71-12,607 PAYNE, Robert Austin, 1932- AN EVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE: A STUDY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1970 Speech University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE AN EVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE: A STUDY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ROBERT AUSTIN PAYNE Norman, Oklahoma 1970 AN EVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE; A STUDY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM APPROVED BY / ? / i ----- DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to express appreciation to the following individuals for their contributions to this study. Dr. William R. Brown has guided this study to its completion. Dr. William R. Carmack, Dr. Brooks Hill, and Dr. David Levy, also members of the committee, made helpful suggestions concerning the study. Jo Ann Payne, the writer's wife, and Rod, Anne, and Jeff Payne, his children, deserve a special word of appreciation for their patience and consideration during the many months required to complete this project. Mr. Edward Starr, Curator of the American Baptist Historical Society, was kind enough to permit the writer to examine the Rauschenbusch Papers, the Brotherhood of the Kingdom documents, and the Nathaniel Schmidt File, all of which were invaluable materials for this study. Finally, Mrs. Sharon Lovelace Bottoms served the writer as personal secretary during most of the months involved in this project and assisted with the recording of material as it was gathered by the writer. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................... ill Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1 Scope of the Study Justification for the Study Methodology Plan of the Study II. THE SOCIAL GOSPEL: MATRIX OF MOVEMENTS.................. 12 Introduction The Social Gospel Defined Antecedents of the Social Gospel Basic Tenets of the Social Gospel Range of Positions within the Social Gospel Effect on Organizational Life . Summary and Evaluation III. THE HISTORY OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT: THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE K I N G D O M ........................................... 45 Introduction The Movement's Inception The Movement's Organization The Movement's Stabilization The Movement's Decline Summary IV. r he t o r i c of THE EARLY PERIOD........................... Introduction Early Preaching The Baptist Congress For the Right Other Rhetorical Channels V. DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEOLOGY: THE CONCEPT OF THE KINGDOM OF G O D ................................................. Importance of Ideology Development of Ideology through In-group Interaction The Movement's Ideology Summary of the Movement's Ideology iv VI. STRATEGY: I. DEVELOPMENT OF GROUP COHESION .......... 132 Introduction Extending the Movement Achieving Cohesion Summary VII. STRATEGY: II. EVOLUTIONARY REFORMATION ............... 156 Introduction Ecclesiastical Reformation Social Reformation Channels of Communication Summary VIII. CONCLUSION........................................... 202 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................. 208 AN EVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE: A STUDY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION More than thirty years ago, Donald C. Bryant declared that it had been "the fault of history . and especially . of the history of literature and oratory, to let the study of figures obscure or blot out the study of forces and social movements. Although this imbalance has persisted to some extent, a number of movement studies have appeared 2 in the last three decades. The present study hopefully adds to rhetorical-movement literature in two ways, methodologically and sub­ stantively, as it considers a significant social movement. Scope of the Study This is a study of the Brotherhood of the Kingdom, one of many 1 Donald C. Bryant, "Some Problems of Scope and Method in Rhe­ torical Scholarship," Quarterly Journal of Speech, XXIII (April, 1937), 187-88. 2 See, especially, Leland M. Griffin, "The Antimasonic Persuasion: A Study of Public Address in the American Antimasonic Movement" (unpub­ lished Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1950); "The Rhetoric of Historical Movements," Quarterly Journal of Speech, XXXVIII (April, 1952), 184-88; and "The Rhetorical Structure of the Antimasonic Move­ ment," in Donald C. Bryant (ed.). The Rhetorical Idiom: Essays in Rhetoric, Oratory. Language, and Drama (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell Univer­ sity Press, 1958), pp. 145-59. 2 movements which arose in the last decade of the nineteenth century in response to the social crisis in America and to the appeal of the social gospel. Limiting the study to the Brotherhood of the Kingdom is desir­ able for several reasons. First, the term "social gospel movement" lacks definition. Alan Hamilton suggests that "the social gospel does not represent a defined creed, organization or program. It is rather . 'an attitude and a conviction.'" Charles Price Johnson found that the social gospel was not an organized movement "in the sense of having -a definite organon." He contends that "a study of social gospel pro­ nouncements will reveal every type of thought from the most conservative 2 to the extremist liberal." Thus, a focus on one specific organization permits an intensive study of its thought. Second, the limitation is necessary because of the time period a more inclusive study must cover. Two notable histories provide chronicles of the social gospel from 1865 to 1940.^ Other writers indicate that, by some definition, a social gospel is coterminous with Christianity.'^ Lacking more specific time boundaries, a study of the social gospel's Alan H. Hamilton, "The Social Gospel," Bibliotheca Sacra, CVII (April-June, 1950), 212; the secondary quotation is from Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity IV, 405. Charles Price Johnson, "Southern Baptists and the Social Gospel Movement" (unpublished Th.D. dissertation. Southwestern Baptist Theologi­ cal Seminary, 1948), p. iv. 3 Charles Howard Hopkins, The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865-1915, Yale Studies in Religious Education (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940); and Paul A. Carter, The Decline and Revival of the Social Gospel: Social and Political Liberalism in American Protes­ tant Churches, 1920-1940 (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1954). ^Chester Charlton McCown, The Genesis of the Social Gospel (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929), p. 5. 3 rhetoric becomes virtually impossible. Thus, the present study is limited to the period from 1886 to 1917, with the concentration on the years from 1892 to 1912. The years prior to 1892 mark the germination period of the movement, and the years after 1912 mark its decline. A third reason for the limitation of this study is the writer's opinion that the Brotherhood of the Kingdom may be considered a microcosm of social Christianity. Therefore, theoretically, a study of the rhetor­ ical approach of the Brotherhood should shed light on the rhetoric of social Christianity generally. Brotherhood membership included men such as William Newton Clarke, who was in the vanguard of theological liberalism in America, but who demonstrated little interest in direct social action; Leighton Williams and Walter Rauschenbusch, who were progressives both in theology and social theory; and Nathaniel Schmidt and William Dwight Porter Bliss, who were representatives of a more radical element in the social gospel. Fourth, the Brotherhood is a useful movement for study because of the abundance of its rhetorical remains, including both in-group and out-group rhetoric. The plethora of rhetorical materials necessitates one further limitation. Although any discourse which casts light on the rhetorical patterns of the movement has been used, the study em­ phasizes the rhetoric of those men whom history has revealed to be the leaders of the movement. Consequently, Walter Rauschenbusch, Leighton Williams, Nathaniel Schmidt, Samuel Zane Batten, William Newton Clarke, and George Dana Boardman are the central figures in this study. Two other prominent social gospel personalities played peripheral roles in the Brotherhood. Bliss was really more a social activist than the 4 other Brothers. His own Christian Socialist movement demanded so much of his time that he did not become a prominent figure in the Brotherhood. Josiah Strong, on the other hand, affirmed a social gospel more com­ patible with the Brotherhood's. Justification for the Study Both church and cultural historians have long recognized the importance of the social gospel in American thought.^ Professor Schneider argued that the social gospel was "the most far-reaching and apparently 2 permanent moral reconstruction in American Religion." Thus, a study of the social gospel is warranted because of the historical significance of the phenomenon. A study of the Brotherhood is justified because it is a definable movement within the social gospel, and thus amenable to study. The Brothers experienced discontent with society, shared their discontent in verbal interaction, developed norms and role relationships, formalized an ideology, and determined strategies for effecting desired changes. A second justification for this study is, simply, that no other rhetorical studies of this movement have been done,