THE SOCIOLOGY OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY
In a foregoing chapter the invaluable contribution of the Hebrews to
social thought was presented; the attack of the prophets on social
injustice was the outstanding feature. In another chapter the emphasis
by Jesus upon love as a dynamic societal principle was described. In
the centuries which followed the beginning of the Christian era, the
Church apotheosized beliefs, creeds, dogmas. Near the close of the
nineteenth century a renaissance of the social teachings of Jesus
occurred.
The trio of writers who brought forward the social ideals of
Christianity in a new, positive, and stimulating way in the closing
decades of the last century were Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong,
and Richard T. Ely. All three of these men began about 1885 to discuss
in print the social content of Christianity. These men had been
aroused by the apparent impotence of the Christian Church in face of
the increasing power of capitalism. While many church leaders allowed
themselves to be carried along in the powerful arms of capitalism,
there were a few who perceived the wreck of human lives that was often
left in the wake of the capitalistic movement. These individuals, while
not blind to the social values of capitalism, were in touch with the
laboring man, and by these contacts caught the social need of the hour.
In this social crisis they heard the still, small voice coming down
through the centuries, even the voice of Jesus as he spoke in behalf of
the poor and outcast.
It was Washington Gladden who startled and even angered the world of
religious and economic thought by protesting against the acceptance of
“tainted money.” By this term he referred to money which had been made
under a capitalistic system at the expense of the lives of men, women,
and little children in the industrial processes. Dr. Gladden weathered
the storm of protest and gave the capitalistic world a new concept
which, while it aroused anger, also brought introspection and a new
type of social conscience into the lives of many Christians.
It was Dr. Gladden’s contention that employer and employee ought to be
friends, because they are so closely associated. It is a very large
part of the business of the employer to maintain sympathetic relations
between himself and his employees.[XXVI-1] If the business man will not
let his fellowmen share in his prosperity, he will become in spite of
himself a sharer in their adversity.
The attitude of Dr. Gladden toward the acceptance of railway passes by
the clergy attracted widespread attention. He came to the conclusion
that a railroad company is bound to render an equal service to
all the people; its business is not to show special favors to the
representatives of either religion or charity.[XXVI-2] “What it has no
right to give me, I have no right to take, and for several years I have
not taken it; I pay the regular fare as all my neighbors do or ought.”
Dr. Gladden urged the abolition of city slums by governmental action.
Inasmuch as slums are rife with moral miasmas and are breeding-places
of pauperism and crime, the city has the same right to abate such
curses as to drain a morass. Moreover, individuals ought to have no
property rights “in premises which breed death and engender vice. When
they have proved that they lack the power to keep their property from
falling into such conditions, their property must be summarily taken
away from them.”[XXVI-3]
Without minimizing the importance of conflict as a principle of social
progress, Dr. Gladden stressed the concept of co-operation. For
example, in industrial matters he advocated the idea of a true trades
union--“the union of employers and employed--of guiding brains and
willing hands--all watchful of each other’s interests, seeking each
other’s welfare, working for the common good.”[XXVI-4]
In his well-known treatise on _Social Salvation_, Dr. Gladden asserts
that, in order to be soundly converted, an individual must comprehend
his social relationships and strive to fulfil them, as well as set
up right relationships with God.[XXVI-5] Sanctification consists in
fulfilling one’s social as well as one’s divine privileges, and in
living according to the needs of human society as well as according to
the needs of the human soul. An individual can no more be a Christian
by himself than he can sing an oratorio alone.[XXVI-6]
It is no purely social gospel that Dr. Gladden taught. He was correct
in protesting against the attitude of certain reformers who hold that
changing the environment is all-sufficient. It is possible to go too
far in removing temptations from the pathway of men; it would be unwise
to neglect the problem of equipping men to resist temptation, and hence
to weaken the sense of moral responsibility.[XXVI-7]
In the field of practical social reform Dr. Josiah Strong did effective
work. He also re-interpreted the social principles of Jesus, and
boldly proclaimed the spirit of love as the cardinal principle for
the organization of human society.[XXVI-8] He indicated that people
have stressed properly the importance of _believing_ the truth, but
underestimated the importance of _living_ the truth.[XXVI-9] He
protested against the tendency to separate the sacred and the secular,
and to divorce doctrine from conduct. He believed that the prevailing
religious tendency to neglect the sacred commandment, of loving one’s
neighbor as one’s self, has led to a selfish individualism on the part
of many religious people.
The contributions to social thought by Gladden and Strong were
ably supported by the social ideas of Richard T. Ely. Professor
Ely remonstrated against the tendency of many church people to
think that they can serve God without devoting their lives to their
fellowmen.[XXVI-10] He made vivid the complaint of American workingmen
that church membership on the part of employers and landlords does not
necessarily insure just and considerate treatment of employees and
tenants.[XXVI-11] Professor Ely insisted that it is as holy a work “to
lead a crusade against filth, vice, and disease in slums of cities, and
to seek the abolition of the disgraceful tenement houses of American
cities, as it is to send missionaries to the heathen.”[XXVI-12]
The pioneer work of Gladden, Strong, Ely, and others in rejuvenating
the social meaning of Christianity in the closing years of the
nineteenth century has been carried forward in the present
century by a host of able writers. The list includes the names
of well known socio-religious thinkers such as Peabody,[XXVI-13]
Mathews,[XXVI-14] Rauschenbusch,[XXVI-15] Batten,[XXVI-16]
Ward,[XXVI-17] Atkinson,[XXVI-18] Ryan,[XXVI-19] Stelzle,[XXVI-20] and
Taylor.[XXVI-21] Special attention will be given to the contributions
of Rauschenbusch and Ward, because each has been a storm-center in
socio-religious matters.
In his _Christianity and the Social Crisis_, Professor Rauschenbusch
gave a brief history of Christianity and its Hebrew antecedents,
showing first that “the essential purpose of Christianity was to
transform human society into the Kingdom of God by regenerating all
human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will
of God.”[XXVI-22] He then raised the question, why has Christianity
not undertaken the work of social reconstruction? He believed that if
the Church were to direct its full available force against any social
wrong, probably nothing could withstand it.[XXVI-23] Despite the
fact that Christianity has played a leading part in lifting woman to
equality and companionship with men, in changing parental despotism to
parental service, in eliminating unnatural vice, in abolishing slavery,
in covering all lands with a network of charities, in fostering
institutions of learning, in aiding the progress of civil liberty and
social justice, in diffusing a softening tenderness throughout human
life, in taming selfishness, and in creating a resolute sense of duty,
it has not yet undertaken a reconstruction of society on a Christian
basis.[XXVI-24] It has been engaged in suppressing some of the most
glaring evils in the social system of the time.[XXVI-25]
Dr. Rauschenbusch pointed out several historical factors which have
prevented Christianity from entering upon a program of reconstructing
society, many of which no longer obtain.[XXVI-26] These hindering
factors have been: (1) the moral resentment of the classes whose
interests are endangered by a moral campaign; (2) the belief in
the immediate return of Christ, which precluded a long outlook;
(3) the primitive attitude of fear and distrust toward the state;
(4) the other-worldliness of Christian desire; (5) the ascetic and
monastic ideals; (6) ceremonialism; (7) dogmatism; (8) the monarchial
organization of the church; (9) an absence of the intellectual
prerequisites for social reconstruction. To the extent that
Christianity is no longer hampered by these characteristics it is ready
to undertake the task of making over society.
The main danger in the present crisis which demands the attention
of social Christianity was found by Professor Rauschenbusch in the
autocratic, unjust phases of capitalism, with its somewhat undemocratic
wage system. To this expression of autocracy there is a three-fold
class reaction.[XXVI-27] First, there are those classes which are in
practical control of wealth; they have no reformatory program; they are
anxious to maintain the present social order intact. Second, there are
the middle social classes, which, sharing partially in the advantages
of the present social adjustment, are also chafing under social
grievances which their ideals do not allow them to attack vigorously;
they want reform work by peaceful and gradual methods. Third, there are
the disinherited classes, which see a widening chasm between themselves
and the wealthy, a chasm that “only a revolutionary lift can carry
them across.” It is around the condition and attitudes of the masses
that the social crisis revolves. This social attitude is like a tank
of gasoline, which by a single explosion will blow a car sky-high, or
which, by a series of little explosions will push a car to the top of a
mountain.[XXVI-28] Which process does Christianity wish to further? If
the latter, then Christianity must socialize first the attitude of the
classes of wealth and social power. Unfortunately, wealth often grows
stronger than the man who owns it; it may own him and rob him of his
moral and spiritual freedom.[XXVI-29] Can Christianity dissolve this
dilemma?
The principle that a Christian should seek an ascetic departure from
the world of life and work is no longer acceptable. He has two other
possibilities. He can either condemn the world and try to improve it,
or tolerate it and gradually be conformed to it.[XXVI-30] By these
sharply drawn alternatives, Professor Rauschenbusch awoke the Christian
world. While many Christians did not believe that the situation was as
crucial as thus depicted, they nevertheless were jarred from a state of
moral lethargy.
As a pastor for eleven years among the working people of New York City,
Dr. Rauschenbusch learned to understand the heart throbs and yearnings
of the masses, and dedicated his life through Christian service to
easing the pressure upon the working classes and to increasing the
forces that bear them up. He saw the solution of the social problem in
a Christian socialism that would destroy the autocracy of wealth and
establish a democratic form of industrial relationships. He believed
in the social or public ownership of the natural resources of the
earth. “It is preposterous to think that an individual or a corporation
can have absolute ownership in a vein of coal or copper. A mining
company owns the holes in the ground, for it made the holes; it does
not own the coal; for it did not make the coal. The coal is the gift of
God and belongs to the people.”[XXVI-31]
Another difficulty is found in the fact that business methods and
the principles of Christianity have always been at strife.[XXVI-32]
Individuals are struggling to get the better of their fellows. This
tendency has been institutionalized in the form of business enterprise.
Private persons have been permitted “to put their thumbs where they can
constrict the life blood of the nation at will.”[XXVI-33] Christianity,
on the other hand, lauds the principle of unselfish service, and of
ranking the individual as the greatest who gives most. Christianity is
awakening to its gigantic task of stopping the nation on “its headlong
ride on the road of covetousness.”
It is in this connection that Professor Rauschenbusch has made
famous the phrase, “Christianizing the social order.” This term
means “bringing the social order into harmony with the ethical
convictions which are identified with Christ.”[XXVI-35] Such a program
involves attacking “the last intrenchment of autocracy,” namely, in
business,--and Christianizing business. The struggle is already on.
In many of the phases of the conflict, capitalism is swallowing up
Christianity. The church becomes traditional, narrowly ecclesiastical,
dogmatic, opposing science and democracy. Where capitalism is
strongest, the churches as virile social forces are weakest.[XXVI-34]
In reply to the often repeated charge that socialized Christianity is
no Christianity at all, Professor Rauschenbusch shows that personal
religion, instead of being defeated by a socialized religion, will
gain strength and be able to present a much stronger appeal than
it now does. The advocate of the social teachings of Jesus is not
attacking personal religion, but rather endeavoring to give personal
religion a new dynamic, especially in those phases of modern life
where personal religion has lost most of its appeal. The opponents of
social Christianity cannot afford to neglect the fact that the often
one-sided, mechanical, and superficial gospel and methods of evangelism
have created a religious apathy, if not a definite reaction against
religion.[XXVI-36] It is blind foolishness to try to fence out the new
social spirit from Christianity instead of letting it fuse with the
older religious faith and “create a new total that will be completer
and more Christian than the old religious individualism at its
best.”[XXVI-37]
Dr. Rauschenbusch insisted that there must be a Christianizing of
international relations, that individuals must be taught to see
the sinfulness of the present social order, and that the popular
conception of God must be democratized.[XXVI-39] He reinterpreted the
organic unity of human society,--asserting that when one man sins,
other men suffer; and that when one class sins, other classes bear a
part of the suffering.
In 1908, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America
was organized at Philadelphia. The Council adopted with slight
modifications the resolutions which some months earlier had been
accepted by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church
(North), and which Rev. Harry F. Ward and others had drawn up.
This Bill of Rights, as the Resolutions have been called, imposed upon
the members of the more than thirty Protestant denominations the duty
of obtaining industrial justice for the cause of labor. It spoke for
(1) the principle of arbitration in industrial dissensions, (2) the
adequate protection of workers in hazardous trades, (3) the abolition
of child labor, (4) the safeguarding of physical and moral health of
women in industry, (5) the suppression of the “sweating system,” (6)
the reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest practicable point,
(7) a living wage in all industries, (8) one day of rest in seven
for all workers, (9) the most equitable division of the products of
industry that can ultimately be devised, (10) suitable provisions for
old age or disability of workers, and (11) the abatement of poverty.
At the meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in
America at a special meeting held at Cleveland, Ohio, May 6–8, 1919,
the foregoing platform was re-affirmed; and in addition, as a means of
meeting the needs of the reconstruction days following the World War,
the following notable resolutions were adopted. The Council declared
not only that labor is entitled to an equitable share in the profits of
industry, but took the new step of expressing the belief that labor is
entitled also to an equitable share in the management of industry. “The
sharing of shop control and management is an inevitable step” in the
attainment of an ordered and constructive democracy in industry. The
Council asserted that the first charge upon industry should be wages
sufficient to support an American standard of living.
In 1919, the Committee on Special War Activities of the National
Catholic War Council published a brief but important document on social
reconstruction. In this pamphlet the defects of the capitalistic system
of industry are declared to be: “Enormous inefficiency and waste in
the production and distribution of commodities; insufficient incomes
for the great majority of wage-earners; and unnecessarily large
incomes for a small minority of privileged capitalists.”[XXVI-40]
The Committee urged that employees shall exercise a reasonable share
in the management of industrial enterprises, and that the State
should inaugurate comprehensive provisions for health insurance and
old age insurance. It recognized that the true line of progress is
in the direction of co-operative production and of co-partnership
arrangements. “In the former, the workers own and manage the industries
themselves; in the latter, they own a substantial part of the corporate
stock and exercise a reasonable share in the management.”[XXVI-41]
The Catholic pronunciamento demands that the spirit of both labor and
capital be reformed. The laborer must give up the desire of a maximum
of return for a minimum of service; he must remember that he owes
society an honest day’s work for a fair wage. On the other hand the
capitalist must learn that wealth is not possession but stewardship,
and that “profit-making is not the basic justification of business
enterprise.”[XXVI-42]
Inasmuch as the Rev. Harry F. Ward has written more extensively on
social Christianity than any other person, save Rauschenbusch, and has
created widespread and heart-searching discussions, his contributions
to socio-religious thought will be considered next. Dr. Ward does
not believe in social service as a bait for drawing people into the
church. He objects to bribing people in order to get them into an
evangelistic meeting. To him social service is a natural phase of
religion, expressing itself freely and without sinuous designs. In
his estimation, soup kitchens are not to be established as a means of
enticing the laboring man inside the church walls, but as an unselfish
expression of the Christian’s desire to be true to the Christ spirit.
Social service is not a selfish program, on the part of the church,
for increasing its membership. It is as natural to Christianity as
personal evangelism, and equally intrinsic and vital. It has won more
than national recognition. While it is radical in the eyes of the
conservative, it contains an analysis of social conditions that many
of its critics have not appreciated. It breathes a sincerity and a
straightforwardness that compels the fair-minded reader to give heed.
Slavery was rejected as the economic basis of civilization, and
monarchy has recently been rejected as the political basis. In each
instance the world came to a junction where idealistic impulse
overthrew entrenched power. It is Dr. Ward’s contention that the world
is now reaching a similar junction point, a point where idealistic
impulse will dethrone the autocracy in capitalism. The idealistic
impulse, to which reference has been made in the foregoing lines, is
germinal in the teachings of Jesus.
With prophetic vision, more organized than the vision of Amos, Hosea,
Isaiah, but equally sincere, and fearless, Dr. Ward points out the
principles of the new social order which he believes are almost upon
the world. He then describes the various factors which are struggling
each in its own way to inaugurate the new order.
The five principles of the new social order are equality, universal
service, efficiency, the supremacy of personality, and solidarity.
(1) Equality is the old word which won attention in the American and
French Revolutions. It grew out of the theory of natural rights which
was discussed in Chapter XI. The American emphasis on the principle of
equality is shown in the admiration that is accorded the achievements
of energy and toil, in the common struggle for more wealth and luxury,
in foreign missionary activities, in the rise of the democratic
conscience and the idealistic impulses of the people.
On the other hand, the principle of equality is being violated when,
instead of trying to remove the natural inequalities among folks, “we
increase them by giving special privileges to the strong as the reward
of their strength.” The United States is at the crossroads. One highway
is characterized by luxury and extravagance on one side, and by poverty
and slavery on the other; it leads to revolutionary attempts on the
part of the masses to overthrow the privileged classes. It ends in
national decadence. The second highway is characterized by justice.
Those in economic authority are willing to grant representation to
labor in the management of industry and to further the rise of the
co-operative spirit. They are willing to sacrifice their own special
privileges for the sake of the welfare of the disinherited.
The intellectuals of the middle class hold vast power. In crises, they
usually join the privileged classes rather than the masses; and hence,
their influence often swings to the side of injustice.[XXVI-43]
(2) Universal service is the principle of equal obligation. Equal
rights, by itself, may mean equal rights to cheat, to exploit. It needs
to be checked by its complement of equal obligation. During the World
War there was a frequent demonstration of the principle of universal
service. “We are engaged in helping the boys at the front” became the
slogan. At the front as well as in the home towns and cities, wealthy
and poor, capital and labor served together. The end of the War gave
prominence to this question: Will the universal service idea spread or
will it be discarded? Will industry go back to the unashamed pursuit of
private gain?[XXVI-44]
Dr. Ward makes a careful distinction between the service of democratic
mutual helpfulness and the service of a governing class, no matter how
excellent.[XXVI-45] It is a low type of service which grants Christmas
dinners to the poor with the result that the poor are thereby made
contented with their lot in life.
(3) Efficiency is a term which is the product of the mechanical era,
which originated in the business world, and which is now being applied
to all phases of social organization.[XXVI-46] Its aim is perfection
in social mechanics. Social efficiency includes not only social
engineering but social knowledge, social philosophy, social ethics,
and social religion. Evidences of social inefficiency are common; for
example, the failure to use and apply the social knowledge that we
have, and the loss of energy through an over-emphasis on competition.
Democracy will never be able to succeed merely because of its splendid
ethical ideals.[XXVI-47] The need is for an efficiency in government
that is scientific and not simply a business efficiency.[XXVI-48]
Scientific efficiency includes “the spirit of service to the common
interest by which alone democracy can live.”[XXVI-49]
(4) The supremacy of personality is a principle of life that conflicts
today with the current emphasis on economic efficiency. It is because
the latter is so often reckless of human values that the new social
order will stress the development of things of the spirit rather than
material goods; even business must practice this ideal. The World War
raised the estimate which the common people put on their own lives; but
the ultimate result will depend on whether or not people took part in
the war voluntarily and conscious of high moral purposes, and whether
or not the peace which follows shall bring a new world organization
that conserves all the advances in human living that have thus far been
made.
Institutions possess an inherent fallibility. They tend to become
mechanical and repressive, even those dedicated to high purposes,
such as institutions of democracy, of education, and of religion.
The supreme object of any social institution and organization,
no matter in what field it may exist, should be the increase of
personality.[XXVI-50]
(5) The new social order will be governed by a sense of solidarity,
that is, by a community of feeling and thought which arises when
individuals associate together in working for a common end. World
solidarity will come when all peoples learn to work together for public
welfare, and subordinate all selfish desires to this end. Christianity
is moving in this direction when it advances the concept of
“comradeship of all men with each other and with the Great Companion,”
when it gradually unfolds the idea of a unified world life, when it
applies its doctrines of brotherhood of man to the relations of the
employer and employee or to the relations of white and black races,
when it seeks the democratic solidarity of the human race rather than
the imperialistic solidarity of an overhead religious control, when it
endeavors to spread love and faith, rather than to spread dogmas and
promote organizations.[XXVI-51] Class cleavage, nationalism as distinct
from nationality, race prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness are the
main opponents of the world brotherhood principle.
Dr. Ward, having defined what he considers the chief principles
that will govern the new social order, proceeds to measure current
movements by certain standards. He reviews the declarations of the
British Labor Party, the Russian Soviet Republic, the League of
Nations, and the labor movements in the United States. These tendencies
are all expressions of a more or less blind desire for justice. In
all countries of the world the masses are restless, stirring, and
experiencing a keen sense of injustice. Their leaders are struggling,
unscientifically as a rule, toward the light of a new day of democracy.
The trend which this struggle takes depends on the given social
environment and the attitude of the persons in authority. If undue
repression and autocracy are exercised for a long period of time, as
in Russia under the Czars, revolution is the only means of escape open
to the masses. Schooled for a long time under the lash of autocracy,
when they themselves come into control, they will use the only means of
control that they know, the lash of autocracy.
The British Labor Party is moving in the direction of guild socialism,
which includes the organization of industry into large units, in charge
of the workers and relatively free from the rule of the politicians.
The national government is to have a general oversight over the large
industrial units. As immediate steps in this direction, the Labor
Party demands the nationalization of the railroads, mines, and of the
production of electric power. Municipalities participate in the common
ownership program. The method of transformation is to be gradual,
largely based on political action.
In regard to the League of Nations Covenant, which was agreed upon in
Paris in 1919, Dr. Ward takes a negative attitude. Although he believes
firmly in an organization of good will, in international friendship
and in world solidarity upon democratic bases, he asserts stoutly
that the Paris Covenant is “a symbol of the sacred right of private
property,”[XXVI-52] that it provided for an international organization
of capitalism with all the force of powerful national governments
behind it, that it represented a series of compromises between
nationally selfish units, that it was an expression of the wishes of
the rulers of the democratic states who are essentially of “the same
moral caliber as the ruling class of imperialistic militarism, and bear
a similar sinister relationship to the future welfare of the common
folk.”[XXVI-53]
The weakness of Dr. Ward’s treatment of the programs for the new social
order is that it discusses almost entirely programs, platforms, ideals,
without considerating the relations between the programs and the
actual practices of the various organizations. In contrasting the best
phases, for example, of the British Labor Party with the worst phases
of capitalism, an incomplete picture is given. However, this weakness
in method need not obscure the strength of thought which Dr. Ward
displays. Some of the most thought-provoking deductions are:
1. That individualistic Christianity is losing ground.
2. That the middle class is becoming a class of privilege.
3. That the intellectuals of the middle class, while keenly aware of
the evils in the capitalistic system, are so much indebted to that
system that they would consider themselves ingrates if they spoke out
against it, or they are simply afraid to speak out.
4. That jails and machine guns will not stop the laboring classes in
appealing for a democratic reorganization of industry, but will rather
hasten revolutions, with resultant dictatorships of the proletariat.
5. That capitalism is passing, as it is bound to do, because it is
organized selfishness--its fundamental principle is wrong.
6. That political democracy is fighting for its life today, being
attacked on the one flank by economic imperialism and on the other by
the dictatorship of the proletariat.[XXVI-54]
7. That unless the struggle can be ended by a process of reason and
orderly progress, the world is doomed to devastation by universal
conflict.
8. That the goal of social development is, in broad terms, “a fraternal
world community, the great loving family of mankind, knit together by
common needs but most of all by loyalty to common ideals, and by the
power of its common love efficiently directing and controlling its
common life.”[XXVI-55]
An important question arises: How shall the social teachings of Jesus
become widely taught? Evangelistic Christianity, with its personal
emphasis, cannot be expected adequately to carry the social message.
Preachers, theologically trained, are bound to give the social
phases of Christianity a secondary place. In recent years, however,
a movement known as religious education has been acquiring momentum.
Moreover, a social theory of religious education has been formulated.
In this connection, Dr. George Albert Coe has perhaps done the most
significant work. Our life, Dr. Coe believes, gets its largest meaning
not from the fact of individual self-consciousness alone, but from the
equally important fact that life is social.[XXVI-56] Without a belief
in social consciousness, an endless existence after death, in terms
of self-consciousness primarily, would be meaningless and probably
valueless. Religion must solve the problem of establishing a Kingdom
of Heaven on earth, and also train its votaries for a societal life
in Heaven. The latter problem will be met easily when the former
is solved. It is well illustrated by the young Christian lady from
Virginia who asked: Won’t there have to be a separate Heaven for
Negroes, since we hate them so here? In other words, will there not
have to be a thousand or a million Heavens in order to accommodate
happily all the antagonistic Christian groups now on earth? How can
the Protestant Ulstermen and Catholic Irishmen live together lovingly
in Heaven? The problem goes back to solving the social implications of
Christianity in earthly relationships.
The social aims of Christian education, according to Dr. Coe, are
as follows: (1) Social welfare, or the control of the non-human
environment in the interest of human life. (2) Social justice, or the
inauguration of fair play in all the dealings of every individual, no
matter how strong and shrewd, with every other individual, no matter
how weak and ignorant. (3) A world society or the promotion of a code
of conduct that leads to “the integration of all peoples into a single,
democratically governed mankind.” Nationalism must melt into a larger
regard for human beings; and that which is “a climactic expression of
the selfishness, that is to say the injustice that is organized in our
legal systems and our national sovereignties,” must be revealed to all,
even in the Sunday schools.[XXVI-57]
The implications of a sound social theory of religious education are
met by the religious doctrine of personal fellowship between God and
man, and between man and man; by a reorganization of the church as a
religious institution in a way which shall put religious education on
as scientific a basis as the ordinary day school education; and by
training the church school pupils in the principles of social justice,
co-operation, and love, as well as in matters pertaining to personal
salvation.
Another current development is the religious social service director.
For some time the religious education director has been a recognized
force in church work. The social service director in church life is
coming into the foreground, bearing the responsibility of working out
social welfare programs for the church services, directing the training
of the membership in volunteer social work, inaugurating religious
social surveys, in fact, carrying the social message of the church into
all the church activities.
The social service activities of the church have often been used as a
net for catching the churchless. Social service as a bribe, however,
will fail. Genuine religious social service is that which emanates
naturally and easily from the lives of the church members and of the
church itself, asking no pay and possessing no sinuous ends. The church
that inaugurates a social program for building up the family life, the
play life, the moral life, the economic life, as well as the religious
life, in the community in which it is located, most truly represents a
socialized church. The church, however, that uses its social welfare
program merely in order to build itself up, fails to understand the
social calling as a religious institution.
The social thought of the Hebrews revolved about the idea of social
justice; of Jesus, about the concept of active love; and of modern
Christianity, at its best, about an unselfish social program for
bringing about a just, co-operative, and harmonious life, ranging in
its operation from the individual in his family and local community
life to the individual as a functioning unit in a new world society.