Article Preview : This year marks the fifth centennial of the Protestant Reformation. When the name Walter Rauschenbusch appears, readers generally think "social gospel," but years before he grasped and articulated the notion of a social gospel, he was shaped by
Protestant ideas. Rauschenbusch was reared a Baptist from his childhood. He trained for the Baptist ministry at Rochester Theological Seminary, served as a Baptist minister for a decade, and finished his career at Rochester as a professor of future Baptist ministers. He was deeply Protestant and Baptist long before he discovered the social gospel, yet the Reformation dimension of his thought is often neglected. The argument of this paper is that Rauschenbusch's analysis of true
Christianity was grounded not only in Ritschl's recovery of the concept of the Kingdom of God, which formed the theological basis for the social gospel, but also on extensive reflection on Reformation thought. Historians generally identify five patterns of Reformation: 1. Lutheran 2. Calvinist/Reformed 3. Anabaptist 4. Anglican 5. Roman Catholic Rauschenbusch's assessment of the Reformation revolves around his perception of three groups--his
attitudes toward: 1. Roman Catholicism 2. the magisterial reforms of Luther, Calvin, and the English Church 3. the Anabaptist tradition Much of Rauschenbusch's religious worldview depended on his acceptance, rejection, or modifications of each of these traditions. In the end he called for a radical Christianity. This paper proceeds by positioning Rauschenbusch in relation to these three groups. We turn first to examine his view of Roman Catholicism. Rauschenbusch's Relationship with Roman Catholicism Rauschenbusch's relationship with Roman Catholicism was complex and seemingly paradoxical. His approach may be indicated in five parts. First, Rauschenbusch was sharply critical regarding the medieval and Reformation era practices and thought of the Roman Catholic Church. His negative judgment on Catholicism is the dominant impression delivered in his major writings. Rauschenbusch condemned what he viewed as Catholicism's formal, ritualistic, sacramental, and legalistic interpretation of Christianity. A key point for him is that the Protestant Reformation broke the power that the church and its priests exercised over believers and introduced the authority of Scripture to replace canon laws and guidelines created by popes and councils. Rauschenbusch argued that the early church departed from the teachings of Jesus and soon shifted to ritual and magical understandings of baptism and the eucharist. In the following centuries "worship became a process of mystagogic initiation into the divine mysteries... the effort to placate God by sacrifice,... amulets, vows, oracles, festivals, incense, candles, pictures, and statues." (1) Added to this was growing emphasis on theological dogma and ecclesiastical organization. (2) These developments replaced primitive Christianity's focus on fellowship and moral intensity. (3) Rauschenbusch's catch-all term for Christianity after the second century was "ceremonialism." (4) And he attacked it because it undercut the ethical force of Jesus' teaching in the life of the church. (5) Second, Rauschenbusch also offered a harsh indictment of Catholicism since, in his view, the institution undermines the great American values of democracy and liberty. Rauschenbusch repeatedly argued that whereas the earliest church was democratic, the biblical model was soon replaced... Get Full Access Gale offers a variety of resources for education, lifelong learning, and academic research. Log in through your library to get access to full content and features! Access through your library Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Baptist History and Heritage Society Source CitationGale Document Number: GALE|A515126032 Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist minister and theologian, advocated for a “social gospel.” Here, he explains why he believes Christianity must address social questions. 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. By universal consent, this social crisis is the overshadowing problem of our generation. The industrial and commercial life of the advanced nations are in the throes of it. In politics all issues and methods are undergoing upheaval and re-alignment as the social movement advances. In the world of thought all the young and serious minds are absorbed in the solution of the social problems. Even literature and art point like compass-needles to this magnetic pole of all our thought. … The vastness and the free sweep of our concentrated wealth on the one side, the independence, intelligence, moral vigor, and political power of the common people on the other side, promise a long-drawn grapple of contesting forces which may well make the heart of every American patriot sink within him. It is realized by friend and foe that religion can play, and must play, a momentous part in this irrepressible conflict. 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. Apart from the organized Church, the religious spirit is a factor of incalculable power in the making of history. … Under the warm breath of religious faith, all social institutions become plastic. … It follows that the relation between Christianity and the social crisis is one of the most pressing questions for all intelligent men who realize the power of religion, and most of all for the religious leaders of the people who give direction to the forces of religion. … 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. … 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. … … 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 fundamental purpose of Jesus was the establishment of the kingdom of God, which involved a thorough regeneration and reconstitution of social life. Primitive Christianity cherished an ardent hope of a radically new era, and within its limits sought to realize a social life on a new moral basis. Thus Christianity as an historical movement was launched with all the purpose and hope, all the impetus and power, of a great revolutionary movement, pledged to change the world-as-it-is into the world-as-it-ought-to-be. … In general, the Church has often rendered valuable aid by joining the advanced public conscience of any period in its protest against some single intolerable evil, but it has accepted as inevitable the general social system under which the world was living at the time, and has not undertaken any thoroughgoing social reconstruction in accordance with Christian principles. [Source: Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907)] Why was President Theodore Roosevelt concerned about what he called muckraking in the early twentieth century quizlet?Why was President Theodore Roosevelt concerned about what he called "muckraking" in the early twentieth century? He worried that muckraking would lead to radical reform.
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