This Week in Christian History: Gregor Mendel Born, Social Gospel Theologian Dies, Second Crusade

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 22, 2018

Walter Rauschenbusch Dies - July 25, 1918

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), a Protestant minister known for his strong support of the Social Gospel movement. | (Photo: Facebook/Walter Apush Rauschenbusch)

This week marks the anniversary of when influential Social Gospel theologian Walter Rauschenbusch died of cancer at age 56.

A pastor at Second German Baptist Church in New York City, Rauschenbusch was a supporter of the Social Gospel, which argued that religious groups were obligated to fix social ills.

In 1907, he wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis, which continues to influence modern day theologically progressive Christian circles.

"The name of Walter Rauschenbusch is synonymous with the Social Gospel," explained the Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology.

"Rauschenbusch captured the spirit of the Social Gospel Movement, alerting his contemporaries to a perceived social crisis unfolding in America during the opening decades of the twentieth century and exhorting them to seize a unique opportunity for social progress."