Jesus' Social Principles - Christian Ethics & Teachings for Modern Life | Faith-Based Guidance for Relationships & Community

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Christians looked upon industrialization and laissez-faire capitalism and came up with very different ways of looking at it. Some thought that it was very good. But others looked upon the system and decided there were some major problems with it. This disparate group of Christians came to formulate what is generally known as the Social Gospel. The is an important text by one of the Social Gospel's chief theologians and originators.Walter Rauchenbusch, born in Rochester, New York in 1861 was a second-generation Baptist minister and later theology professor who saw the evils of industrialization and urbanization first hand in New York City's notorious Hell's Kitchen district. Rauschenbusch, like his conservative counterparts, saw sin all around him, but he saw it differently. He saw not only personal sins like drunkenness, lust, and avarice and violence, but also other kinds of sins that were not so much personal as societal, what today we refer to as structural sins. During the last two decades of his life, when he published his major works on the Social Gospel, the victories that he and so many others sought were still mostly in the future for millions in the industrialized world: an eight hour work day, the right to organize in unions, an end to child labor, workman's compensation, and living wages, to name but a few. Rauschenbusch's writing, speaking, and teaching are recognized by many to have played a significant part in establishing the theological, intellectual and moral arguments that galvanized the movements that made those achievements possible. His major writings include (1907), (1912), and (1917). Of course, he wrote a lot more than that, and made a number of speaking tours or North America and Europe. was not a monograph or a collection of lectures. Instead, Rauschenbusch wrote it as one in a series of study guides for small groups of college students. As Rauschenbusch explained in the very first paragraph of the introduction: "It is an attempt to formulate in simple propositions the fundamental convictions of Jesus about the social and ethical relations and duties of men." (p. ii) The organization into four parts and twelve chapters could only been conceived by a Christian, and only one of the last two centuries at most. Conservatives rejected some of his important chapter topics as even worthy of consideration by Christians. Rauschenbusch, of course, recognized just how contested this field was. To again quote from the introduction: "It does not undertake to furnish predigested material, or to impose conclusions. It spreads out the most important source passages for personal study, points out the connection between the principles of Jesus and modern social problems, and raises questions for discussion." (ii) As a study guide, each chapter follows a set pattern that is meant to fully engage students. First, a presentation of the topic. Second, seven daily assignments consisting of a New Testament passage, an explanation of the context of the passage, and study questions. Third, a study for the week, in several sections. Fourth, suggestions for thought and discussion.None of the daily assignments took up very many pages, but the questions at the end were certainly challenging. They not only led the students to think about what Jesus did and said and what it meant; they also engaged students to think about how they thought and felt, and the things they did in their own lives and in relation to their own communities. The "Suggestions for Thought and Discussion" at the end of each chapter could be pretty meaty as well. Rauschenbusch challenges his students in many ways, not least in placing collegians in their own social system as privileged and therefore responsible members of that system.What were the social principles of Jesus? According to Rauschenbusch, they could be enumerated as: 1) the sacredness of life and personality; 2) the solidarity of the human family; 3) the obligation of the strong to stand up for the weak. Put differently, Rauschenbusch believed that Jesus' social ideal was the reign of God on earth, where God's will is done.I am sure that Walter Rauschenbusch would be very sad to see how relevant his work is today, and just how badly a lot of college students could use a course of study like this one--I write this as a retired college professor--and how much the conditions he describes for the lower and working classes are those of our own day. Since his day we've been through two "great wars" and a Great Depression and now are living what seems to be an endless "great recession."I certainly recommend that everyone interested in personal and societal transformation according to the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth read Walter Rauschenbusch's major writings, as they more directly make his case for the Social Gospel. But has its merits too. Rauschenbusch takes parables, sermons, incidents in the life of Jesus, like his encounter with the woman caught in adultery, and he makes us see them anew, and think about them differently.Walter Rauschenbusch never claimed to have all the answers to our problems as he pointed us toward the One who did have those answers, Jesus. But this pastor, preacher, and teacher asked a lot of good questions, and that is the Lord's work too.