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Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century: The Classic That Woke Up the Church
On the 100th anniversary of its publication, leading public theologians respond to the enduring relevance of this classic of faith and politics.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published August 7, 2007
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694 people want to read
About the author
Walter Rauschenbusch
42 books6 followersWalter Rauschenbusch was an American theologian and Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary.
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July 7, 2017
Walter Rauschenbusch had two jobs in 1907, when he wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis: one was as a professor of church history, and the other was as minister to a congregation of immigrants in Hell's Kitchen, New York City.
The combination led him to an incisive yet nuanced view of the church and its role in American society at a time of incredible deprivation and inequality. And makes him a singularly important person to read 110 years later. Consider these quotes:
If any Christian of the 20th century was a prophet, it was Walter Rauschenbusch, the man who provided the intellectual and theological backbone of the social gospel movement and liberal mainline Protestantism – two forces whose influence stretched from the Progressive Movement to the New Deal to the Great Society and all the way into the civil rights movement, but who saw their stars pale behind the bright glow of the conservative evangelical resurgence of the 1980s.
Rauschenbusch, speaking at the end of the Gilded Age, saw inequality and oppression of the poor not just as political or economic problems that indicted American society, but as religious ones that indicted the American church. Looking back from our own Second Gilded Age, his message seems more timely than ever: The church, he writes, has been captured by individualism in the form of free-market ideology on the one hand and evangelical apocalypticism on the other. As a result, it has lost the message of the Old Testament prophets and buried the vision of Jesus. The way forward is to regain a vision of collective life – one in which Christians fight for humanity as a whole and seek the redemption of society, not just individuals, from the sins of oppression, covetousness, materialism and consumerism and the systems that foster them.
Certainly, there are elements of Christianity and the Social Crisis that show their age. Rauschenbusch wrote a decade before the American entry into World War I; he died before the Great Depression, World War II or the nuclear arms race shattered the optimism of the Progressive and social gospel movements. As a result, he evinces a faith in the forward progress of humanity that is no longer in vogue. His defense of socialism would put even the staunchest Jacobin contributor to shame, and he has no complaints with the basic tenets of communism as it was understood at that time, 10 years before the Bolshevik Revolution collapsed into totalitarianism and horror.
That said, his call to the church to critique and reform the rapacious instincts of capitalism in the interest of serving the kingdom of God is one the church needs to hear today. As the decades pass and our society forgets the disasters that led to the welfare state and strong government oversight of banks and corporations, Rauschenbusch's voice becomes increasingly relevant.
Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century intersperses Rauschenbusch's original texts with essays by well known theologians and philosophers of our own day. It was published in 2007, the centennial of the original work – and, coincidentally, the year before the Great Recession proved yet again the need for the reforms Rauschenbusch was advocating. The essays do a good job of summarizing Rauschenbusch's arguments (he can get a little dense, especially since writing styles have moved on a bit over the past century), while also updating and critiquing them in the light of both the advances and disasters of the 20th century.
This work is a classic of Christian history and deserves to be better known and wider read than it is.
The combination led him to an incisive yet nuanced view of the church and its role in American society at a time of incredible deprivation and inequality. And makes him a singularly important person to read 110 years later. Consider these quotes:
p.5: The force that would have been competent to "seek justice and relieve the oppressed" has been consumed in weaving the tinsel fringes for the garment of religion.
p. 55: All human goodness must be social goodness. ... The highest type of goodness is that which puts freely at the service of the community all that a man is and can be. The highest type of badness is that which uses up the wealth and happiness and virtue of the community to please self.
p. 57: Pride disrupts society. Love equalizes. ... Instead of a society resting on coercion, exploitation and inequality, Jesus desired to found a society resting on love, service and equality.
p. 62: If the kingdom of God is the true human society, it is a fellowship of justice, equality and love. But it is hard to get riches with justice, to keep them with equality, and to spend them with love.
p. 183: No preventives against the formation of social classes written in a paper constitution can long save us from the iron wedge which capitalism drives through society.
p. 190: No nation can allow its natural sources of wealth to be owned by a limited and diminishing class without suffering political enslavement and poverty. Our system tends that way.
p. 201: Our social machinery is almost as blindly cruel as its steel machinery, and ... it runs over the life of a poor man with scarcely a quiver.
p. 215: If it were proposed to invent some social system in which covetousness would be deliberately fostered and intensified in human nature, what system could be devised which would excel our own for this purpose?
p. 228: Nations do not die by wealth, but by injustice.
p.272: Men are so afraid of religious vagaries, and so little afraid of religious stagnation. Yet the religion of Jesus has less to fear from sitting down to meat with publicans and sinners than from the immaculate isolation of the Pharisees. ... If the Church tries to confine itself to theology and the Bible, and refuses its larger mission to humanity, its theology will gradually become mythology and its Bible a closed book.
p. 283: It is true that any regeneration of society can come only through the act of God and the presence of Christ, but God is now acting, and Christ is now here.
pp. 300-01: The spiritual force of Christianity should be turned against the materialism and mammonism of our industrial and social order. ... Man is Christianized when he puts God before self; political economy will be Christianized when it puts man before wealth.
p. 332: The force of the religious spirit should be bent toward asserting the supremacy of life over property.Property exists to maintain and develop life. It is un-Christian to regard human life as a mere instrument for the production of wealth.
p. 336: The championship of social justice is almost the only way left open for a Christian nowadays to gain the crown of martyrdom. ... The only rival of God is mammon, and it is only when his sacred name is blasphemed that men throw the Christians to the lions.
p. 338: Everlasting pilgrimage toward the kingdom of God is better than contented stability in the tents of wickedness.
If any Christian of the 20th century was a prophet, it was Walter Rauschenbusch, the man who provided the intellectual and theological backbone of the social gospel movement and liberal mainline Protestantism – two forces whose influence stretched from the Progressive Movement to the New Deal to the Great Society and all the way into the civil rights movement, but who saw their stars pale behind the bright glow of the conservative evangelical resurgence of the 1980s.
Rauschenbusch, speaking at the end of the Gilded Age, saw inequality and oppression of the poor not just as political or economic problems that indicted American society, but as religious ones that indicted the American church. Looking back from our own Second Gilded Age, his message seems more timely than ever: The church, he writes, has been captured by individualism in the form of free-market ideology on the one hand and evangelical apocalypticism on the other. As a result, it has lost the message of the Old Testament prophets and buried the vision of Jesus. The way forward is to regain a vision of collective life – one in which Christians fight for humanity as a whole and seek the redemption of society, not just individuals, from the sins of oppression, covetousness, materialism and consumerism and the systems that foster them.
Certainly, there are elements of Christianity and the Social Crisis that show their age. Rauschenbusch wrote a decade before the American entry into World War I; he died before the Great Depression, World War II or the nuclear arms race shattered the optimism of the Progressive and social gospel movements. As a result, he evinces a faith in the forward progress of humanity that is no longer in vogue. His defense of socialism would put even the staunchest Jacobin contributor to shame, and he has no complaints with the basic tenets of communism as it was understood at that time, 10 years before the Bolshevik Revolution collapsed into totalitarianism and horror.
That said, his call to the church to critique and reform the rapacious instincts of capitalism in the interest of serving the kingdom of God is one the church needs to hear today. As the decades pass and our society forgets the disasters that led to the welfare state and strong government oversight of banks and corporations, Rauschenbusch's voice becomes increasingly relevant.
Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century intersperses Rauschenbusch's original texts with essays by well known theologians and philosophers of our own day. It was published in 2007, the centennial of the original work – and, coincidentally, the year before the Great Recession proved yet again the need for the reforms Rauschenbusch was advocating. The essays do a good job of summarizing Rauschenbusch's arguments (he can get a little dense, especially since writing styles have moved on a bit over the past century), while also updating and critiquing them in the light of both the advances and disasters of the 20th century.
This work is a classic of Christian history and deserves to be better known and wider read than it is.
February 23, 2012
An Allegory of the 19th Century
Walter Rauschenbusch begins the fifth chapter of Christianity and the Social Crisis with a poetic allegory of the 19th Century. Upon the end of that century, Rauschenbusch imagines the 19th century descending into “the vaulted chamber of the Past”, where previous centuries congregate to discuss the perils and pieties of their respective eras. With unprecedented material success accumulated in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the 19th Century metaphorically pats its own back. Interjecting, the 1st Century enquires whether or not the 19th Century has solved the problem of hunger. Hearing this question, the 19th Century lowers its head realizing that another hundred years have passed without any progress on the core issues of human suffering.
By this metaphor, Rauschenbusch pursues the notion of a social gospel. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century is an updated edition of Rauschenbusch’s original publication titled, Christianity and the Social Crisis which graced best-seller lists 100 years ago. Inventively, Walter’s grandson, Paul has included responses at the end of each chapter from influential theologians.
The Social Aspect of the Gospel
In Christianity and the Social Crisis, Walter Rauschenbusch begins with a reappraisal of the gospel. Since Christianity had for centuries emphasized the personal salvation of human beings, Rauschenbusch reassesses this principle citing the gospels.
While he refuses to completely ignore the future salvific aims of Jesus, Rauschenbusch asserts that Jesus carried revolutionary social aims. He writes,
“Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus. Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master” (42).
Historically speaking, the aims of Jesus were social in nature. When he spoke of the Kingdom of God, he did not mean a heavenly future exclusively; Jesus also situated the Kingdom of God in the present, an attainable society toward which disciples must work.
The Failure of the Church
Given this position, Rauschenbusch decries the classic self-serving and individualistic tendencies of the Church. Instead of focusing on social justice, the church looked inward. Rauschenbusch warns,
“The Church was able to offer the most enticing eternal rewards to those who gave to her. Thus she discouraged the giving of aid from man to man and encouraged the concentration of giving on herself. To some extent this systematized charity, and an ever larger percentage of the gifts never reached the poor” (152).
In other words, by linking eternal rewards to service of the church and by lining the church coffers with money instead of giving alms to the poor, the Church neglects the social aims of Jesus and replaces them with a hollow theology of personal salvation and increasing monetary power. Clearly, Rauschenbusch possesses a low view of the Church institution.
The Social Crisis
Without the church acting in accordance with the marginalized of society to pursue social reconstruction, the economic reality of the early 1900s is harsh, to put it nicely. With capitalists holding monopolies on private property, the majority of Americans carry the work of their hands as their only economic bargaining chip.
Throughout Christianity and the Social Crisis, Rauschenbusch illustrates many depressing scenarios for the economically powerless. Speaking in terms of which I am acutely aware, he notes,
“I can conceive of nothing so crushing to all proper pride as for a workingman to be out of work for weeks, offering his work and his body and soul at one place after the other, and to be told again and again that nobody has any use for such a man as he” (195).
Such words resonate in our current setting with many recent college graduates encountering the worst job market in decades.
The Church, the State, and the Social Utopia
With these harsh realities in mind, Rauschenbusch believes that an alignment of the church with social reconstruction offers opportunities to unlock a social utopia. A man of pristine optimism, Rauschenbusch suggests,
“Theology must become Christocentric; political economy must become anthropocentric. Man is Christianized when he puts God before self; political economy will be Christianized when it put man before wealth. Socialistic political economy does that” (301).
This view, later defined in Christian-communistic terms, suggests that the Church acts as a partner with other social institutions. Together, all can work toward the social utopia where people do not suffer from want or need.
What about Communal Evil?
Nevertheless, Rauschenbusch’s belief in the goodness of humanity blinds him to the possibility of communal badness. In a response to the final chapter of Christianity and the Social Crisis, Jim Wallis argues,
“It is fair to say that [Rauschenbusch] not only failed to anticipate any of [Communism’s sordid] history but also generally missed communism’s potential for collective evil. His almost utopian dreams for the future, at the height of the progressive era and at the beginning of the century, reveal a naïveté about human nature and sin that was characteristic of the time” (344).
Although many Evangelicals find Rauschenbusch’s Christology to teeter dangerously on the edge of heresy, I am not too concerned with Rauschenbusch’s views on the divine nature of Jesus. From a perspective at the dawn of a new century, the glaring mistake in Rauschenbusch’s ideology is his optimism. Given the opportunity to operate society from collective principles, the communist methodology to date has failed precisely because of humanity’s capability for collective evil.
The Crisis Continues
Walter Rauschenbusch recognizes the failure of the 19th century. Even though many hailed the wealth accumulated in that century, Rauschenbusch knows that further work must be done to accomplish the social aims of the gospel. With beautiful prose and timeless arguments (for the most part), Rauschenbusch recognizes the importance of social aims in Christianity. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century is a must read for all Christians and could even inform the opinions of those who do not hold Christian beliefs.
Originally published at http://wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.com
Walter Rauschenbusch begins the fifth chapter of Christianity and the Social Crisis with a poetic allegory of the 19th Century. Upon the end of that century, Rauschenbusch imagines the 19th century descending into “the vaulted chamber of the Past”, where previous centuries congregate to discuss the perils and pieties of their respective eras. With unprecedented material success accumulated in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the 19th Century metaphorically pats its own back. Interjecting, the 1st Century enquires whether or not the 19th Century has solved the problem of hunger. Hearing this question, the 19th Century lowers its head realizing that another hundred years have passed without any progress on the core issues of human suffering.
By this metaphor, Rauschenbusch pursues the notion of a social gospel. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century is an updated edition of Rauschenbusch’s original publication titled, Christianity and the Social Crisis which graced best-seller lists 100 years ago. Inventively, Walter’s grandson, Paul has included responses at the end of each chapter from influential theologians.
The Social Aspect of the Gospel
In Christianity and the Social Crisis, Walter Rauschenbusch begins with a reappraisal of the gospel. Since Christianity had for centuries emphasized the personal salvation of human beings, Rauschenbusch reassesses this principle citing the gospels.
While he refuses to completely ignore the future salvific aims of Jesus, Rauschenbusch asserts that Jesus carried revolutionary social aims. He writes,
“Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus. Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master” (42).
Historically speaking, the aims of Jesus were social in nature. When he spoke of the Kingdom of God, he did not mean a heavenly future exclusively; Jesus also situated the Kingdom of God in the present, an attainable society toward which disciples must work.
The Failure of the Church
Given this position, Rauschenbusch decries the classic self-serving and individualistic tendencies of the Church. Instead of focusing on social justice, the church looked inward. Rauschenbusch warns,
“The Church was able to offer the most enticing eternal rewards to those who gave to her. Thus she discouraged the giving of aid from man to man and encouraged the concentration of giving on herself. To some extent this systematized charity, and an ever larger percentage of the gifts never reached the poor” (152).
In other words, by linking eternal rewards to service of the church and by lining the church coffers with money instead of giving alms to the poor, the Church neglects the social aims of Jesus and replaces them with a hollow theology of personal salvation and increasing monetary power. Clearly, Rauschenbusch possesses a low view of the Church institution.
The Social Crisis
Without the church acting in accordance with the marginalized of society to pursue social reconstruction, the economic reality of the early 1900s is harsh, to put it nicely. With capitalists holding monopolies on private property, the majority of Americans carry the work of their hands as their only economic bargaining chip.
Throughout Christianity and the Social Crisis, Rauschenbusch illustrates many depressing scenarios for the economically powerless. Speaking in terms of which I am acutely aware, he notes,
“I can conceive of nothing so crushing to all proper pride as for a workingman to be out of work for weeks, offering his work and his body and soul at one place after the other, and to be told again and again that nobody has any use for such a man as he” (195).
Such words resonate in our current setting with many recent college graduates encountering the worst job market in decades.
The Church, the State, and the Social Utopia
With these harsh realities in mind, Rauschenbusch believes that an alignment of the church with social reconstruction offers opportunities to unlock a social utopia. A man of pristine optimism, Rauschenbusch suggests,
“Theology must become Christocentric; political economy must become anthropocentric. Man is Christianized when he puts God before self; political economy will be Christianized when it put man before wealth. Socialistic political economy does that” (301).
This view, later defined in Christian-communistic terms, suggests that the Church acts as a partner with other social institutions. Together, all can work toward the social utopia where people do not suffer from want or need.
What about Communal Evil?
Nevertheless, Rauschenbusch’s belief in the goodness of humanity blinds him to the possibility of communal badness. In a response to the final chapter of Christianity and the Social Crisis, Jim Wallis argues,
“It is fair to say that [Rauschenbusch] not only failed to anticipate any of [Communism’s sordid] history but also generally missed communism’s potential for collective evil. His almost utopian dreams for the future, at the height of the progressive era and at the beginning of the century, reveal a naïveté about human nature and sin that was characteristic of the time” (344).
Although many Evangelicals find Rauschenbusch’s Christology to teeter dangerously on the edge of heresy, I am not too concerned with Rauschenbusch’s views on the divine nature of Jesus. From a perspective at the dawn of a new century, the glaring mistake in Rauschenbusch’s ideology is his optimism. Given the opportunity to operate society from collective principles, the communist methodology to date has failed precisely because of humanity’s capability for collective evil.
The Crisis Continues
Walter Rauschenbusch recognizes the failure of the 19th century. Even though many hailed the wealth accumulated in that century, Rauschenbusch knows that further work must be done to accomplish the social aims of the gospel. With beautiful prose and timeless arguments (for the most part), Rauschenbusch recognizes the importance of social aims in Christianity. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century is a must read for all Christians and could even inform the opinions of those who do not hold Christian beliefs.
Originally published at http://wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.com
June 14, 2014
An amazing social re-framing of the relationship between church and society throughout history. Many of Rauschenbusch's insights have gut-punching relevance even over 100 years after he wrote them.
(Note-- I didn't read the edition with additional essays, unfortunately. I'm rocking the Harper Torchbooks 1964 edition.)
Rauschenbusch was a visionary socialist before socialism became taboo through the real and perceived traumas of the 20th century. He here re-paints the entire history of Judaeo-Christian religion, from the Old Testament Prophets to today, as an effort to transform society into the Kingdom of God-- a kingdom governed by principles of justice, human dignity, and prosperity for all people. He believed that society was preparing to blossom into this Christian socialistic vision, an optimism that aches the heart of anyone reading on the other side of 2.5 world wars. A vision delayed is not a vision disproved, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to adopt his optimism with so many crises on the horizon. Though I'm moving toward the Kingdom of God a bit more tentatively, I feel overwhelmingly called and qualified to do so after reading Rauschenbusch's words.
A few favorite quotes:
"We have seen that the religion of the prophets was not the quiet devoutness of private religion. They lived in the open air of natural life. Every heart-beat of their nation was registered in the pulse-throb of the prophets. They made the history of their nation, but in turn the history of their nation made them. They looked open-eyed at the events about them and turned to the inner voice of God to interpret what they saw. They went to school with a living God who was then at work in the world, and not with a God who had acted long ago and put it down in a book." (P. 23)
"Ascetic Christianity called the world evil and left it. Humanity is waiting for a revolutionary Christianity which will call the world evil and change it." (P. 91)
"To say that Christianity in the past has largely followed alien influences and has missed its greatest mission, is not to condemn the men of the past. They followed the light they had and threw their lives into the pursuit of that light with an ardor that puts us to shame. If I had known St. Francis, I hope I should have had grace enough to become a Franciscan friar and serve Lady Poverty. If destiny had put me on the chair of St. Peter, I hope I should have made a good fight against the encroachments of the secular power on the sacred heritage of Christ and the Vicar of Christ. But being a twentieth-century Christian, I hope I shall do nothing of the kind." (200-201)
"Single cases of unhappines are inevitable in our frail human life; but where there are millions of them, all running along well-defined grooves, reducible to certain laws, then this misery is not an individual, but a social matter, due to causes in the structure of our society and curable only by social reconstruction." (P. 246)
"It is true that any regeneration of society can come only through the act of God and the presence of Christ; but God is now acting, and Christ is now here." (P. 346)
"The championship of social justice is almost the only way left open to a Christian nowadays to gain the crown of martyrdom. Theological heretics are rarely persecuted now. The only rival of God is mammon, and it is only when his sacred name is blasphemed that men throw the Christians to the lions." (P. 418)
Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the Social Crisis. Ed. Robert D. Cross. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964.
(Note-- I didn't read the edition with additional essays, unfortunately. I'm rocking the Harper Torchbooks 1964 edition.)
Rauschenbusch was a visionary socialist before socialism became taboo through the real and perceived traumas of the 20th century. He here re-paints the entire history of Judaeo-Christian religion, from the Old Testament Prophets to today, as an effort to transform society into the Kingdom of God-- a kingdom governed by principles of justice, human dignity, and prosperity for all people. He believed that society was preparing to blossom into this Christian socialistic vision, an optimism that aches the heart of anyone reading on the other side of 2.5 world wars. A vision delayed is not a vision disproved, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to adopt his optimism with so many crises on the horizon. Though I'm moving toward the Kingdom of God a bit more tentatively, I feel overwhelmingly called and qualified to do so after reading Rauschenbusch's words.
A few favorite quotes:
"We have seen that the religion of the prophets was not the quiet devoutness of private religion. They lived in the open air of natural life. Every heart-beat of their nation was registered in the pulse-throb of the prophets. They made the history of their nation, but in turn the history of their nation made them. They looked open-eyed at the events about them and turned to the inner voice of God to interpret what they saw. They went to school with a living God who was then at work in the world, and not with a God who had acted long ago and put it down in a book." (P. 23)
"Ascetic Christianity called the world evil and left it. Humanity is waiting for a revolutionary Christianity which will call the world evil and change it." (P. 91)
"To say that Christianity in the past has largely followed alien influences and has missed its greatest mission, is not to condemn the men of the past. They followed the light they had and threw their lives into the pursuit of that light with an ardor that puts us to shame. If I had known St. Francis, I hope I should have had grace enough to become a Franciscan friar and serve Lady Poverty. If destiny had put me on the chair of St. Peter, I hope I should have made a good fight against the encroachments of the secular power on the sacred heritage of Christ and the Vicar of Christ. But being a twentieth-century Christian, I hope I shall do nothing of the kind." (200-201)
"Single cases of unhappines are inevitable in our frail human life; but where there are millions of them, all running along well-defined grooves, reducible to certain laws, then this misery is not an individual, but a social matter, due to causes in the structure of our society and curable only by social reconstruction." (P. 246)
"It is true that any regeneration of society can come only through the act of God and the presence of Christ; but God is now acting, and Christ is now here." (P. 346)
"The championship of social justice is almost the only way left open to a Christian nowadays to gain the crown of martyrdom. Theological heretics are rarely persecuted now. The only rival of God is mammon, and it is only when his sacred name is blasphemed that men throw the Christians to the lions." (P. 418)
Rauschenbusch, Walter. Christianity and the Social Crisis. Ed. Robert D. Cross. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964.
July 8, 2021
While reading a book on Martin Luther King I became aware of Walter Rauschenbush, a Rochester native son who studied and later taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary now known as the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. King was a graduate of Crozer and deeply influenced by Rauschenbush writings. I did a little research on him and came across his seminal work “Christianity and the Social Crisis” published in 1907. This edition is the 100th anniversary edition edited with some commentary by his great grandson.
Rauschenbusch, was pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in “Hell's Kitchen”, New York. He saw the working and living conditions of his congregants up close and personal. It was those experiences that led him to develop his thinking and write this book, which would influence generations of religious thinkers and activists. Rauschenbusch railed against what he regarded as the selfishness of pure capitalism and promoted the creation of labor unions and cooperative economics to help lift his congregants out of poverty. In the introduction you can feel in these words how the living conditions of his congregants impacted him: “I have written this book to discharge a debt. For eleven years I was pastor among the working people on the West Side of New York City.... I have never ceased to feel that I owe help to the plain people who were my friends. If this book in some far-off way helps to ease the pressure that bears them down and increases the forces that bear them up, I shall meet the Master of my life with better confidence.”
Rauschenbusch argued that the individualistic gospel has made sinfulness of the individual clear, but it has not shed light on institutionalized sinfulness: “It has not evoked faith in the will and power of God to redeem the permanent institutions of human society from their inherited guilt of oppression and extortion.” It was this ideology would be inherited by liberation theologians and civil rights advocates like King, John Lewis and others.
Advocates of the movement interpreted the kingdom of God as requiring social as well as individual salvation and sought the betterment of industrialized society through application of the biblical principles of charity and justice. Reforms—including the abolition of child labor, a shorter workweek, a living wage, and factory regulation—constituted the Social Gospel’s most prominent concerns.
I feel some kinship with Rauschenbusch. I too was called to minister in the ghettos of NYC, not in Hell’s Kitchen but in Jersey City and Brooklyn. I saw to some degree some of the things described by Rauschenbusch among the Latino immigrants in NYC in the late 70’s. Although separated by 60+ years the conditions among the poor remained crushing and heartbreaking. Rauschenbusch was forever changed as was I.
Quotes:
“Western civilization is passing through a social revolution unparalleled in history for scope and power. Its coming was inevitable. The religious, political, and intellectual revolutions of the past five centuries, which together created the modern world, necessarily had to culminate in an economic and social revolution such as is now upon us.”
“The Church, the organized expression of the religious life of the past, is one of the most potent institutions and forces in Western civilization. Its favor and moral influence are wooed by all parties. It cannot help throwing its immense weight on one side or the other. If it tries not to act, it thereby acts; and in any case its choice will be decisive for its own future.”
“The question has, in fact, been discussed frequently and earnestly, but it is plain to any thoughtful observer that the common mind of the Christian Church in America has not begun to arrive at any solid convictions or any permanent basis of action. The conscience of Christendom is halting and groping, perplexed by contradicting voices, still poorly informed on essential questions, justly reluctant to part with the treasured maxims of the past, and yet conscious of the imperious call of the future.”
“No man shares his life with God whose religion does not flow out, naturally and without effort, into all relations of his life and reconstructs everything that it touches. Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus. Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master.”
“The prophets were the heralds of the fundamental truth that religion and ethics are inseparable, and that ethical conduct is the supreme and sufficient religious act. If that principle had been fully adopted in our religious life, it would have turned the full force of the religious impulse into the creation of right moral conduct and would have made the unchecked growth and accumulation of injustice impossible.”
“The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God. …I have never met with any previous attempt to give a satisfactory historical explanation of this failure.“
Rauschenbusch, was pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in “Hell's Kitchen”, New York. He saw the working and living conditions of his congregants up close and personal. It was those experiences that led him to develop his thinking and write this book, which would influence generations of religious thinkers and activists. Rauschenbusch railed against what he regarded as the selfishness of pure capitalism and promoted the creation of labor unions and cooperative economics to help lift his congregants out of poverty. In the introduction you can feel in these words how the living conditions of his congregants impacted him: “I have written this book to discharge a debt. For eleven years I was pastor among the working people on the West Side of New York City.... I have never ceased to feel that I owe help to the plain people who were my friends. If this book in some far-off way helps to ease the pressure that bears them down and increases the forces that bear them up, I shall meet the Master of my life with better confidence.”
Rauschenbusch argued that the individualistic gospel has made sinfulness of the individual clear, but it has not shed light on institutionalized sinfulness: “It has not evoked faith in the will and power of God to redeem the permanent institutions of human society from their inherited guilt of oppression and extortion.” It was this ideology would be inherited by liberation theologians and civil rights advocates like King, John Lewis and others.
Advocates of the movement interpreted the kingdom of God as requiring social as well as individual salvation and sought the betterment of industrialized society through application of the biblical principles of charity and justice. Reforms—including the abolition of child labor, a shorter workweek, a living wage, and factory regulation—constituted the Social Gospel’s most prominent concerns.
I feel some kinship with Rauschenbusch. I too was called to minister in the ghettos of NYC, not in Hell’s Kitchen but in Jersey City and Brooklyn. I saw to some degree some of the things described by Rauschenbusch among the Latino immigrants in NYC in the late 70’s. Although separated by 60+ years the conditions among the poor remained crushing and heartbreaking. Rauschenbusch was forever changed as was I.
Quotes:
“Western civilization is passing through a social revolution unparalleled in history for scope and power. Its coming was inevitable. The religious, political, and intellectual revolutions of the past five centuries, which together created the modern world, necessarily had to culminate in an economic and social revolution such as is now upon us.”
“The Church, the organized expression of the religious life of the past, is one of the most potent institutions and forces in Western civilization. Its favor and moral influence are wooed by all parties. It cannot help throwing its immense weight on one side or the other. If it tries not to act, it thereby acts; and in any case its choice will be decisive for its own future.”
“The question has, in fact, been discussed frequently and earnestly, but it is plain to any thoughtful observer that the common mind of the Christian Church in America has not begun to arrive at any solid convictions or any permanent basis of action. The conscience of Christendom is halting and groping, perplexed by contradicting voices, still poorly informed on essential questions, justly reluctant to part with the treasured maxims of the past, and yet conscious of the imperious call of the future.”
“No man shares his life with God whose religion does not flow out, naturally and without effort, into all relations of his life and reconstructs everything that it touches. Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus. Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master.”
“The prophets were the heralds of the fundamental truth that religion and ethics are inseparable, and that ethical conduct is the supreme and sufficient religious act. If that principle had been fully adopted in our religious life, it would have turned the full force of the religious impulse into the creation of right moral conduct and would have made the unchecked growth and accumulation of injustice impossible.”
“The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God. …I have never met with any previous attempt to give a satisfactory historical explanation of this failure.“
May 28, 2020
Raushenbusch challenges the notion that Christianity is a private religious experience and encourages the Church and Christiandom to enact social change through the ethical teachings of Jesus and the prophets. This book is immensely relevant today; in many cases dates and years can be switched and the story reads the same over a century later, only this time Christianity does not hold the same sway over society it did at the beginning of the 20th century. As a 21st century reader, the book is equal parts encouraging and challenging. After reading, I can’t decide whether to view the text as a manifesto, inspiring a call to action to continue the work of the Kingdom of God, or as an unsettling omen, telling of a future which should have been but never was.
December 21, 2025
Rauschenbusch's manifesto on what should be done regarding the Christian church and the capitalistic society it exists in serves to give the reader a great view of what proletarian Christianity can look like. I personally found this book by Rauschenbusch to be much more clear in its arguments and claims than his later book Christianizing The Social order. In this book Rauschenbusch makes a very clear argument for Christian socialism with no fluff language. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what Christian socialism from a specifically American perspective would look like.
May 5, 2020
Rauschenbusch is timeless. Even though written in 1907, it is as applicable today as it was a century ago.
I haven’t connected this profoundly with a theologian in a very long time. It’s no wonder he was so influential on the theology of Marin Luther King, Jr.
This is the 100th Anniversary Edition and contains essays by contemporary theologians at the end of each chapter. These essays are, by no means, worth getting this edition over a previous edition. When compared to the original work of Rauschenbusch, they seen rather milquetoast.
I haven’t connected this profoundly with a theologian in a very long time. It’s no wonder he was so influential on the theology of Marin Luther King, Jr.
This is the 100th Anniversary Edition and contains essays by contemporary theologians at the end of each chapter. These essays are, by no means, worth getting this edition over a previous edition. When compared to the original work of Rauschenbusch, they seen rather milquetoast.
March 11, 2021
A very well-written and fanciful account of optimistic idealism. Rauschenbusch has a clear vision for the world and proves that he seeks to shape a society that protects the vulnerable. But in his idealism, he often loses a grip on reality and proposes reforms of such extremity that they fall into the realm of clear impossibility. A thought-provoking read, but overlooks the realities of society and men’s inherent sin that renders many of his points irrelevant not only in our day but in his
June 3, 2021
Indispensable reading. Sometimes naive but always morally forceful and compelling, and beautifully written, this book is a needed challenge to a lazy Christian ethos that abdicates stewardship over our social life.
December 3, 2019
It has some good history but it doesn't tell me anything I haven't heard before and I don't think his views are right.
June 21, 2023
Definitely a long, arduous, boring read. Much too wordy. Could have made the book half the length without all the unnecessary descriptions.
September 2, 2014
In my college education, the Social Gospel was an negative phrase spoken in criticism of anyone that cared more for social justice than soul-saving, an unhelpful dichotomy as I now understand it. When the Social Gospel was studied very briefly in seminary, it was quickly dismissed as being un-biblical, possessing an obvious triumphal modernism, and implicit Marxism.
If there is one impression that stands out from Rauschenbusch's classic is that this man cannot be pigeon holed. This work displays a passionate yet complex and careful mind, masterfully versed in the biblical studies, philosophy, sociology, and politics of his day. Each chapter is as much a sermon as it is a lecture, practical as much as philosophical, poetic as much as prose. In one section he is interpreting Scripture with precise reading, the next he is giving charts and tables of expenses and sociological figures, and the next he is giving a powerful speech appealing to his audience.
Raushenbusch displays the characteristic historical criticism of his day, which is probably where I was least comfortable with his proposal. He lays it on a bit thick, pitting Gospels against Pauline literature, law against prophets, and even social prophets against apocalyptic prophets. While evangelicalism is only now coming to grips with the findings of historical criticism, Raushenbusch could have gotten way more support in his own day if he demonstrated his arguments with more canonical unity.
His over all thesis about Christianizing the social order has given a lot to think about. I think he is correct to point out that Jesus preached an immanent kingdom of social redemption, but the Anabaptist in me is wary of imposing redemptive practices on people that do not hold to them in faith. Also, with the fact that the Social Gospel movement fizzling out by the 50's, we must ask how sustainable its strategy is. When Rauschenbusch considers why the Social Gospel did not prevail in the early centuries, he offers heavy handed criticisms. Is such blame casting appropriate?
Regardless of the success of the movement, this work reveals Rauschenbusch to have a true prophet's heart and mind: passionate for God, passionate for the poor and the broken.
If there is one impression that stands out from Rauschenbusch's classic is that this man cannot be pigeon holed. This work displays a passionate yet complex and careful mind, masterfully versed in the biblical studies, philosophy, sociology, and politics of his day. Each chapter is as much a sermon as it is a lecture, practical as much as philosophical, poetic as much as prose. In one section he is interpreting Scripture with precise reading, the next he is giving charts and tables of expenses and sociological figures, and the next he is giving a powerful speech appealing to his audience.
Raushenbusch displays the characteristic historical criticism of his day, which is probably where I was least comfortable with his proposal. He lays it on a bit thick, pitting Gospels against Pauline literature, law against prophets, and even social prophets against apocalyptic prophets. While evangelicalism is only now coming to grips with the findings of historical criticism, Raushenbusch could have gotten way more support in his own day if he demonstrated his arguments with more canonical unity.
His over all thesis about Christianizing the social order has given a lot to think about. I think he is correct to point out that Jesus preached an immanent kingdom of social redemption, but the Anabaptist in me is wary of imposing redemptive practices on people that do not hold to them in faith. Also, with the fact that the Social Gospel movement fizzling out by the 50's, we must ask how sustainable its strategy is. When Rauschenbusch considers why the Social Gospel did not prevail in the early centuries, he offers heavy handed criticisms. Is such blame casting appropriate?
Regardless of the success of the movement, this work reveals Rauschenbusch to have a true prophet's heart and mind: passionate for God, passionate for the poor and the broken.
February 29, 2016
This was a challenging read full of ups and downs. I had not ventured much into strong liberal theology until now and this book left me quite informed. If you are willing to hear Rauschenbusch's distaste for Millenialism or Apocalypticism, Christian individualism or asceticism, then you will tap into an amazing call to challenge the injustice of our time. Although this collection of essays is from 1907, I continuously mistook the book as contemporary due to his accurate disections of today's societal downfalls. The issues of overcrowding the populace, unfair wages, breaking worker's morale, physical decline of the people and food system, growing inequality, crumbling of democracy, tainting of morals, and undermining of the family all had an eerie present-day warning attached to this 19th century theologian. If you don't mind the academic tone, this book will point out all the opportunities we have to take our faith from simply "waiting to leave" to revolutionizing the present earth for the Kingdom of God. Enjoy.
February 9, 2008
I'm so glad I came across Walter Rauschenbusch in my Baptist History textbook. Sadly, the social gospel caught on about as much as unsweet tea did in the early part of the nineteenth century. Fortunately a good man like Rauschenbusch didn't let that stop him, nor did he let the nay-sayers in the north (and there were many) dampen his spirit or his mission, either.
Both of these things - his spirit and his mission - are needed more than ever today to a new breed of ministers and laity with the very same challenges and a whole host of new ones, in addition to a lack of courage, conviction and drive. I would encourage anyone to give this book a read, be they sociologist or be they Christian.
Both of these things - his spirit and his mission - are needed more than ever today to a new breed of ministers and laity with the very same challenges and a whole host of new ones, in addition to a lack of courage, conviction and drive. I would encourage anyone to give this book a read, be they sociologist or be they Christian.
December 18, 2010
First published in 1907, Rauschenbusch's plea is for a reformed Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and emphasizing not just individual conversion but also conversion of society as a whole in line with the ideals of the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus spoke so much. He calls for a spirit of Christian empathy for the poor and lower classes in order to bring about an equality envisioned by the early church. It's a passionate book, geared toward the excesses of the Gilded Age but applicable today. This 2007 edition includes commentary and response by leading Christian theorists such as Campolo and Wallis.
February 5, 2025
A great read about the history and sweep of Protestantism in the early 20th century. Rauschenbusch not only offers an interesting historical perspective on the Bible (he focuses on the prophetic aspect of calling society to bring justice) he motivates his readers to take action and bring change in their communities. For anyone interested in a history or summation of the Social Gospel, this is a must read.
Want to read
August 13, 2011This 1907 American book is on my "to-read" list after James Calvin Davis in In Defense of Civility said it "outsold every other religious text for a three-year period."
August 12, 2014
An one hundred old classic on the importance of social concern and the church that is as relevant today as it was when published in 1907. Following the example of Jesus and the tradition of the social prophets of the Old Testament, Rauschenbush clearly challenges the church to step into the gap and in doing so, bring need change to our society.
January 16, 2022
The book was written in 1907 and this is the updated version with comments from Pastors or Theologians. I really enjoyed Rauschenbusch's perspective that the church needs to be aware of the social issues that are around us. Several of the chapters felt like they could have been written for exactly what is happening today.
March 7, 2021
It is amazing to find a book on 'spirituality' or moral conduct, or to shift our paradigm of thought and provoke us to action, even knowing that it was written more 100 years ago. The view points and messages inside this work are still relevant to current times.
February 2, 2016
Flaws and all, this is a classic for a reason. Not only a compelling and prophetic work, but a blast to read: his reading of the Gospels was ahead of his time, and there's a quotable line on every page. You can't help but love the man and his vision.
Want to read
March 24, 2016Added by Barbara.
This is the classic call to social justice in Christianity published in 1907 and updated for now. While the modern additions probably don't exceed 50 pages, the book is interesting both historically and as a means to put our drive for social justice into perspective.
This is the classic call to social justice in Christianity published in 1907 and updated for now. While the modern additions probably don't exceed 50 pages, the book is interesting both historically and as a means to put our drive for social justice into perspective.
Want to read
December 27, 2008read in the 80's
this is a new edition:LIBRARY pp (184) 185 186 207 220
this is a new edition:LIBRARY pp (184) 185 186 207 220
May 28, 2010
UGH!!!
July 21, 2012
Insightful, brilliant analysis, but hard to stay with.
August 2, 2014
Just absolutely fantastic reflections on contemporary society and Walter Rauschenbusch. The Church would be forever grateful to heed the lessons of Christ energized by Walter.
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