The Real Social Gospel

"Whoever sets any bounds for the reconstructive power of the religious life over the social relations and institutions of men, to that extent denies the faith of the Master."
- Walter Rauschenbusch

I have finally gotten around to writing my blog about a lecture series I went to this week. On Monday night and Tuesday morning I was given the priviledge of hearing from Paul Raushchenbusch, the great grandson of Walter Rauschenbusch. Last semester I had to read Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century which is an updated version of Walter's book (updated by Paul) and write a book review on it. I was a little worried that I was going to be indoctrinated into the Social Gospel (Walter is one of the founders of this movement), that seems to have such negative connotations these days. (Let me just say this, I do not think that the social gospel as a whole is a wrong thing, I believe that we are called to live as Jesus did, to help the poor and needy, and care for the widows and orphans, however, I do not agree with the radical idea that that is how salvation is achieved...it all goes back to my favorite word...balance...I) I was surprised as to how much actually agreed with the Rauschenbusch(s). And what I found very interesting was that even Paul mentioned that he did not fully agree with some things his great grandfather had said, but that things needed to be balanced.

Some of what I got out of the lecture series was this: Salvation is personal and social. Individuals need to repent and believe and so does society. Just as the individual is sinful, so is society, and thus needs to be redeemed. This is where we come into play. As individual believers already redeemed (and continuing to be redeemed) we need to help in bringing redemption to a world of sin. Salvation is, then, partially communal. ( I take this with a grain of salt because I do not at all want to throw out the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.) Paul said that just the way the Lord's prayer is worded should give us an understanding that this is a community prayer, a prayer of unity for a group of believers:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.

This idea of community is very important for the Christian faith, whether you accept the social gospel or not. I'm beginning to understand this more and more as I am now doing life with friends sometimes more than family. It is our responsibility to do things in our fallen world to establish the kingdom of God. We need to be proactive, not passively waiting for the kingdom to arrive.

We need personal transformation as well as social transformation. Both are need for a hollistic view of the gospel. We need to help the poor, feed the hungry, and take care of the orphans and widows. We need to readjust our comfortable lives to truly be Jesus to society. We must live simply so that others may simply live.

Grace and peace