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Religious Liberalism in the South During the Progressive Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

John Lee Eighmy
John Lee Eighmy
Affiliation:
Professor of History Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma
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Extract

The social gospel was one of the most productive intellectual movements to originate from American Protestantism. Essentially, the new religious ideology of the late nineteenth century brought the ethical element of Christianity to bear upon the unprecedented problems of social adjustment caused by the rise of an industrial society. It inspired an outpouring of social criticism and reform activity unequalled in the nation's religious experience. The urban-centered problems of slums, crime, political corruption and industrial strife turned progressive-minded churchmen to the mission of social uplift.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , September 1969 , pp. 359 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1969

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References

1. The principal works on the social gospel are Hopkins, Charles Howard, The Rise of the social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1865–1915 (New Haven. Yale University Press, 1940)Google Scholar; Abell, Aaron Ignatius, The Urban Impact on American Protestantism, 1865–1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953)Google Scholar; May, Henry F., Protestant Churches and Industrial America (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949).Google Scholar

2. Sanford, Elias B., Origin and History of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America (Hartford: S. S. Scranton Co., 1916)Google Scholar; Cameron, Richard M., Methodism and Society in Historical Perspective (New York; Abingdon Press, 1961), pp. 315–24.Google Scholar

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6. A considerable amount of social criticism by Southern liberals appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On George W. Cable's career as a reformer see his The Silent South (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1885)Google Scholar, and Turner, Arlin, Cable, George W., a Biography (Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), chapters 14, 15, 18.Google Scholar The succession of social critics includes Hines, Walter Page, The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1902)Google Scholar: Murphy, Edgar Gardner, Problems of the Present South (New York: Macmillan, 1904)Google Scholar; MacCorkle, William Alexander, Some Southern Questions Asked (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908)Google Scholar; Mims, Edwin, The Advancing South (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1927)Google Scholar; Dabney, Virginius, Liberalism in the South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1932).Google Scholar

7. Woodward, , Origins of the New South, pp. 371–95,Google Scholar has valuable insights on Southern Progressivism. Other corrective studies are: Link, Arthur S., “The Progressive Movement in the South, 1870–1914,” North Carolina Historical Review, XXIII (04, 1946), 172–205Google Scholar; Scott, Anne Firor, “Progressive Wind from the South, 1906–1913,” Journal of Southern History, XXIX (02, 1963), 53–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Doherty, Herbert J. Jr., “Voices of Protest from the New South, 1875–1910,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLII (06, 1955), 45–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Murphy, , Problems of the Present South, pp. 7, 194.Google Scholar

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10. Woodward, , Origins of the Hew South, pp. 425–6Google Scholar; Hendrick, Burton J., The Life and Letters of Walter Hines Page (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1925), pp. 98–101.Google Scholar

11. Otken, Charles H., The Ills of the South (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1894), pp. 60, 72, 112, 130, 173Google Scholar; Woodward, , Origins of the New South, pp. 412–5Google Scholar; Bailey, Joseph Cannon, Seaman A. Knapp, Schoolmaster of American Agriculture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1945), pp. 133–174.Google Scholar Poe edited The Progressive Farmer, formerly a Populist party sheet.

12. Murphy, , Problems of the Present South, pp. 205–31Google Scholar is a firsthand account of the educational movement. Hendrick, Burton J., The Training of an American, the Earlier Life and Letters of Waiter Hines Page (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), chapter 11Google Scholar contains important correspondence on the movement. Davidson, Elizabeth H., Child Labor Legislation in the Southern Textile States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939), pp. 27–41. 85. 122–6Google Scholar; Doherty, Herbert J. Jr., “Alexander J. McKelway: Preacher to Progressive,” Journal of Southern History, XXIV (05, 1958), 177–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woodward, , Origins of the New South, p. 33.Google Scholar

14. Bueke, Emory Steven (ed). The History of American Methodism (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1964), III, 332–3Google Scholar; Hofstadter, Richard, The Aqe of Beftrm, from Brijan to FDR (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), pp. 151–2, 287.Google Scholar That prohibition was a part of Progressivism is the thesis of Timberlake's, James H., Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900–1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), pp. 1–38.Google Scholar

15. Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 1891 (Richmond, 1891), p. 244.Google Scholar

16. Spain, , “Attitudes of Southern Baptists,” pp. 272–3.Google Scholar

17. Proceedings of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1886 (Nashville, 1886), p. 33; 1896, p. 45.Google Scholar

18. Journal of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1882 (Nashville, 1882), pp. 82, 170; 1886, p. 195; 1890, p. 150.Google Scholar

19. Timberlake, , Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, pp. 119–20Google Scholar; Whitener, Daniel Jay, Prohibition in North Carolina, 1715–1945 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1945), pp. 134, 153Google ScholarSellers, James Benson, The Prohibition Movement in Alabama, 1702–1943 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1943), p. 101.Google Scholar

20. Odegard, Peter H., Pressure Politics, the Story of the Anti-Saloon League (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928), pp. 22, 121, 190Google Scholar; Asbury, Herbert, The Great Illusion, an Informal History of Prohibition (Garden City, N. Y.; Doubleday, 1950), pp. 98, 121–4Google Scholar; Whitener, , Prohibition in North Carolina, p. 134Google Scholar; Sellers, , Prohibition in Alabama, p. 102Google Scholar; Dabney, , Dry Messiah, pp. 49–52, 81–99, 120–7.Google Scholar

21. Turner, Alice Lucille, A Study of the Content of the Sewanee Review with Historical Introduction (Nashville: Peabody College, 1931), pp. 31, 92–107.Google ScholarBassett, James S.announced his editorial policy in the South Atlantic Quarterly, I (01, 1902), 2–3.Google Scholar See also William Preston Few, “Southern Public Opinion,” ibid., IV (January, 1905), 1–12; Murphy, Edgar Gardner, “The Task of the Leader,” Sewanee Review, XV (01, 1907), 1–30.Google Scholar

22. The editorials “Stirring up the Fires of Race Antipathy,” South Atlantic Quarterly, II (10, 1903), 297–305Google Scholar; and “Trinity College and Academic Liberty,” ibid., III (January, 1904), 6 relate to the attack on Bassett after he had referred to Booker T. Washington as the greatest Southerner since Robert E. Lee. See also Edwin Minis, “President Theodore Roosevelt,” ibid., IV (January, 1905), 48–62; James W. Garner, “The Negro Question in the South,” Ibid., VII (January, 1908), 11–22; and the editorial “Remedies for Lynch Law,” Sewanee Review, VIII (01, 1900), 1–11.Google Scholar The October, 1906, issue of the South Atlantic Quarterly published a symposium on race by Episcopal Bishop Robert Strange, Methodist Bishop Charles B. Galloway and Baptist editor J. W. Bailey.

23. McCulloeh, James E. (ed.), The Call of the New South, Addresses Delivered at the Southern Sociological Congress, 1912 (Nashville, 1912), pp. 7, 14.Google Scholar

24. ibid., pp. 16–20.

25. McKelway, Alexander J., “Remarks of the Acting President,” The South Mobilizing for Social Service, Addresses Delivered at the Southern Sociological Congress, 1913 (Nashville, 1913), p. 14.Google Scholar

26. For examples see: Crafts, Wilbur F., “The Potential Resources of the South for Leadership in Social Service,” Call of the New South, pp. 311–22Google Scholar; Thirkield, William P., “A Cathedral of Cooperation,” Mobilizing for Social Service, pp. 476–82Google Scholar; John A. Rice “Report of the Committee on the Church and Social Service,” ibid., pp. 489–503; McCulloch, James E., “Introduction,” Battling for Social Betterment, Southern Sociological Congress, 1914 (Nashville, 1914), p. 3Google Scholar; “A Creed for a Crusade,” The New Chivalry—Health, Southern Sociological Congress, 1915 (Nashville, 1915), p. 11.

27. “The Church and Social Service,” Call of the New South, pp. 275–92; “Social 8erviee and the Church,” Mobilizing for Social Service, pp. 596–612.

28. “The Social Program of the Church,” ibid., pp. 504–11.

29. “The Church and Modern Industry,” Call of the New South, pp. 292–807; “The Preparation of the Church for Social Service,” Battling for Social Betterment, pp. 98–108.

30. “Qualification of Social Workers,” Call of the New South, pp. 340–52.

31. G. W. Dyer, “Southern Problems that Challenge our Thought,” ibid., p. 30.

32. “Introductory Note,” ibid., p. 7.

33. ibid., p. 9.

34. For Presbyterian criticism of the social gospel see: Lingle's, Walter L., “The Teaching of Jesus and Modern Social Problems,” Union Seminary Afagarine, XXVII (04, 1916), 205Google Scholar; and his review of Rauschenbusch's A Theology for the Social Gospel in ibid., XXIX (April, 1918), 274. See also A. D. P. Gilmour's reviews of three social gospel books in ibid., XXI (October-November, 1909), 157–8 and J. P. Hawerton's, “The Church and Social Reform,” ibid., XXV (October-November, 1913), 30–4. Methodist objections were voiced by Tigert, John T. in “Regeneration through Environment,” The Methodist Review, XXVIII (09–10, 1902), 913–5Google Scholar and Frank M. Thomas in “Is the Methodist Church Reaping?” ibid., XLV (April, 1919), 548–50.Among Southern Baptists the most persistent critic of social Christianity was Home Mission Board executive Victor I. Masters. See his Call of the South (Atlanta: Home Mission Board, 1918), pp. 27, 162–3Google Scholar; and his “Baptists and the Christianizing of America in the New Order,” Review and Expositor, XVI (07, 1920), 280.98.Google Scholar Major Baptist theologians who quarreled with the New Theology were Mullins, Edgar Y., Axioms of Religion (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1908), pp. 14–17, 201–10;Google Scholar and Carver, W. O. in his review of Rauschenbusch's A Theology for the Social Gospel in the Review and Expositor, XIV (07, 1918), 359.Google Scholar Typical of the mixed reactions are the statements in the Annual of the Baptist Convention of Texas, 1915 (n.p., 1915), pp. 26–8Google Scholar; 1916, pp. 27–9; 1918, p. 31; Minutes of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, 1913 (n.p., 1913), p. 62Google Scholar; 1914, pp. 109–13; 1915, p. 103; 1916, pp. 97–8.

35. Minutes of the Presbyterian Church, 1891, p. 228; 1913, p. 701,Google Scholar

36. ibid., 1914, pp. 71, 80b [sic].

37. ibid., 1904, p. 41. Opposition to the social service program of the Federal Council appeared in ibid., 1913, p. 17.

38. Smith, Egbert Watson, “The Mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church,” Semi-Centennial Memorial Addresses Delivered before the General Assembly of 1911 (Richmond: Committee of Publications, 1911), pp. 41–56.Google Scholar

39. Bencham, Dewitt M., “Methods of City Evangelization,” Union Seminary Magazine, XV (12, 1903-01, 1904), 105–18.Google Scholar The most unequivocal endorsement of the social gospel was Home Mission Board Secretary Charles L. Thompson's, “The Institutional Church,” ibid., XV (February-March, 1904), 233–7.

40. Minutes of the Presbyterian Church, 1913, pp. 11, 66.Google Scholar The full statement appeared in ibid., 1914, pp. 161–3.

41. An account of the founding of the committee by its chairman is in ibid., 1944, pp. 45–9.

42. Dargan, E. C., “The Teaching of Sociology in the Seminary,” The Seminary Magazine, (03, 1900), 298–9.Google Scholar

43. The Ethics of Jesus and Social Progress (New York: George H. Doran, 1914).Google Scholar For Gardner's contribution in the field of social ethics, see Whaley's, Early R. “The Ethical Emphasis of Charles S. Gardner” (unpublished Th.M. thesis, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1953).Google Scholar

44. Articles promoting the social gospel ideology Include: Gardner, , “The Old Faith and the New Philosophy,” Review and Expositor, IV (01, 1908), 1–27Google Scholar; R. E. Gaines “The Layman in the Social Order,” ibid., XIII (Janaury, 1917), 16–31; Marshall Louis Mertins, “Is the Modern Church a Good Samaritan?” ibid., XIII (April, 1917), 223–35; and Edward B. Pollard, “Baptist Preaching In the New Era,” ibid., XVI (July, 1920), 299–305. This journal reviewed dozens of titles on the church and society by Rauschenbuseh, Batten, Washington Gladden, E. A. Ross, Charles Stelzle, Shailer Mathews and many others. Reviews criticized the theological liberalism of the authors, but most were sympathetic to the new emphasis on applied Christianity.

45. The Baptist World Alliance, Second Congress, 1911 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Committee, 1911), pp. 333–4.Google Scholar

46. Minutes of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, 1911, pp. 74, 91Google Scholar; Minutes of the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia, 1911 (n. p., 1911), p. 15Google Scholar; Annual of the North Carolina Baptist Convention, 1912 (Raleigh, 1912), pp. 73–5; 1913, p. 85; 1914, pp. 90–1Google Scholar; Minutes of the Baptist Denomination in South Carolina, 1914 (Greenville, 1914), pp. 102–8Google Scholar; Minutes of the Baptist Convention of Texas, 1915 (n. p., 1915), pp. 26–8.Google Scholar

47. Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1914, pp. 36–8.Google Scholar

48. Hawley, J. W., “The Tweuetieth Century Protestant Outlook,” The Methodist Review, XLIX (03–04, 1900), 316, 318.Google Scholar

49. See for example Wilbur F. Tillett, “Some Currents of Contemporaneous Theological Thought,” ibid., L (July-August, 1901), 560–75; J. T. Curry, “What is Higher Criticism?” ibid., LIV (January, 1905), 472–8; Marion T. Plyer, “The Inevitable in the Southern Pulpit,” ibid., LII (April, 1903), 291–300.

50. The articles may be found respectively in: LIX (January, 1910), 223–9; LXII (October, 1913), 682–98; LVI (January, 1907), 32–51; XLI (July, 1907), 457–67.

51. Sanford, Elias B., Origin and History of the Federal Council, pp. 359–67Google Scholar; Sanford, , Church Federation, Inter-Church Conference on Federation, (New York: Fleming H. Bevell, 1906), pp. 283, 287, 475, 611, 656.Google Scholar See the strong endorsement of the Federal Council in the “Bishops' Address,” Journal of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1910, p. 40.Google Scholar

52. Ibid., 1914, pp. 84, 249–50; 1926, p. 382; The Doctrine and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1914 (Nashville, 1914), pp. 373–4Google Scholar; Dabney, , Dry Messiah, pp. 162, 167–9.Google Scholar Cannon had a hand in the Interchurch Commission's inquiry into the great steel strike of 1919.

53. Bailey, , Southern White Protestantism, pp. 164–6.Google Scholar