What do American evangelicals think about social justice? This is not an easy question to answer because it largely depends on which evangelist you ask and when you asked them.
Broadly speaking, social justice refers to the fair distribution of privileges and opportunities in society across racial, ethnic, and economic spectrums.
Over the decades, various social justice issues, including racial equality and economic justice, have been debated in the pages of evangelical publications, at elders’ meetings, at congregational gatherings, and at denominational conferences. Furthermore, these debates have often been shaped by historical and cultural contexts as much as underlying theological commitments.
Looking at the history of the evangelical movement, attitudes toward social justice issues have never been monolithic. However, patterns have emerged that are instructive for today’s evangelicals seeking to understand how their faith should inform their civic engagement and vice versa.
Below is a brief overview of the historical controversies and movements within American evangelicalism regarding social justice, beginning with a theological debate that began more than a century ago.
1900s-1930s: The modernist-fundamentalist controversy and the social gospel
Interestingly, this discussion of evangelical attitudes toward social justice begins with Charles Darwin and the theological upheaval in American Christianity that followed his rise to prominence.
When Darwin published his seminal work “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, outlining his theory of evolutionary biology, he sent shockwaves not only through the scientific community but also through the Christian Church, calling into question traditional interpretations literal interpretations of the creation story found in Genesis.
Coupled with the popularity of higher criticismwhich rose to prominence around the same time and challenged traditional views on the authorship and correct interpretation of certain biblical texts, many Christian thinkers began to reconsider certain theological commitments that had long defined Christian orthodoxy.1
Among the pledges reconsidered were literal birth, death, and virginity. resurrection of Jesus Christ, his miracles and his atoning sacrifice on the cross, as well as the inspiration of the Scriptures. The result was a “modernist” version of Christianity that bore little resemblance to orthodox Protestantism.2
For example, Friedrich Schleiermacher, who today would be considered a progressive Christian and who was an early influencer of the High Criticism movement, once said: “The essence of religion consists in the feeling of a absolute dependence. » For Schleiermacher, the fact that Jesus literally rose from the dead had little effect on this theology.
Nevertheless, by the late 1930s, the modernist theological framework took hold of most major Protestant denominations and seminaries, leading conservative Christian leaders to found their own denominational networks and educational institutions.3 These conservative thinkers became known as fundamentalists, a name that was not yet derogatory and was derived from “The Fundamentals,” a series of 90 essays on essential Christian doctrines published between 1910 and 1915.
1 Bruce L. Shelley, “Church History in Plain Language,” 2nd ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 397-400.
2 Edward Engelbrecht, ed., “The Church from Age to Age: A History from Galilee to World Christianity” (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House, 2011), 818-819.
3 Ibid., 857-858.
