Social Gospel

Members of the UUFB Sunday Service Committee (Kathryn Hohmann, Bruce Swarny, Sandra Oldendorf and help from Carolyn Widman), will lead a service on the social gospel, a movement that grew during the rapid industrialization of the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Proponents were concerned about “triumphant capitalism,” and some progressive ministers prescribed a large dose of “practical Christianity” to right these wrongs and directly address the social needs of the masses. The presentation will include ideas from progressive ministers such as Rev. Henry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of New York’s Riverside Church in the 1930s and 40s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and contemporary theologian Rev. William Barber.