Episode 6 - The Black Social Gospel

This week we narrow in on the early 20th century, what’s called the Progressive Era in the U.S., to the thinking of Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and white pastor and activist Walter Rauschenbusch. For this episode, Dr. Sawyer shares an interview with her colleague Rev. Dr. Julian Cook whose doctoral research spanned these thinkers, in light of what’s called the Social Gospel.[02:03] Read Julian’s bio here.[04:57] Walter Rauschenbusch was a prominent Social Gospel leader. The Social Gospel was a movement in the early 20th century, where Christian leaders (particularly Liberal Christians) recognized that people’s tangible, social needs were as important as their personal salvation. They focused on issues like child labor reform, living wage, factory conditions, and so on.[06:38] I’m showboating here a bit because I was in the middle of writing about this topic for my dissertation![20:57] We are discussing whether or not there was a Black Social Gospel (as defined by scholar Gary Dorrien out of Union Theological Seminary). The Social Gospel leaders, like Rauschenbusch, were not particularly attuned to racial issues at the time. To call someone like Du Bois a social gospeler is a bit of a misnomer! (But read Dorrien’s case here.)25:55 Father Divine was the leader of the International Peace Mission movement. He has been called a cult leader by some, and a social activist by others. See Traci West’s chapter on him in her book Disruptive Christian Ethics or Judith Weisenfeld’s chapter in Devotions and Desires.