Synopses & Reviews
n the wake of the success of God's Politics, comes an anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis, a book which outsold every other religious volume for three years and which has become a classic and mainstay for any Christian seriously interested in social justice.
PBS has named Rauschenbusch one of the most influential American religious leaders in the last 100 years, and Christianity Today named this book one of the top books of the century that have shaped contemporary religious thought. So it seems fitting on the 100th anniversary of the publication of Christianity and the Social Crisis that Rauschenbush's great-grandson should bring this classic back into print, adding a response to each chapter by a well-known contemporary author such as Jim Wallis, Tony Camplo, Cornel West, Richard Rorty, Stanley Hauerwas, and others.
Between 1886 and 1897, he was pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City, an area of extreme poverty. As he witnessed massive economic insecurity, he began to believe that Christianity must address the physical as well as the spiritual needs of humankind. Rauschenbusch saw it as his duty as a minister and student of Christ to act with love by trying to improve social conditions.
This, in fact, inspired leaders such as Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Ghandi and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Christianity is in its nature revolutionary Rauschenbusch wrote, and the significance of his work is that it spoke of society's responsibility to the poor and downtrodden.
In the present atmosphere of heightened debate and even antagonism betweenpolitical and religious viewpoints Christianity and the Social Crisis will again be a book that will provoke intense responses by people on every side. As the disparity between the rich and the poor in America continues to widen in the 21st century, the book's explication of the radical social message of Jesus is as applicable today as it was 100 years ago.
Review
“A book which left an indelible imprint on my thinking.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Review
Republication in this form is a forceful intervention in contemporary debates in American religion and politics. Commonweal
Review
In a 100th-anniversary edition, Paul Raushenbush, the authors great-grandson, has reprinted the text with essays by Cornel West, the Rev. Jim Wallis and others to prove that one can be a dedicated Christian and a social reformer at the same time. The New York Times Book Review
Review
Rightly viewed from the beginning as the greatest statement of the social gospel movement . . . and set a new standard for political theology. Christian Century
Review
Many of the societal concerns and questions of 1907, e.g., his alarm over iner-city poverty, societal injustice, crime, and ineffectual government, are just as relevant today. Library Journal
Synopsis
"Christianity is in its nature revolutionary," wrote Walter Rauschenbusch, and his writings speak of society's responsibility to the poor and downtrodden. Rauschenbusch's classic Christianity and the Social Crisis is a mainstay for any Christian seriously interested in social justice. As the disparity between the rich and the poor in America continues to widen in the 21st century, the book's explanation of the radical social message of Jesus is as applicable today as it was when it was first published back in 1907.
Rauschenbusch's great-grandson Paul Raushenbush has brought Christianity and the Social Crisis back into print. In this updated edition, each chapter has added commentary by a well-known contemporary author such as Jim Wallis, Cornel West, or Richard Rorty.
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was the primary theologian of the Social Gospel movement whose mission was to meet social needs through the ministrations of the institutional Church. Rauschenbusch gave this special emphasis a theology, legitimizing it in mainstream American Protestantism. Rauschenbusch's work influenced Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Desmond Tutu, among others.
Paul Raushenbush graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has served at The Riverside Church in New York City and has been involved in ministry to street youth in Seattle and Sao Paulo, Brazil. An ordained American Baptist minister, Pastor Paul is Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University.
"In the early 50's I read Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis, a book which left an indelible imprint on my thinking."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Synopsis
The 100th Anniversary Edition of the Classic That Changed the American Church Forever
Published at the beginning of the twentieth century, Christianity and the Social Crisis is the epoch-making book that dramatically expanded the churchs vision of how it could transform the world. The 100th anniversary edition updates this classic with new essays by leading preachers and theologians.
About the Author
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was the leading proponent of the Social Gospel Movement whose mission was to reform society to meet the social needs of the poor through the ministrations of the institutional church. PBS recently called him "one of the most influential American religious leaders of the last 100 years."