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'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.
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."
Summary
First published in 1907, Christianity and the Social Crisis outsold every other religious volume for three years and then became a mainstay for Christians and other religious people seriously interested in social justice, inspiring leaders such as Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century brings this classic to a new generation with the addition of new essays by leading religious thinkers who have continued the legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel Movement:
- Phyllis Trible responding to "The Historical Roots of Christianity"
- Tony Campolo responding to "The Social Aims of Jesus"
- Joan Chittister responding to "The Social Impetus of Primitive Christianity"
- Stanley Hauerwas responding to "Why Has Christianity Never Undertaken the Work of Social Reconstruction?"
- Cornel West responding to "The Present Crisis"
- James A. Forbes Jr. responding to "The Stake of the Church in the Social Movement"
- Jim Wallis responding to "What to Do"
