Here I continue discussion of Walter Rauschenbusch’s book The Social Principles of Jesus with Chapter V: The Kingdom of God: Its Tasks. The subtitle is revealing: “The Right Social Order Is the Supreme Task for Each.”
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When I was growing up in a fundamentalist church and denomination I was told to stay away from “the Social Gospel” as it was false Christianity. One of the main reasons given was that social gospelers care nothing about evangelism and only about social transformation. But also that the social transformation they sought was at best “creeping socialism” if not outright communism. No thought was given to the possibility that a true Christian might embrace democratic socialism.
Now, Rauschenbusch clearly embraced democratic socialism (not communism). And the subtitle to this chapter would probably be used by critics to prove that he was not for evangelism of souls. Without doubt he did consider finding and advocating for the right social order a primary task for the true Christian. He should not have called it “the supreme task.” But he did. So that I acknowledge as a mistake.
However, I agree with Rauschenbusch that finding, embracing and advocating for the right social order is A task, even an IMPORTANT task for the true Christian. But what is it? What is the right social order?
In this chapter, Rauschenbusch does not give us a concrete, specific and detailed outline of the right social order, but he continues with principles for Christians to flesh out. The principles are the bones, the skeleton. What are they?
As he has said earlier, they are the dignity and value of every individual, concern for others, especially the weak and vulnerable, and solidarity of the human race. Beyond that are the principles of the Kingdom of God—love and justice.
But we all want to know what love and justice looks like when fleshed out in a specific and concrete social order. Apparently that is yet to come.
One thing that surprised me a bit in this chapter was Rauschenbusch’s admission about human nature. He describes it as selfish and slothful. He says we do not naturally want the best and right social order if it goes against our own self-interest. That is where Christianity adds a dimension—that of grace. Rauschenbusch simply assumes that the true Christian is one who had been saved by grace with a change of heart and mind, regenerated, born-again (or born from above) who wants to be like Jesus and live for him.
How do I know this about Rauschenbusch? Well, I’ve read his lengthy essay “Why I Am a Baptist” where he spells it out. He does not claim that Baptists have a monopoly on true Christianity but he says Baptists have an “experimental religion” by which he meant “experiential spirituality.”
I can only assume that in this chapter and throughout this book he is writing to and for college and universities students who are already true Christians. He is saying “You have left the old life of selfishness and sloth (and sin) aside and entered into communion with God through Jesus Christ. Now what?” The answer to ‘Now what?” Is “Get busy changing the world.”
Rauschenbusch denies that Jesus was “meek and mild.” His Jesus is energetic and active in establishing a new social order—the church—and teaching his followers who will make up the church how it should be organized (according to love) so that it can show the world God’s will for humanity, including its social organization.
What would Rauschenbusch make of MAGA Christianity? Well, that’s complicated. Knowing him well (I have read all of his books and several books about him and his theology) I am convinced he did think of America as a Christian nation. He believed in separation of church and state but not separation of culture and religion and the best religion for culture is Christianity. But he did not believe in persecuting non-Christians or establishing any church as supported by the government.
Rauschenbusch believed that Christianity holds the values that culture and society need and, in his time, he could assume that the vast majority of his readers and listeners thought they were Christians and that America was implicitly if not officially a “Christian nation.” However, he believed that America’s social order needed redemption (not revolution). It’s perfect redemption would come from the same sources as its progress so far (from 1776 to 2018). And for him “Christianizing the social order” meant drawing on Jesus’s teachings and life to condemn selfishness, including all greed, including unfettered profit-making, and sloth (unwillingness to be productive).
I am right now (when not writing here) watching the new Netflix series Death by Lightning about President James Garfield. It’s clear to me that the writers view Garfield through the “lens” of the Social Gospel—as a precursor in politics of the Social Gospel. Sadly, he was assassinated, the writers think, before he could implement his vision of a reformed American social order. (The writers also exclude all religious impulses from their narrative of American politics in the 1880s.)
Rauschenbusch was a cautious supporter of Woodrow Wilson although he hated that American had to become involved in The Great War. He grudgingly gave that his support only because it was promised to be the War to End All Wars and The War to Make the World Safe for Democracy. Most of his Protestant followers became isolationists and pacifists in the 1920s and 1930s.
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