[Dialogue] New Century, Same Crisis--The Social Gospel 100 Years Later

[R Williams]

Colleagues,
 
In the introduction to the G-O-D Lecture in RS-1 we marked the year 1907 as the beginning of the 20th century, and we grounded this with events such as Einstein's theory of relativity, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War I, etc.  One of the events we did not mention was the publication in that year of the book by Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, which introduced what has come to be known as the "social gospel."
 
I have attached an article from Commonweal magazine in which Carey Nelson Blake states that "Rauschenbusch tore down the wall that separated faith from the public world and called on the church to address the suffering and degradation that accompanied the rapid industrialization of the United States."
 
Regarding the importance of this for our roots, H. Richard Niebuhr was clearly influenced by Rauschenbusch when he stated that the church as social pioneer turns its back on the manifestations of "sin" or "evil", abolishes it within itself, and leads in the social act of repentance.  For Rauschenbusch, according to Blake, "Sin was embedded in institutional arrangements, not just in individual motivations and actions...  A faithful life demanded of sinners both personal and social repentance."
 
Another note of interest, Paul Raushenbush, a great-grandson of Walter, has edited a new edition titled Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century.
 
I hope you have time to read the attached article.  I would be interested in your reflections.
 
Randy Williams

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