CHRISTIANITY AND THE
SOCIAL CRISIS

BY

WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH

PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL

SEMINARY

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

1907

All rights reserved

C

To

THE WOMEN WHO HAVE LOVED ME

MY MOTHER

MY SISTERS FRIDA AND EMMA

MY DEAR WIFE PAULINE.

AND

MY LITTLE DAUGHTERS WINIFRED AND ELIZABETH

THIS BOOK

IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED

THY KINGDOM COME!

THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH!

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CHRISTIANITY: THE HEBREW
PROPHETS

Historical importance of the prophets. Their religion ethical
and therefore social.. Their morality public and not private.
Their sympathy with the oppressed. The effect of their social
interest on their religious development. Later religious indi-
vidualism a triumph of faith, but not pure gain. The prophetic
hope of social perfection. The "pessimism" of the prophets.
Summary

CHAPTER II

THE SOCIAL AIMS OF JESUS

The new social interpretation of the gospel. Jesus not a social
reformer, but a religious initiator. Significance of his relations
to John the Baptist. The kingdom of God his aim; its pre-
vious meaning; his changes in the ideal; the persistence of
its social essence. The ethics of the new society. Christ's
indifference to ritual and his insistence on social morality.
His teachings on wealth. His social affinities. His revolu-
tionary consciousness

PAGE

xi

44

CHAPTER III

THE SOCIAL IMPETUS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY
The probability of a gap between Jesus and his followers. The
limitations of our information. The hope of the coming of