Impacts of Civil War, Urbanization, and Immigration on American Protestant Churches

Critical Point #3 Social Gospel, Modernism and Fundamentalism

Backgrounds Civil War Urbanization and Immigration Darwinism and Liberal Theology from Germany

Civil War Churches divide over Slavery America saw three of the largest denominations split: Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians in the period from 1844-1861. The Methodists split in 1844, the Baptists in 1845, and the Presbyterians in 1857.

What Was at Stake? A Sermon from a Northern Church A Thanksgiving Day sermon, 1863 "The War and the Millennium" Key Idea - "If America is lost, the world is lost."

Overall Impact of Civil War The protestant churches are divided and will remain so into the 20thCentury

Urbanization and Immigration From the early 19thcentury to the early 20thcentury America would go through two dramatic changes that would permanently the country. The country changed from a rural, farming society to a urban manufacturing society The country adds a significant number of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe

Urbanization The city is the nerve center of our civilization. It is also the storm center... Here is heaped the social dynamite; here roughs, gamblers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men of all sorts, congregate; men who are ready on any pretext to raise riots for the purpose of destruction and plunder; here gather foreigners and wage-workers; here skepticism and irreligion abound; here inequality is the greatest and most obvious, and the contrast between opulence and penury the most striking; here is suffering the sorest. As the greatest wickedness in the world is to be found not among the cannibals of some far off coast, but in Christian lands where the light of truth is diffused and rejected, so the utmost depth of wretchedness exists not among savages, who have few wants, but in great cities, where, in the presence of plenty and of every luxury men starve.... Josiah Strong Water runs down hill, and the highest hills are the great cities. If we can stir them, we can stir the whole nation Dwight Moody, 1876

Urbanization Strong and Moody, like many Protestants, came to see the cities as containing both the greatest opportunity to build up Christian civilization, as well as the greatest threat to tear it down. WHY?

Urbanization (cont.) Between 1860 and 1920, the number of people living in American cities of 8,000 or more inhabitants jumped from 6.2 million (19.7%) to 54.3 million (58.9%). Boston grew from 177,840 residents to 560,892 Philadelphia from a population of 565, 529 to 1,293,697 New York from 1,080,330 to 3,437,202 citizens Chicago had grown from a mere seventeen buildings in 1833, to a population of 1,698,575 by 1900, making it the fifth largest city in the world. Even more remarkably, the city achieved this growth despite having suffered a devastating fire in 1871.

Urbanization (Cont.) As a result, Massive Social Problems Poor Housing and sanitation overcrowding, poor quality construction, garbage, unsafe drinking water, poor food, etc.

Immigration Many of these new inhabitants of cities were immigrants. Between 1860 and 1920, close to 28,500,000 foreigners entered the American work force; this number almost equaled the total population of the country in 1850. From 1860 to 1900, 14 million immigrants arrived. By 1900, fully two-thirds of the urban population was foreign-born.They were a mixture of Roman Catholics and Protestants from Europe, Jews from Europe, and Chinese.

Roman Catholics In 1820, Roman Catholics comprised less than 1% of the population; by 1830, 3.8%; by 1840, 5.8%; and by 1850, 12.5%. This trend would continue throughout the nineteenth century. By 1870, 40 % of all churchgoers were Roman Catholics.

Impact With the rise of industrialization and the massive influx of immigrant workers, class wars erupted. The country was rocked by riots, boycotts and strikes. These traumas produced exceedingly complex problems that were economic, social, moral, and religious in nature. PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY WAS ROCKED

Chicago Plagued by overcrowding and poor sanitation, it suffered waves of epidemics. One historian describes the city as filled with areas of noisome quagmires where human waste often spilled into drinking wells. Garbage was strewn in roadside ditches. Plank streets and sidewalks crisscrossed over piles of garbage and human and animal waste. The Chicago River was the dumping ground for various manufacturing wastes, including the runoff from tanneries, packing plants, distilleries and glue factories. William McCormick wrote to his brother and described the river as positively red with blood under the Rush Street bridge and down past our factory. He concluded, What a pestilence may result from it I don t know. William McCormick s last comment proved prophetic. Typhoid and dysentery took such a toll that many believed Chicago had the highest death rate per capita of any city in the country.

Chicago Added to this ghastly elixir was an exceptionally high rate of drunkenness. Chicago had one saloon for every two hundred residents and its second largest industry was liquor distilling. Up to three quarters of the population was illiterate. For those workers, the saloon served as a newspaper. In addition to housing and health issues, working people often toiled in appalling conditions. The meat packing industry served as an example. The speed at which the hogs were dispatched was amazing. Olmstead remarked, We took out our watches and counted thirty-five seconds, from the moment one hog touched the table until the next occupied its place. This disassembly line did not require skilled labour, reducing the men to interchangeable pieces who were easily replaced. Although this was far from the only cause, it does help explain the rising labor unrest in the years up to the Civil War.

Catholics in Chicago In addition was the rise of the Roman Catholic population in Chicago. Largely because of immigrants from Ireland, Germany and French Canada, the Catholic population experienced a period of strong growth between 1833 and 1880. . In fact, by 1890 the city's Catholics outnumbered its Protestants more than 2-to-1 Strong anti-Catholic sentiment permeated the country. In September 1853 the Chicago Tribune pointed out to its readers that the Pope had placed the United States under the protection of the Virgin Mary and warned of Catholic intrusion, due to the increased size of the Catholic population. A later article, from October of that year, painted the Catholic Church as the enemy of the Gospel and the best interests of man, stating that Catholic doctrine was inimical to our Republic... they are like oil and water, they cannot amalgamate, and one must obtain the ascendancy over the other. The attack continued in November, with the paper arguing that the pledge of loyalty taken by all bishops to the Pope was in essence an oath of allegiance to a foreign authority and therefore the bishops were not free to be true Americans.

Darwinism and Liberal Theology from Germany These two ideas will dramatically effect American Protestantism

Darwinism A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms have developed from other species, primarily through natural selection. Also called Darwinian theory. It is optimistic, things improve through natural selection.

Liberal Theology a broad term which basically refers to a movement within American Protestant denominations to stress the social role of Christianity. This movement is characterized by a lack of emphasis on or denial of certain basic doctrines like the truthfulness of the Bible. So, Biblical themes such as repentance from personal moral sin, hell and damnation for those who reject Christ, His blood atonement and His future literal reign are minimized, or denied. It tends to see the use of reason, as superior to Biblical revelation. Thus the liberal idea of religion as a personal relationship with God is one which is not necessarily bound to a literal reading of the Bible.

Key Idea Biblical Higher Criticism arising from 19th century European rationalism, generally takes a secular approach asking questions regarding the origin and composition of the text, including when and where it originated, how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced, what influences were at work in its production, and what original oral or written sources may have been used in its composition; and the message of the text as expressed in its language, including the meaning of the words as well as the way in which they are arranged in meaningful forms of expression. The principles of higher criticism are based on reason rather than revelation and are also speculative by nature. RELIGION AND THE BIBLE HAVE EVOLVED adapted to the times.

SOCIAL GOSPEL This is a response to the urban problems of the 19thand early 20thcentury. How can we speak to these terrible social problems? Key Figure - Walter Rauschenbusch, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden Key Idea Christianity is meant to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Social Gospel The Gospel is not primarily about personal salvation it is about Social Salvation. We find the true meaning of the Gospel by applying Higher Criticism to the New Testament. Paul s teachings were an evolution of Jesus message. Jesus taught the Kingdom of God a Social Gospel. But Paul changed that to an individual Gospel because the Greek world had no concept of the Kingdom of God. Jews, Jesus primary audience did, we know this from the Old Testament. SO, tying to Darwinism the World is improving and we must work to bring in the Kingdom by applying the ethics of the Kingdom Notice how this is consistent with Puritanism and American Evangelicalism? Making a Christian Country a light to the World Remember the sermon on Thanksgiving day 1863? SOCIAL SALVATION TIED TO DARWINISM, LIBERALISM AND HIGHER CRITICISM

Critical Point #4 Neo Orthodoxy Neo Evangelicalism

LIBERALISM or MODERNISM At its core, Modernism is an attempt save Christianity. In short, Modernists or Liberalism is committed to making Christianity acceptable to modern people. Key idea accommodate Christianity to Modern world Key People Harry Emerson Fosdick, William Raney Harper, Shailer Mathews

Liberalism or Modernism Example Modern people cannot believe stories about people walking on water, or 5000 people fed from 5 loaves and 2 fishes. If we insist people believe things like this, Christianity will die in the modern world. Those old people that wrote the Bible were not a modern scientific people. Because they did not understand science, they created those stories to explain what they could not understand. But we are modern, advanced people. We know better. In essence, Modernists reduce Christianity to Ethics. Christianity is living like Jesus! What would Jesus Do NOT believing in miracles.

FUNDAMENTALISM Key Idea Supernatural is essential to Christianity Key People J. Gresham Machen, R. A. Torrey, James M.Grey, A. C. Dixon, Billy Sunday

The Fundamentals Inerrancy of Scripture Deity of Christ Virgin Birth Substitutionary Atonement Christ s Resurrection and Bodily Second Coming Historicity of Miracles