THE RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE OFT.C. DOUGLAS: SOCIAL GOSPEL THEOLOGY AND PRAGMATlSM A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirernents for the Degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies University of Regina by Scott Michael Pittendrigh Regina, Saskatchewan June, 1997 Copyright 1997: Scott M. Pittendrigh 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Onawa ON KI A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your file Volre reltirence Our hle Noire reidrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sel1 reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts ftom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract This thesis contends that T.C. Douglas' religious perspective is best understood as a coupling of social gospel theology and pragmatism. 1 am asserting that the classic interpretation of Douglas, as an exponent of social gospel theology, fails to incorporate al1 of the evidence about his religious reflections. Rather, the records indicate that as Douglas reflected upon the inadequacies of social gospel theology in a world with such manifestations of evil as Nazi Germany, he found this theology's moral logic wanting. Instead Douglas developed a position that originated from the moral reasoning found in the pragmatic philosophical tradition in currency at the University of Chicago, which he attended briefly as a doctoral student. This lefl Douglas' religious perspective rooted in the intellectual traditions of social gospel theology and tempered by pragmatism. But at the same tirne, through this intellectual vehicle, in the late-1930s, Douglas was able to gain insights into politics, morality and the human condition, that came into wide currency as Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realist theology becarne accepted among Canadian Protestants in the mid-1940s. In effect, Douglas reshaped his interpretation of social gospel theology, through the resources of the pragmatic intellectual tradition, so that it was a relevant and effective moral guide for Christian action in the modern world. Although Douglas' position lacks the academic rigor that cm be found in the writings of other religious thinkers, his religious perspective was tested by the fires of political experience and affinned by his political successes. In effect, this thesis will portray Douglas as a far more sophisticated theologian than any author has previously suggested. It is hoped that fiiture scholarly studies of his life will heed these conclusions and discuss his religious ideas with more care. Acknowledgments Graduate scholarships from the Faculty of Graduate Studies were gratefully received during the research and writing of this thesis. The guidance, criticism and encouragement of my advisor Dr. Bryan HiHis and the members of my committee such as Dr. Richard Hordem, Professor 1. Gorski, and Dr. Kenneth Oh is deeply appreciated. Their unyielding cornmitment to scholarship, personal integrity and the search for truth has given me the courage necessary to write this thesis. 1 must mention that the encouragement of Dr. Roland Miller, who initially encouraged me to study Islam, was an invaluable part of this process. LastIy, I must thank my fnends, my brother Barry Pittendrigh and my parents, Robert and Irene, for their unwavering support in this endeavour. iii ................................. 11 Abstract ... Acknowledgments ............................ 111 Table of Contents ............................ iv Chapter Introduction ........................... 1 1. Terms, Methods and Sources ................... 7 The Intellectual Origins of Rauschenbusch's and Niebuhr's Theology Rauschenbusch and Niebuhr: The Human Situation 2. T.C. Douglas' Religious Development: A Bief Theological Biography 19 Douglas' Early Religious Life: 1904-1 924 Douglas' Theological Experience and Education: 1924- 193 5 Discovering Pragmatism at the University of Chicago The M.A. Thesis at McMaster Putting Christianity in Practice: The Entry Into Politics 3. T.C. Douglas' Historical Position in the Canadian Social Gospel Movement .............. 46 The Canadian Social Gospel Movement: 1880- 1930 The Social Gospellers and the C.C.F. T.C. Douglas, Radical Christianity and the Rise of Christian Realism 4. T.C. Douglas and The Pragrnatic Ethics of War .......... 59 Pragmatism and the Challenge of Pacifism A Change in Thinking The Defeat of Pacifism Within the C.C.F. Douglas and Ethical Pragmatism Similarities With Reinhold Niebuhr 5. Pragmatic Tendencies in T.C. Douglas' Theology ......... 82 Interpreting Sacred Text God, Faith and Christianity: Pragmatic Rationales T.C. Douglas and Charles Beard: Irony and History The Contradiction Behveen Social Gospel Theology and Pragmatism Conclusion ............................ 101 Bibliography ........................... 1 04 In this thesis, I will demonstrate that T.C. Douglas was a social gospeller who used the philosophical tradition of pragmatism to make social gospel theology relevant and viable. No one has ever said this before. In effect, 1 am atternpting to reveal the creative religious thinker who so impressed the theology faculty at the University of Chicago that they offered him a Chair in Social EtMcs. l Some scholarly investigations into the C.C.F. in Saskatchewan, using the non-philosophical or colloquial concept of pragmatisrn which denotes a perspective dominated by consideration of what is practical or feasible? have described these socialists as being "pragmatic" or "pragmaticaily ~riented".~However, no study has ever associated Douglas' theology with the Amencan pragmatic philosophical tradition) which included the pragmatic reflections of the theologian Reinhold ~iebuhr? . Lewis H. Thomas, ed., The of a Sou& : The Recmof T.C. Dow(Edmonton : The University. of Alberta. Press, 1982), 80,349-50. Roger Scruton, A Jhc- of (London : Pan Books, l982), 3 67-8. John W. Bennett, and Cynthia. Kmeger,. "Agrarian Pragmatism and Radical Politics," in S.M. Lipset, Agl.anan Som: The Cooptative Commonwealth . Federationwan: A a(Berkeley, Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1971,3rd edition), 347-363; The best statement of this Saskatchewan_Gouernment view. of the C.C.F.'s pragmatism in contained in Evelyn Eager, Politics (Saskatoon : Western Producer Prairie Books, 1%O), 1-1 2, 18, 43-46,49, 5 1,64-66,7 1,79-8 1. Some of these great pragmatists include such men of letters as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sanders Peirce, Ferdinand Canning Scott ShilIer, William James, Sidney Hook, John Dewey, the historia Charles Beard, the literary cntic Lionel Trilling and the sociologist C. Wright Milis. For cornrnentary on Ralph Waldo Emerson's pragmatism see Cornel West, Then Ev-y : A Gaahgy of Pw (Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, l989), 9-4 1 passim. For other views of Emerson that do not place him in the pragmatic tradition, ..but lend- some support to West's assertion see Harold Bloom, to Stevens (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1976), 235-66; Sacvan Bercovitch, The Amahin jeremiad (Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 1979), 182-205. The pragmatisrn of Charles Sanders Peirce, Ferdinand Canning Scott Shiller and William James is well discussed in Copleston, Aoryof PhilosoDhv, vol. 3 (New York : Doubleday, 1974) 304-35 1. The pragmatism of the philosopher Sidney Hook is well discussed in Milton R. Konvitz, "Sidney Hook: Philosopher of Freedom," in Con&mpmy 1 This thesis will ask the reader to look beyond Douglas' folksy rhetonc, tus bnllrant use or the prairie idiom, his highly successfûl political career and examine him as a theologian who reflected upon the importance of coupling acadernic pragmatism with the social gospel theology usuaily associated with the work of Walter Rauschenbusch. This is a wholly new interpretation of T.C. Douglas' theology. In 1981, two years before his death, the great historian of the Canadian plains, Lewis H. Thomas, despaired over the scholarly treatment of the religious ideas which shaped the motivations of the leaders of the early C.C.F..6 He maintained that sociologists and political scientists, while writing eloquently and cogently about the political ideologies orld : Essavs on the,ed. Paul. Kurtz . (New York: John Day, l968), 18. Sidney Hook, Out the Tw- (New York: Harper and Row, l987), 7-16. Aiso see Hook's works such as, Pmgmtum (Chicago : Open Court, 1927). Sidney Hook, Mm Dewey : An Intellectual Portrait (New York: John Day, 1939). The positions of the great pragmatic philosopher John Dewey are covered in George Dykhuizen, (Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 1973); Neil Coughlan, lhngbhn Dewey : AeEss;ay in (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973). The impact of Dewey's early Congregational Christian faith on his later philosophy is explored in Bruce Kuklick, Churchmen : Fr-ds ta JohnDewev (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1985), 230-53. The pragmatism of the