Social Gospel

The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant intellectual movement that was in the late 19th century and early 20th century the most prominent. The Principles of Social Gospels serve today as an inspiration for younger movements such as Christians Against Poverty. The movement applies Christian principles to social issues, particularly on poverty, alcoholism, crime, ethnic conflicts, precarious neighborhoods, hygiene, educational shortcomings and the danger of war.

Theology

Theologically speaking, the leaders of the Social Gospel movement were usually postmillenaristisch. That is, they believed that the coming of the Lord would not likely happen, as that humanity would get rid of their social problems through their own efforts. In general, they therefore rejected the dominant in the U.S. southern states prämillenaristische theology, according to which the re- arrival of the Lord was imminent, why Christians should focus on it and not about social problems. Your millenarian views are similar to those of the Christian Reconstructionist, but followers of the social gospel, whereas Reconstructionists tend to be politically and religiously fundamentalist libertarian views tend to the left and theologically liberal.

Social Gospel in the U.S.

The Social Gospel was a driving force in much of Protestant America. This comes in the Presbyterian Book of Order ( 1910) expressed:

"The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. "

Beginning of the 20th century, many Americans were shocked by the poverty and low standard of living in the slums. The social gospel movement provided for them a religious justification for actions which had the aim of eradicating this evil. Activists of the Social Gospel movement hoped to take measures to improve public health and the introduction of compulsory education (skills and talents are encouraged ) would also contribute to improving the moral standards of disadvantaged sections of society.

List of prominent proponents of the Social Gospel

  • Dorothy Day, Roman Catholic U.S. citizen, active in the 1940s, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
  • Tommy Douglas, Canadian, Baptist pastor, politician of the New Democratic Party and at times Prime Minister of Saskatchewan, active from the 1930s to the 1960s
  • Diane Drufenbrock, nun and candidate of the Socialist Party USA for the vice-presidency (1980 )
  • Washington Gladden, American, active in the 1890s
  • Jesse Jackson, African American civil rights activist and Baptist minister
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., African-American civil rights activist, active in the 1950s and 1960s
  • Shailer Mathews, American theologian
  • Charles Clayton Morrison, longtime editor of the Christian Century in the U.S.
  • Abraham J. Muste, American activist for peace and trade union movement, some Reformed Pastor
  • Walter Rauschenbusch, American theologian, active in the 1900s
  • Josiah Strong, American, active 1891
  • James Shaver Woodsworth, Canadians, active in the 1920s
Social policy Postmillennialism Left-wing politics Christian fundamentalism New Democratic Party (Canada) Christian Left
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