Social Gospel

Social Gospel, a liberal movement in American Protestantism, prominent in the late 19th century, which sought to apply Christian principles to a variety of social problems engendered by industrialization. Its founders and leaders included the clergymen Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, who tried to counteract the effects of expanding capitalism by teaching religion and human dignity to the working class. Proponents of the Social Gospel also opposed the tacit support given by organized religions to unrestrained capitalism.

The Social Gospel movement's views were formally expressed in 1908 when the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America (a forerunner of the National Council of Churches) adopted a “social creed of the churches.” This creed called for the abolition of child labor, improved working conditions for women, a day off each week, and the right of all workers to a living wage. Many of the aims of the Social Gospel movement were espoused by organized labor in the early years of the century, and some were later incorporated in the New Deal programs of the 1930s.