A Theology for the Social Gospel
In A Theology for the Social Gospel, Walter Rauschenbusch sets out a theological basis for the Social Gospel movement. He explores how key Christian doctrines apply in the Social Gospel, including sin and redemption, the atonement, the Holy Spirit, eschatology, and the Kingdom of God. Rauschenbusch argues that all society must be brought “under the law of Christ” and that the church should be a significant social factor.
Top Highlights
“The social gospel seeks to bring men under repentance for their collective sins and to create a more sensitive and more modern conscience. It calls on us for the faith of the old prophets who believed in the salvation of nations.” (Pages 5–6)
“The social movement is the most important ethical and spiritual movement in the modern world, and the social gospel is the response of the Christian consciousness to it.” (Pages 4–5)
“When a man goes up against hard work, conflict, loneliness, and the cross, it is his right to lean back on the Eternal and to draw from the silent reservoirs. But what we get thus is for use. Personal sanctification must serve the Kingdom of God. Any mystic experience which makes our fellow-men less real and our daily labour less noble, is dangerous religion. A religious experience is not Christian unless it binds us closer to men and commits us more deeply to the Kingdom of God.” (Page 105)
“When the progress of humanity creates new tasks, such as world-wide missions, or new problems, such as the social problem, theology must connect these with the old fundamentals of our faith and make them Christian tasks and problems.” (Page 7)
“God is the all-embracing source and exponent of the common life and good of mankind. When we submit to God, we submit to the supremacy of the common good. Salvation is the voluntary socializing of the soul.” (Pages 98–99)
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was a Baptist pastor and important figure in the Social Gospel movement. He co-founded The Brotherhood of the Kingdom, a group of thinkers advocating social change. His writings influenced Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and multiple social justice ministries.