The Progressives and Social Christian Thought of America
Man has recorded the organic development of societies and cultures since he began to form political communities, and this documentation has preserved and passed on the ideas and teachings from one generation to another, allowing the present man to view a glimpse of the past. The development of music, philosophy, and common skills, such as the administration of one's household, have changed and adapted through these developments. Something that has appeared in all cultures is the existence of a truth that transcends the material world, religion. The Christian faith structured a lot of what modern society came to be. Christianity is a faith that arose with the followers of Jesus Christ in the province of Palestine, and it has influenced the Western man from the morals and values men hold sacred to the charitable works they do in the name of God's will. Ergo, as societies advanced, there was an organic development in the faith of those habitats of society. The social development led to a transformation of the world leading to the creation of a new view of the society and history on which then men can come together to form a communal faith and liberty, the Church.
There have been plenty of attempts throughout history by various groups and individuals to re-shape the substance of Christianity. In the 20th Century, new views came into existence as societies around the Western world shifted during the heavy era of industrialization and the sins of men carried by it. Walter Rauschenbusch speaks of such changes as the hope for a new faith, that is Social Christianity. The notion of a new faith can only come into birth once the dead faith, that is the personalized religion of men is exchanged for the social faith which is full of a new life and grace. Rauschenbusch goes further to state, "personal religion has a supreme value for its own sake not as a feeder of social morality, but as the highest unfolding of life itself, as the blossoming of our spiritual nature" (Rauschenbusch 1912). It is then that personal religion is the center of the society in which the people occupy. Yet as society moves, the changes continue to develop as well in the blossoming nature of humankind. If the development of the faith's nature in society is not allowed, men will find themselves becoming lost in what they once held as magical. As Rauschenbusch argues, "not all who begin the study of music or poetry in youth remain lovers of art and literature to the end" (Rauschenbusch 1912). The preferences of men change as they grow and explore different ideologies; as those who pursued letters & the arts in their youth will not all end as poets in the future, neither will all men who were once religious end up in the church. Ergo, development exists in both society and religion allowing the man to pursue new characters of society seeking what is good.
As religion develops throughout time, there is a clear change in the forms of worship. In this case, men transcend from the realm of personal religion to that of Social Christianity. They have not much to lose for as Rauschenbusch states,
"So when the religious soul who has been shut away from social ideals and interests and pent up within a fine but contracted religious habitation get the new outlook of the social awakening, it sweeps them away with new enthusiasm" (Rauschenbusch 1912).
The awakening of the new faith allows them to regain religion in their perspective, a faith in which they fight for what they believe to be the truth. This truth then goes from the dead within the churches to a socially alive faith. One of which leads man closer to the truth, Rauschenbusch wrote, "A mature social Christian comes closer to the likeness of Jesus Christ than any other type" (Rauschenbusch 1912). Social Christianity is one that reflects closer the truth of Jesus. It breaks away from the dogmatic structure of the old institutions to one which fights the new sins of evil that inhabit the world of mankind. This reconstruction allows them to turn the cross not only into a contemplative truth like it was in the old personal faith but also into a truth that habits their everyday fight against the oppressions of liberty.
In the development of this society, a change of religion is not the only change observed among the institutions that incorporate men's daily life. Liberty as well as changes, or better stated the change of the liberty needed in society shifts from pure ideas into one of the acts. Thus, original ideas that the fathers set for the nation are now expanded through the construction of the new liberals. John Dewey thus wrote,
"The ideas of liberals set forth in the first third of the nineteenth century were potent in criticism and in analysis… But analysis is not construction, and the release of force does not of itself give direction to the force that is set free. Victorian optimism concealed for a time the crisis at which liberalism had arrived" (Dewey 1935)
The ideas of the past served as the foundation upon which the progressives will build. They are the ensured keys that have allowed men to get closer to the god of democracy and liberalism. A god of action and need. New liberalism, like Social Christianity, is a change from the dead institutions that followed a set tradition to that which exist upon the personal liberties that dwell upon the ever-changing river of the social world. It is then that they, the men of society can follow a new path. In the American idea then the liberties and set of traditions set both by the Catholic Church and Christendom must be annihilated and re-taken, so they can be re-born among the ideals and values of the modern men. For the Progressives then, Christianity and Society are not set on the cross, but on the values that society assigned to them.
This new path does not remain the same as the old faiths. Just as the scenario changes between what a traveler observes when crossing the nation, so does the scenario of liberalism changes. The new liberalism like Social Christianity is not focused on the salvation nor freedom of the individual, but rather that of the community, or so the progressives argue. Dewey, expanding on how progressivism changes from the individual towards the community, explained that
"The majority who call themselves liberals today are committed to the principle that organized society must use its powers to establish the conditions under which the mass of individuals can possess actual as distinct from merely legal liberty" (Dewey 1935).
This is a new principle, which seeks not only to free man from the chains of the slavery that he encounters still in the society which for Dewey are set by tradition but also seeks to force the man to be free by shaping the environment to seek true freedom upon the Olympus that we have created. It is then that the old faith must be retaken even if needed by force and shaming to create new ideologies in which this one fits with the new values of the new liberal society.
True freedom ultimately is not individual freedom like it was for classical liberals; for new liberals, it is a communal one. This became the basic difference among the factions of liberals, and it was present by the political figures of that time. President Wilson stated that "Liberty consists in the best possible adjustment between the power of the government and the privilege of the individual; and only law can effect that adjustment" (Wilson, The Author, and Signers of the Declaration 1907). The adjustment of power is one that changes; thus, the liberty we receive today might differ from the one we will receive in the future. This is because, like the old traditions of personal religion, the old traditions of society change:
"In order to get a footing for a new doctrine, one must influence minds cast in every mold of race, minds inheriting every bias of environment, warped by the histories of a score of different nations, warmed or chilled, closed or expanded by almost every climate of the globe" (Wilson, The Study of Administration 1886)
The change is one on which the government seeks to create that communal good, which is the true form of liberty for the new liberals. They then shape the environment of man. For indeed, it is the shaping of the environment that allowed African Americans to attend the same schools as their Caucasian fellow citizens. Furthermore, it is the shaping of the law and adjusting the privileges of individuals that have also allowed the man, who once was a slave, to become a free man. As the veils come off the eyes of men, the light of truth shines upon them. It is then that the removal of privileges seeks to demonstrate that liberty is not of the individual, but the society.
The reconstruction of the law and privileges of men is not a concept of Wilson. Rauschenbusch's Social Christianity, in the end, holds a similar view. Jesus was more than a Rabbi; he, the Christ, was a man that brought social reform against the worshippers of that era. At one-point, Christianity was the new adjustment of the law that reconstructed the world and privileges of many. This is the same reason Rauschenbusch writes, "In the same way humanity must reconstruct its moral and religious synthesis whenever it passes from one era to another" (Rauschenbusch 1912). This reconstruction, like the political institutions of democracy, will not be accepted by those who are stuck in the old methodology of worship; however, the proper environment can change many minds and hearts to this true liberty. The end of slavery led to the creation of more men that were free from the tyrants of the cotton business, so will the new faith free men from the oppression of old dogmatic injustice.
The revisioning of the synthesis of the current beliefs by which man must reconstruct both their morals and rights open the door toward a new world. This new procedure of reconstruction, which is present in both the new liberal and the Social Christian views, indeed leads to a different understanding of American history and human life. The human life is then not shaped by fundamental rights that either transcend nature and are born from a biological truth or divine command. Human life becomes a relativistic notion on which society will shape the values, morals, and rights of each individual. Thus, this leads men, not to a set of customs, rather it leads them to liberty through what the community has reached in agreement. American history becomes not a truth in the past, but rather a keystone on the foundation on which we move. American history is then not a reflection of what the current institutions ought to be, but rather it reflects on what they were and will never be again. In both instances, the history of the American society and human life becomes truths written on sand, which the winds of revisionism can and should blow. It is then that the faith of the progressives, the Social Christianity, is one on which truth can only seek by re-adapting the gospels, rather than allowing the gospel adapt us toward a metaphysical truth that transcends society. The hope for this Social Christianity is not to seek men free from sin, but to differ sin based on the agreed communal values which are ever-changing.
It is by the ever-changing society that faith and liberty change according to the progressives. The modern man seeks truth, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not in an individualistic method, but a communal procedure. This can only occur for the progressives by leaving the institutions and dogmas of the past and embracing the ever-floating changes of the ocean that is life. Truth is then not set in the existence of priests, nuns, a pope, or even in the existence of a historical Jesus. True liberty is the fighting of modern sins, which socializing has allowed mankind to accomplish. This liberty does not exist to ensure the privileges of the few, but the salvation of the society from which our values, rights, and freedoms are born from. Thus, the Christianity of the American society is some sort of monster in which the matter of progress in both forms of liberal and conservative wings is mixed with the gospel. It does not seek to liberate men from the struggles of materialism, but rather to slave Christianity to the sins of the American society of materialism and the sexual revolution, in both their evangelical conservative form and their liberal progressive form.
Bibliography
Dewey, John. 1935. "Excerpts from Liberalism and Social Action." Teaching American History. Accessed October 6, 2019. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/excerpts-from-liberalism-and-social-action/.
Rauschenbusch, Walter. 1912. "Social Christianity and Personal Religion." In American Progressivism, edited by Ronald J Pestritto and William J Atto, 107-116. Lexington Books.
Wilson, Woodrow. 1907. "The Author and Signers of the Declaration." Teaching American History. September. Accessed October 6, 2019. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-author-and-signers-of-the-declaration/.
—. 1886. "The Study of Administration." Teaching American History. November 1. Accessed October 6, 2019. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-study-of-administration/.
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