From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series of articles on Social Christianity

Movements Social Gospel · Theological Realism Liberation Theology · Radical Orthodoxy Christian Socialism · Christian Political Economy

Key Thinkers Adam Smith · Thomas Malthus · William Godwin Reinhold Niebuhr · Walter Rauschenbusch F. D. Maurice · Charles Kingsley Stewart Headlam · John Ludlow · Charles Gore Gustavo Gutiérrez · Washington Gladden William Temple · D. Stephen Long

Concepts Scarcity · Middle Axioms

v • d • e

Walter Rauschenbusch (October 4, 1861 - July 25, 1918) was a Christian Theologian and Baptist Minister. He was a key figure in the Social Gospel movement in the USA.

Contents 1 Evolution of Thought 2 View of Christianity 2.1 Social Responsibility over Individual Responsibility 3 The Brotherhood of the Kingdom 4 Criticisms of Rauschenbusch 5 Influence 6 Works 7 Notable Biographies 8 References

Rauschenbusch was born in upstate New York to a German preacher who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. He was raised on the orthodox Protestant doctrines of his time, including biblical literalism and the substitutionary atonement. But when he attended Rochester Theological Seminary, those teachings were challenged. He learned of the Higher Criticism, which led him to later comment that his "inherited ideas about the inerrancy of the Bible became untenable." He also began to doubt the substitutionary atonement; in his words, "it was not taught by Jesus; it makes salvation dependent upon a trinitarian transaction that is remote from human experience; and it implies a concept of divine justice that is repugnant to human sensitivity." But rather than shaking his faith, these challenges reinforced his faith. He came to admire Congregationalist Horace Bushnell and Anglican Frederick W. Robertson.

Rauschenbusch's view of Christianity was that its purpose was to spread a kingdom of God, not through a fire and brimstone style of preaching but by leading a Christlike life. Rauschenbusch did not view Jesus' death as an act of substitutionary atonement but in his words, he died "to substitute love for selfishness as the basis of human society." He wrote that "Christianity is in its nature revolutionary" and tried to remind society of that. He explained that the kingdom of God "is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven."

In Rauschenbusch's early adulthood, mainline Protestant churches were largely allied with the social and political establishment, in effect supporting the domination by robber barons, income disparity, and the use of child labor. Most church leaders did not see a connection between these issues and their ministries, so did nothing to address the suffering. But Rauschenbusch saw it as his duty as a minister and student of Christ to act with love by trying to improve social conditions.

In Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Rauschenbusch wrote that "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 significance of this work is that it spoke of society's responsibility rather than the individual's responsibility.

In his Theology for the Social Gospel (1917), he wrote that for John the Baptist, the baptism was "not a ritual act of individual salvation but an act of dedication to a religious and social movement."

In 1892, Rauschenbusch and some friends formed a group called the Brotherhood of the Kingdom. The group's charter declared that "the Spirit of God is moving men in our generation toward a better understanding of the idea of the Kingdom of God on earth," and that their intention was "to reestablish this idea in the thought of the church, and to assist in its practical realization in the world." In a pamphlet, Rauschenbusch wrote: "Because the Kingdom of God has been dropped as the primary and comprehensive aim of Christianity, and personal salvation has been substituted for it, therefore men seek to save their own souls and are selfishly indifferent to the evangelization of the world."

Because of his views, Rauschenbusch was largely condemned as heretical, Romish, and socialist. Dr. James Willmarth, a Philadelphia Baptist preacher and premillennialist, asserted that Rauschenbusch's views had no scriptural basis.

Critics of Rauschenbusch also argue that he neglected the needs of the individual as a moral and spiritual being in his fervor to reform society. In other words, he failed to teach that a love for one's neighbor flows directly from and is required by one's own love for God.

Rauschenbusch has been criticized for two gaps in his social liberalism. His views on the appropriate role of women in society and in the church was shown to be limited as demonstrated by his regard of the Deaconess Project in New York. Further, he displayed a limited sensitivity for the plight of post-Civil War African Americans, viewing it as more of a regional issue.

Rauschenbusch's work influenced, among others, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Desmond Tutu.

As a key intellectual leader of the social gospel movement, Rauschenbusch wrote several books, including:

• Christianity and the Social Crisis. 1907. New York: Macmillan.
• Christianizing the Social Order. 1912. New York: Macmillan.
• Theology for the Social Gospel. 1917. New York: Abingdon Press.

• Sharpe, Dores Robinson. Walter Rauschenbusch. 1942. New York: Macmillan Company.
• Evans, Christopher. The Kingdom Is Always but Coming. 2004. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company.

• Bawer, Bruce (1997). Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80222-4.