Article contents
The Social Philosophy of Josiah Strong: Social Christianity and American Progressivism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries progressivism and social Christianity were two answers to the need of that day for social action and reform. A study of the social philosophy of Josiah Strong, a leader in the movement for applied Christianity, provides an interesting illustration of the harmony of the social ideas of these two movements.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1959
References
1. Taylor, Graham, Pioneering on Social Frontiers (Chicago, 1930), 380Google Scholar; Rausehenbusch, Walter, Christianizing the Social Order (New York, 1913), 9Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, “Josiah Strong,” The Congregationalist and Christian World, CI (05 11, 1916), 628.Google Scholar
2. Letters of tribute to Strong are in a miscellaneous collection provided by Elsie Strong in the author's possession. See also New York Times, May 8, 1916.
3. Hopkins, Charles Howard, The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915 (New Haven, 1940), 113–16, 260–63Google Scholar; May, Henry F., Protestant Churches and Industrial America (New York, 1949), 194.Google Scholar
4. Strong, Josiah, The New Era or The Coming Kingdom (New York, 1893), 11–12.Google Scholar For a summary of the influence of Darwinism on both the social gospel and progressivism see Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Revised Edition, Boston, 1955), 105–22.Google Scholar
5. Strong, Josiah, Our World. The New World-Religion (New York, 1915), 500, 395, 6Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, The Times and Young Men (New York, 1901), 214, 217–18Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, The Next Great Awakening (New York, 1902), 27, 104.Google Scholar
6. Strong, Josiah, Our World. The New World-Life (New York, 1913), viiiGoogle Scholar; Strong, Josiah, My Religion in Everyday Life (New York, 1910), 38–39Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, Religious Movements for Social Betterment (New York, 1900), 17Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, “The Disproportionate Growth of the City,” Social Service. A Monthly Review of Social and Industrial Betterment, I (09, 1906), 1–2Google Scholar; Strong, , World-Religion, 501–3Google Scholar; Next Great Awakening, 22; New Era, 188. For statements by other social-gospel leaders on the harmony of science and social Christianity see Gladden, Washington, How Much Is Left of the Old Doctrines? A Book for the People (Boston, 1899), 47, 17, 317–18, 27Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, Applied Christianity. Moral Aspects of Social Questions (Second Edition. Boston, 1886), 233–34, 189Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, Ruling Ideas of the Present Age (Boston, 1895), 296Google Scholar; Abbott, Lyman, The Evolution of Christianity (Boston, 1892), 237, 20, 59Google Scholar; Abbott, Lyman, Christianity and Social Problems (Boston, 1896), 84, 365.Google Scholar
7. Letter by Strong to the editors of The Kingdom, no date (1895?) in Scrapbook, IV, Evangelical Alliance for the United States. See also Strong, , World- Religion, 10, 395Google Scholar; Times and Young Men, 163–64; Gladden, , Recollections (Boston, 1909), 161, 86, 418Google Scholar; Taylor, Graham, Religion in Social Action (New York, 1913), 8Google Scholar; Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, 72, 137, 170Google Scholar. For a discussion of the basic concepts of the social gospel see Visser't Hooft, W. A., The Background of the Social Gospel in America (Haarlem, 1928), 161, 39–43Google Scholar; Hughley, J. Neal, Trends in Protestant Idealism (New York, 1948), 16–17, 121, 140–48.Google Scholar
8. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 154–55Google Scholar; New Era, 12, 230, 37; Gladden, , Applied Christianity, 231–33Google Scholar; Ely, Richard T., Social Aspects of Christianity And Other Essays (New York, 1889), 122.Google Scholar
9. Strong, , Next Great Awakening, 102, 104Google Scholar; World-Religion, 8, 18; World-Life, 164; Strong, Josiah, The Twentieth Century City (New York, 1898), 41Google Scholar; Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, 247Google Scholar; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 274, 280Google Scholar; Recollections 427.
10. Strong, , “Editorial,” Social Service, III (04, 1901), 90Google Scholar; World-Religion, 514; Times and Young Men, 174; New Era, 121, 113; Gladden, , How Much Is Left f the Old Doctrines?, 63, 42.Google Scholar
11. Josiah, Strong, “What the Kingdom Is,” The Gospel of the Kingdom, II (01, 1910), 1–2Google Scholar; New Era, 227; Next Great Awakening, 115; Times and Young Men, 60; World-Religion, 518.
12. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 42–43Google Scholar; World-Religion, 29–30, 271–72; Next Great Awakening, 115; New Era, 20; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, 94Google Scholar; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 12, 8Google Scholar; Abbott, Lyman, The Theology of an Evolutionist (Boston, 1897), 10Google Scholar; Bury, J. B., The Idea of Progress. An Inquiry Into Its Origin And Growth (New York, 1932), 334–49.Google Scholar
13. Strong, , World-Life, 80Google Scholar; New Era, 230–31; Strong, Josiah, The Challenge of the City (New York, 1907), 86Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, “The American Institute of Social Service,” Social Service, VI (10, 1902), 71.Google Scholar
14. Strong, , World-Life, 3–4Google Scholar; World-Religion, 29–30; Times and Young Men, 215; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas. 255–57Google Scholar; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, xxiiGoogle Scholar; Brown, Ira V., Lyman Abbott. Christian Evolutionist. A Study in Religious Liberalism (Cambridge, 1953), 234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Strong, , World-Life, 53Google Scholar; New Era, 53; World-Religion, 514.
16. Tributes to Strong by Graham Taylor and Robert A. Woods, May, 1916, in the Elsie Strong Collection. See also reviews praising Strong's, Our Country for its use of facts, Our Country. Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (New York, 1885), Appendix, 1–4Google Scholar. See also aTaylor, , Pioneering on Social Frantiers, 399.Google Scholar
17. Strong, , New Era, 19Google Scholar; World-Life, 174; World-Religion, 111; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 269, 245–46.Google Scholar
18. Strong, , Religious Movements for Social Betterment, 39Google Scholar; World-Life, 17, 39, 174 ff. New Era, 77–78, 19; Strong, Josiah, “The Increasing Oneness of the World,” The Gospel of the Kingdom, I (12, 1908), 17Google Scholar. For a statement to the effect that Strong “loudly announced in 1885 the rise of a progress theory built on combative racial and national pride,” see Budd, Louis J., “The Idea of Progress at the Close of the Gilded Age,” The Georgia Review, XI (Fall, 1957), 283.Google Scholar
19. Strong, , New Era, 116, 29Google Scholar; World-Life, 186; Times and Young Men, 220–21; Ely, , Social Aspects of Christianity, 122, 127.Google Scholar
20. Editorial note by Strong entitled “Service” and prefaced to his article, “The Law of Service Applied to Capital and Labor,” Social Service, II (July, 1900), 7Google Scholar; editorial note by Strong, , “Evolution not Revolution,” Social Service, II (02, 1900), 3Google Scholar; Strong's review of Introduction to Sociology By Fairbanks, Arthur, Social Service, III (06, 1901), 193Google Scholar. See also Strong, , Times and Young Men, 73–74, 106–9Google Scholar; Twentieth Century City, 141, 123–25, 117; Challenge of the City, 185–86, 174–78; World-Life, 92, 95; Ely, Richard T., The Social Law of Service (New York, 1896), 252Google Scholar; Ely, , Social Aspects of Christianity, 130Google Scholar; Gladden, , Applied Christianity, 187Google Scholar; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 83, 88, 94.Google Scholar
21. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 149–50Google Scholar; Next Great Awakening, 142. See also Knox, John, “Christianity and the Christian,” Van Dusen, Henry P., ed., The Christian Answer (New York, 1945), 165, 167Google Scholar; Paul Tillich, “The World Situation,” Ibid., 5–8, 21; Waldo Beach and John Coleman Bennett, “Christian Ethics,” Nash, Arnold S., ed., Protestant Thought in the Twentieth Century: Whence and Whither? (New York, 1951), 143, 135.Google Scholar
22. Strong, , World-Religion, 516–17Google Scholar; Next Great Awakening, 154–56; Times and Young Men, 140–41; New Era, 121. For statements urging acceptance of the practicability of applying the Gospel see Gladden, Applied Christianity, 177; Gladden, Recollections, 419; Gladden, , The Church and Modern Life (Boston, 1908), 106, 194Google Scholar; Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, 235Google Scholar; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, 81, 100Google Scholar; Ely, , Social Aspects of Christianity, 29.Google Scholar
23. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 174–75, 187–91, 73–74Google Scholar; World-Religion, 135–39; Next Great Awakening, 140.
24. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 117–23, 219Google Scholar; Challenge of the City, 170–72; Next Great Awakening, 196. See also Ely, Richard T., Socialism An Examination of Its Nature, Its Strength And Its Weakness, With Suggestions for Social Reform (New York, 1894), 94Google Scholar; Ely, , The Labor Movement in America (New York, 1886), 319Google ScholarPubMed; Ely, , The Social Law of Service, 127, 155Google Scholar; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, 47–51, 73, 92Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, Burning Questions Of the Life That Now Is And Of That Which Is To Come (New York, 1890), 241–42Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, Social Salvation (Boston, 1902), 6, 85Google Scholar; Gladden, Washington, Rights and Duties. An Address Delivered At the Fifty-Eighth Annual Commencement of the University of Michigan, Thursday, June 19, 1902 (Ann Arbor, 1902)Google Scholar; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 12Google Scholar; Gladden, , Recollections, 294.Google Scholar
25. Strong, , World-Life, ixGoogle Scholar; Strong, Josiah, Expansion Under New World-Conditions (New York, 1900), 272, 245–46.Google Scholar
26. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 216–17Google Scholar; New Era, 10. See also Strong, , “Evolution not Revolution,” Social Service, II (02, 1900), 3Google Scholar; Strong, , “The Home and Social Betterment,” Social Service, II (06, 1900), 7–10Google Scholar; Gladden, , Social Salvation, 5Google Scholar; Abbott, , The Church and Social Problems, 133Google Scholar; Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, v.Google Scholar
27. Strong, Josiah, “Prospectus,” The League for Social Service (New York, 1898), 4, 8Google Scholar. See also Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 255–57Google Scholar; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, xxiiGoogle Scholar; Brown, , Lyman Abbott, 234.Google Scholar
28. Strong, Josiah, “Why the League for Social Service,” Social Service, V (09, 1902), 43.Google Scholar
29. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 187–91, 74–75Google Scholar; New Era, 21, 290, 223; World- Religion, 139–40, 153, 108; Next Great Awakening, 142. See also Gladden, Recollections, 96, 313–14; Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 23Google Scholar; Gladden, , How Mach Is Left of the Old Doctrines?, 228–29Google Scholar; Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, 251–54Google Scholar; Abbott, , Theology of An Evolutionist, 188–90.Google Scholar
30. Strong, , World-Religion, 216.Google Scholar
31. Strong, , World-Religion, 489, 235, 24Google Scholar; Next Great Awakening, 129–30.
32. Beach, and Bennett, , “Christian Ethics,” in Nash, Protestant Thought, 131–34Google Scholar; Walter M. Horton, “Systematic Theology,” op. cit., 120.
33. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 16, 18, 218–19Google Scholar; World-Religion, 170–71, 53, 109–11; New Era, 125; manuscript sermon by Strong on immortality in the Elsie Strong Collection in the author's possession. See also Gladden, , Recollections, 417.Google Scholar
34. Strong, , World-Religion, 194, 189Google Scholar; New Era, 230, 241–42; Challenge of the City, 55; Next Great Awakening, 115; Religious Movements for Social Betterment, 31; Times and Young Men, 102, 16, 110–13; Gladden, Church and Modern Life, 89–90.
35. Strong, , Twentieth Century City, 140–41, 117Google Scholar; Our Country, 111; Challenge of the City, 173–74; World-Life, 93; Religious Movemants for Social Betterment, 40–41; New Era, 39. See also, Abbott, , Evolution of Christianity, 176Google Scholar; Gladden, , Church and Modern Life, 131.Google Scholar
36. Strong, , Next Great Awakening, 190Google Scholar; Our Country, 180.
37. Strong, Josiah, “The American Institute of Social Service,” Social Service, VI (10, 1902), 66Google Scholar; Strong, , New Era, 130Google Scholar; Next Great Awakening, 95; Religious Movements for Social Betterment, 16–17; Challenge of the City, 4, 95, 160; World-Religion, 29, 143.
38. Strong, , New Era, 119, 193Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, “The Signs of the Times and the Churches,” Charities Review, VI (03, 1897), 13Google Scholar. See also Gladden, , Ruling Ideas, 68, 261–62Google Scholar; Gladden, , Social Salvation, 136–38Google Scholar; Abbott, , Church and Social Problems, 129–30, 133Google Scholar; Taylor, , Religion in Social Action, 23, 38, 223–24.Google Scholar
39. Strong, , Challenge of the City, 158–59, 163Google Scholar; Our Country 143–44, 195; World-Life, 223–27; Hopkins, , Rise of Social Gospel, 110, 135, 322.Google Scholar
40. Strong, , Times and Young Men, 113Google Scholar; Strong, Josiah, “The Mutual Interests of Capital and Labor,” Social Serviae, IV (10, 1901), 103–5.Google Scholar
41. Holmes, John Haynes, “Josiah Strong,” Dictionary of American Biography, XVIII, 151.Google Scholar
42. Hopkins, , Rise of Social Gospel, 259–60.Google Scholar
43. For criticism of Strong as one who advocated action by social service activities as a substitute for political action and reform see Roberts, Robert R., “Economic and Political Ideas Expressed In the Early Social Gospel Movement, 1875–1900,” unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1952, 123–24, 151.Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by