Analyzing Rauschenbusch's Social Gospel in the 20th Century

This essay delves into the Social Gospel movement, emphasizing the ideas of Walter Rauschenbusch and its significance in the 20th century. It critiques the traditional Christian emphasis on passivity and suffering, arguing for a more active role in addressing social injustices. The essay explores Rauschenbusch's vision of reconstructing Christianity as a service-based faith, addressing issues like inequality and social problems stemming from modernization. It highlights the importance of ethics and morality in social life and contrasts the Church's detachment with the need for active participation in improving people's lives. The essay references Rauschenbusch's works, including "Christianity and the Social Crisis" and "A Theology for the Social Gospel," to support its arguments, emphasizing the relevance of his ideas in a changing world and advocating for a practical application of faith to address social evils.

Running head: RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
It would not be wrong to say that in Christianity, passivity, quietism and sufferings are
valorized and are elevated to the position of the attainment of a great virtue. That stems from a
very wrong comprehension of the sacrifice made by Christ by laying down of his life on the
cross for the sake of the salvation of the human kind. It is taken for granted that as Christians, the
faithfuls are supposed to endure sufferings in order to shine as a true devout. As a result of it, the
revolutionary spirit of Jesus Christ gets overshadowed by means of glorifying and highlighting
his kindness, his compassion and his spirit to forgive those who have sinned against him and
against mankind (Smucker, 1994). This is considered as a shallow comprehension of the life of
Jesus Christ and also one of the reasons why the charm of Christianity tended to become
irrelevant in the modern world. Thinkers and Christian Reformists like Rauschenbusch have thus
devoted themselves to the task of reconstructing Christianity and bring back the glory of
Christianity being a service based faith rather than being a faith which is limited to just prayers
and personal devotion to the God. The aim of this essay is thus to analyze the ideas of Walter
Rauschenbusch and state the relevance of the movement termed the Social Gospel in the modern
context of the 20th century.
The late 19th and the 20th century had posed itself to be the time when the modernization
was fast catching up its pace and the old traditional ideas were becoming outdated, along with
Christianity. The people were gradually moving away from observing faith and religion and were
getting more attracted to the charm of the modern world. Crime and social problems were on rise
as there was no social mechanism which could keep the society from getting fragmented and
disintegrated. The situation which prevailed could be defined as per the premise provided by
Emile Durkheim of the setting in of a situation of anomie or normlessness and a result of it the
social solidarity tended to become liquidated (Rauschenbusch, 1997). In the absence of a strong

2RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
sense of social control mechanism the individual actions tended to deviate from the path of ethics
and morality. In that background Walter Rauschenbusch had devoted himself to the revival of
the Christian faith and orient people to develop a different approach towards faith and presenting
a new method of interpreting the gospels in order to restore the social order with justice and
morality. He sought to do it through faith as he had observed that faith used to hold the people
together and regulated the behaviour of the people. With the advent of modernity, faith tended to
become redundant, hence the cementing force keeping the people together was also liquidated.
The relevance of the social movement of Social Gospel championed by Walter Rauschenbusch
thus lies in the fact that he had tried to fight inequality and the injustices that prevailed in the
society by revolutionizing the way people viewed and practiced faith. The goal was to make
ethics and morality play an important role in the social life than bringing about a change in the
way people viewed personal relationship with God. This was the essence of the philosophical
standpoint of Walter Rauschenbusch, and also account of why it was relevant in the context of
the 20th century which was basically to deal with the social evils which posed itself to be the by-
products of modernity (Rauschenbusch, 1991).
It was also relevant as the otherworldly orientation of the church was something which
was not something which went in tandem with the significance of the life of Christ and the way
he wanted Christians to lead life like ideal human beings. Throughout his life, Christ had
balanced personal piety with his activism against social evils, while the Church had turned to
prayers as the solution of all the social problems. Whereas the Church was supposed to take
active participation in the removal of the social evils by helping people out with substantial effort
that shall enhance the life chances of the people. Through the Social Gospel Movement the idea
was being floated that the Church’s standpoint of detachment and a negative attitude towards the

3RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
acquisition of worldly pleasures. Rather, the goal should be orient people into being judicious
with regard to the cherishing of the worldly pleasures as the resources of the earth were created
by the lord for human beings to fulfill their desires and cherish the blessings of the lord
(Rauschenbusch, 2010). This practical observance of faith was floated by Walter Rauschenbusch
in the age when faith was becoming redundant and the societv was going astray.

4RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GOSPEL
References
Rauschenbusch, W. (1991). Christianity and the social crisis. Westminster John Knox Press.
Rauschenbusch, W. (1997). A theology for the social gospel. Westminster John Knox Press.
Rauschenbusch, W. (2010). The social principles of Jesus (Vol. 29912). Marti Williams.
Smucker, D. E. (1994). Origins of Walter Rauschenbusch's Social Ethics. McGill-Queen's Press-
MQUP.