The Social Gospel Movement

The Social Gospel Movement
The Social Gospel

Introduction

In the early days of the Reformation, the quest to discover new land was really the beginning of the Social Gospel era. This was the early stages of the concept of territorialism. According to Koester (2015, p. 2), territorialism was a strategy for dealing with the religious differences set loose by the Protestant Reformation. Another name that is associated with Reformation was freedom of conscience to “obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). This truly was the start of a great social movement aimed towards a society to change their beliefs. In the Beginning
As early settlers arrived, they witness something they have never seen before. A place where thought
He was considered a prophet of the Social Gospel movement (Koester, 2105, p. 182). His deep spiritual beliefs, drove him to close the gap between the poor in society, and the few advantaged ones that ruled the lands. He feared that isolation of religion from the working class and effects that it would have on humanity. Alternatively, he felt that if left unchanged that society would destroy the way they knew life as it was then. Further, he felt a dire state to warn Christians that society would destroy itself if they did not put more love and justice in their lives. As stated by Wendy J. Deichmann in The Social Gospel as a Grassroots Movement journal, social gospel started as a grass roots movement to fix the issues that had taken over and crippling society. Similarly, there were several German theologians/historians, Albrecht Ritschl, and Adolf von Harnack that felt that the society had to change on its own. In time, the Social Gospel movement took on the teachings of these two men (Koester, 2105, p.
The main reason for the acceptance of the view of it was how big business had not changed in the way it took care of their employees. They were not willing to change on their own. To enforce their stance, churches created a Social Creed. This showed great unity among the Methodists, and other denominations followed in their steps to show how the churches wanted to help society get out of the industrial driven era.
Progressive Era
As with all events in history, the name becomes more aggressive. Namely the Progressive Era. It goes hand in hand with the Social Gospel. As the result of the Social Gospel movement, and its followers had a great influence in the era of the progressive. The combination, and the emergence of economics, political science and sociology were the start of silent voices being heard again. This was a great time to voice opinions and show support for what you believed in. The main focus was to improve the communities and enhance the lives of young men. One of the biggest supporters of the Progressive Era was Woodrow Wilson. His teachings at John Hopkins laid the foundation for his approach to reform. This was a new movement. However, Social Gospel was still more popular by Protestant ministers. Their ideology was they were helping people attain a better life. Even more, they felt more as nationalism