totality of evil in mankind. “He was wounded for our -16-

transgression”, solidarity explains it.’

Such was the social gospel of Rauschenbusch. For him, it was the

old theology, enlarged and socialized, For the Church, it was a warmly

and evangelically religious gospel for the salvation of the individual

soul. For him, it was the old message of salvation, but enlarged and

intensified so as to bring men under repentance for their collective

sins and to create a more sensitive and more modern sonscience.

A. Contribution of Social Gospel to Theology

As the starting point of a positive statement concerning

the Kingdom, Rauschenbusch declared that the chief contribution of the

Social Gospel to theology was the giving of new vitality and importance

to the Kingdom ideal as (1) “divine in its origin, progress, and consurn—

mation.” Initiated by Christ, it is sustained by the Holy Spirit and

it will be brought to its fulfillment by the power of God in his own

time. So slender are its human resources against the powers of evil that

the only explanation of it satisfactory to the religious mind is that

which sees its miraculous character as continuous revelation of the

power, the righteousness, and the love of God. Further, (2) it contains

“the theology of the Christian religion,” that is, it is a dynamic con

ception that looks to ends to be accomplished rather than to rites that must be preserved. As long as there is evil in the world, the Kingdom will be engaged in conflict. (3) Since God is in it, it is in both pre

sent crisis and future possibility: “It is the energy of God realizing

‘Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1918). p. 117. -17-

itself in human life.” We see “the Kingdom of God as always coming, al

ways pressing in on the present, always big with possibility, and always

inviting immediate action . the Kingdom is for each of us the supreme

task and the supreme gift of God . • .“~ (4) Although before Christ

men had caught fleeting glimpses of the Kingdom, it received its distinc

tive interpretation within our religion from Him. He emancipated it

from previous limitations, making it world—wide and spiritual. Christ

made the purpose of salvation essential in it, imposed His mind, will,

personality, and love on it, and not only preached the Kingdom, but ini

tiated it by his life and work. (5) The Kingdom is humanity organized

according to the will of God, It tends toward a social order that will

best guarantee the highest development of personality, in accordance

with Christ’s revelation of the divine worth of human life. As the

supreme purpose of God, the Kingdom (6) must be the end for which the

Church exists: its institutions, its activities, its worship, and its

theology must be tested by its effectiveness in creating the Kingdom of

God, (7) All problems of personal salvation must be considered from the

point of view of the Kingdom. The two are to be synthesized; and lastly

(8) the Kingdom is shown not to be confined within the Church, for the

Kingdom embraces the whole of human life. It is the Christian trans

figuration of the social order. The Church is one social institution

along side of the family, the industrial organization of society, and the

State. The Kingdom of God is all these, and realizes itself through them

1Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1918), p. 143. -18-

all.

B. Task of the Church

In light of the ideal of the social gospel’s contribution

to theology, Rauschenbusch contends now for a re-evaluation of the Church’s

mission and a new interpretation of theology, Specifically, this meant

the rejection of the fictions of Capitalism and in general it inferred

adoption of the program of social Christianity. The task of the Church

now is to preach the Word of God, but in no narrow or traditional man

ner. The gospel of Christ touches all life and is quick and pierces

like a sword. The Church should aid in the preservation of American

ideals of the family, democracy, individual development, education, lei

sure, and the home. It should mediate between classes, uphold the spiri

tual ideal against mammonjsrn and materialism, and champion the principles

that will produce a Christian social order.

Program of Reform

As a specific program of reform, Rauschenbusch advocated measures designed to aid in the conservation of life, the socializing of property, the control and management of monopolies and utilities by the community, the improvement of the condition of the working class, and a revival of social religion. With respect to the first of these, Rauschenbusch sug gested limitation of the hours of labor, establishment of minimum wages, prevention of industrial diseases, protection from dangerous machinery, industrial accedent insurance, care of the aged, and proper housing.

But before such a program could be made truly effective, it would be nec essary to socialize property in order that it be more directly available for the service of all. Social change has made evils out of institutions —19-

once regarded as basic rights: private development of natural resources,

formerly legitimate and useful, is now becoming a dangerous encroach

ment on the rights of society. Along with the socialization of property,

there should go an increase in public functions, accompanied by a rise

in public spirit. The natural monopolies must become public property

not for the sake of efficient and coherent management only, but for the

impetus to civic morality and public spirit,

The most important factor presaging a Christian social order was,

in the mind of Rauschenbusch, the rise of the working class. The labor

movement was the salient fact of the present history, and he felt that

“if the banner of the Kingdom of God was to enter through the gates of

the future, it would have to be carried by the tramping hosts of labor.”1

Though he discussed various aids to the workers, Rauschenbusch’s major emphasis was upon security, property rights, and economic democ racy. He was greatly impressed by the ethical character of the labor movement: the working class embodied an immense fund of moral energy, which was needed to equip the Christian social order,

Rauschenbusch’s attitude toward socialism has been suggested but it is worthy to note that although he regarded collectivism with great fa vor, he was not a party man in the sense that others supported the polit ical Socialist movement. Defferentiating between Socialism and Christian socialism, he declared that the latter was a peculiar genus of Socialism by stating that “the Christian sense of the sanctity of life and person ality and of the essential equality of men re—enforces the Socialist

1 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912). p. 449. -20-

condemnation of the present social order. The religious belief in the

Fatherhood of God, in the fraternal solidity of men, and in the ultimate

social redemption of the race through Christ lends a religious quality to

the Socialist ideals,ttl

Christian Socialism is in conscious antagonism with orthodox social

ism in that it sets positive religious faith against a materialistic

philosophy; it believes in the value and social possibilities of the

Churches; it stresses religious regeneration as a factor in the salva

tion of society; while accepting economic determinism, it asserts the

reality and independent power of spiritual forces; it recognizes the in

fluence of social environment while pointing out the moral responsibil

ity of the individual; and it stands for the sanctity of the family and

the radical Christian attitude regarding intoxicants.

But Rauschenbusch was concerned with the economic system because he

looked upon it as the strategical key to the spiritual conquest of the

modern world.

Forces Inhibiting the Social Gospel

Even though Rauschenbusch presented his program of reform, he still

realized that there were many forces that would hold the social gospel,

and forbid it to make progress.

Immediately following World War I, the social gospel declined.

This was due to the fact that the basic ideas of the social gospel had

been absorbed in the larger Christian movement. Ministers saw no need

1Walter Rauschenbusch, “Christian Socialism” in Shailer Matthews and G. B. Smith’s A Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, (New York, 1921). pp. 90-91. -21-

of referring to the social gospel since the “Gospel” was thought as being

both personal and social.

World War I took the interest of churches away from the need to re

construct the life of the inner city.

The boom period which followed World War I had a great inhibiting

force behind it for the social gospel, because it brought forth a period

that was not conducive to reviving the social gospel movement.

The depression, and the period following it, made it evident that

remedies of the federal government for many social problems were inevita

ble. Local churches realized that they could not provide food, shelter,

and jobs for the many unemployed.

This was in a way the great transition in American life. The federal

programs under Franklin D. Roosevelt, had much the same tone as the so cial gospel movement, but those programs were secularized, that is, they were taken from the control of the ecclesiastical order and was perform ed by local authorities. No where has ethical action been so difficult, and no where has personality been so dwarfed and outrage, as in war.

Consequently, nothing has contributed more heavily to the rise of secu larism than has War.

At the same time, no great leader with Rauschenbusch’s passion and ability appeared to give an interpretation to the gospel~, Instead, the

Continental European of Barth and others beg~~ their penetra tion of the American Churches.

All of these forces and others have slowed down the social gospel movement and the Protestant Churches of America have rested upon the conventional programs of church work, by doing what was customary.

For the Churches to revert back to what was the customary way of -22-

carrying out the programs of church work, appeared to be saying that ‘tlet

the church be the church and nothing more.” To do this, meant that the

Church was to stay out of politics and economic orders of our country.

Evaluation

In evaluating this paper, I am forced to believe that Rauschen—

busch’s sole desire for formulating the social gospel was to summon the

Christian passion for justice and the Christian powers of love and mercy

coming forth to do their share in redeeming the social order from its

inherent wrongs. With the rise of social consciousness in America,

Walter Rauschenbusch came forth as the prophet and spiritual leader of

social Christianity, and stands out like a beacon. While an American

patriot and advocate of struggling minorities, no writer or thinker felt

more deeply than he the solidarity of mankind, and because of this, he

becomes for us a true spiritual leader, whose words are more needed to

day than when they were first uttered.

The social movement was the most important ethical and spiritual movement in the modern world, and the social gospel was the response of the Christian conscience to it. The social gospel registered the fact that, for the first time in history, the spirit of Christianity had a chance to form a working partnership with real social and psychological science. It was the religious reaction to the historic advert of demo cracy, and it sought to put the democratic spirit, which the Church in herited from Jesus and the prophets, back in control of the institutions and teachings of the Church.

Because of Rauschenbusch, the social gospel has become an integral part of the thought and action of the Church, and speaks to us as mm— -23-

isters today, telling us that our first task is to be instrumental in creating repentance and faith. The illusions of the old order must be broken down, and build up in humanity faith in the possibility of a divine life. This calls forth social evangelization. Man must be made

to know by us that he is of more value than just a piece of machinery, and that the appeal of the gospel is based upon his inherent worth in

the sight of God.

Rauschenbusch has made us know that as Christ came to seek and to

save us, we too must seek and live to save and help. We must give up

the profit, the exploits of others, and the selfish ambition that holds

others down and become social men--friendly, helpful, just, simple and

democratic, Unless we are converted and become as little children, we

have no part in the higher life of humanity which God is seeking to

bring about.

The works of Rauschenbusch remind the Churches that modern life

has gone through immense changes and that it has not kept the pace with

it in developing the moral and spiritual resources of the Gospel which

is needed in the new life and the new day.

American Christianity should hear the voice of the modern Amos now.

Capitalism and labor need his message of social justice, economic equity,

and human worth. All of mankind who are interested in having an endur

ing peace, all the builders of a brighter, more hopeful world need to be able to sit at His feet and learn the way of brotherhood and the prin ciples of the Kingdom of God.

Once again we are standing at the turning of the ways, and we as ministers and bearers of the gospel “good news”, will have to be as actors in a great historical drama, It rests upon us now to decide if a -24- new era is to dawn in the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of God, or let Western civilization descend to the graveyeard of dead civilizations and force God to try once mores

The Social Gospel of Rauschenbusch, therefore, reminds us that if in obedience we remain close to the teachings of Jesus men would love one another so until justice and law would become unnecessary, and that

Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man would become a glorious reality0 Bibliography

Landis, B. Y., A Rauschenbusch Reader, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957.

Meyer, F. VI. C. Walter Rauschenbusch, Professor and Prophet. The Standard, 1912.

Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the SocialCrisis, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916.

Rauschenbusch, Walter. The Soci~ ~rinci le of Jesus. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916.

Rauschenbusch, Walter. A Theology for the Social Gospel, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1918.

Rauschenbusch, Walter, Christianizing the Social Order. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912.

Stukenberg, J. H. VI. Christian Sociology. New York: I, K. Funk & Company, 1880.

Yinger, J. M. ~io~ Society and the Individual, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1957.