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"This volume considers two authors who represent different but complementary responses to social injustice and human degradation. The writings of Walter Rauschenbusch and Dorothy Day respond to an American situation that arose out of the industrial revolution and reflect especially-but not exclusively-urban life in the east coast of the United States during the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Although these two authors differ greatly, they both reacted to the extreme social inequality and strife that occurred between 1890 and the beginning of World War II. They shared a total commitment to the cause of social justice, their Christian faith, and an active engagement in the quest for a just social order. But the different ways they reacted to the situation generated different spiritualities. Rauschenbusch was a pastor, writer, historian, and seminary professor. Day was a journalist who became an organizer. The strategic differences between them, however, grew out of a common sustained reaction against the massive deprivation that surrounded them. There is no spiritual rivalry here. They complement each other and reinforce the Christian humanitarian motivation that drives them. Their work brings the social dimension of Christian spirituality to the surface in a way that had not been emphasized in the same focused way before them. They are part of an awakening to the degree to which the social order lies in the hands of the people who support it. Both Rauschenbusch and Day are examples of an explicit recognition of the social dimension of Christian spirituality, and a radical acting out of that response in two distinctly different ways"--
List of contents
I - Introduction to the Authors and Texts | 1
II - The Texts | 21
Walter Rauschenbusch, On Social Sin and Salvation | 23
Selections from
A Theology for the Social Gospel-Chapter X: The Social Gospel and Personal Salvation | 25
-Chapter XI: The Salvation of the Super-Personal Forces | 37
-Chapter XII: The Church as the Social Factor of Salvation | 44
Walter Rauschenbusch, On Prayer | 55
Selections from
Prayers of the Social Awakening-Against War | 57
-Against Alcoholism | 59
-Against the Servants of Mammon | 61
-Against Impurity | 63
-For the Kingdom of God | 65
-For Those Who Come After Us | 67
-On the Harm We Have Done | 69
-For the Prophets and Pioneers | 71
Dorothy Day, On the Founding of the Catholic Worker | 73
Selections from
The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social ActivistPaper, People and Work | 75
Labor | 100
III - Socially Engaged Spirituality | 121
Further Reading | 139
About the Series | 141
About the Editors | 147
About the author
Roger Haight (Edited By) Roger Haight,
a Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, has written several books in the area of fundamental theology. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Alfred Pach (Edited By) Alfred Pach III is an Associate Professor of Medical Sciences and Global Health at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an MDiv in Psychology and Religion from Union Theological Seminary.
Amanda Avila Kaminski (Edited By) Amanda Avila Kaminski is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Texas Lutheran University, where she also serves as Director of the program in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. She has written extensively in the area of Christian spirituality.
