Social Gospel

The Social Gospel movement, led largely by male ministers, emerged in American Protestant churches in the 1880s. The movement sought to redefine the spiritual and socioeconomic dimensions of manhood and the gospel of Christ in a secularizing, urbanizing, and industrializing culture. Believing that these developments generated social problems that prevented individual and social salvation, and threatened Christian manliness and the role of Protestant Christianity in society, Social Gospelers articulated an ideal of manhood that confronted these challenges while remaining grounded in morality and spiritual commitment. They rejected older ideals of entrepreneurial, self-made manhood in favor of a model of Christian manhood that emphasized service, self-sacrifice, and teamwork.

The men at the core of the Social Gospel movement sought new meanings for manhood and Christianity on the ...