author
Walter Rauschenbusch
1861–1918
A leading voice of the Social Gospel, this Baptist pastor and theologian urged Christians to face poverty, inequality, and the pressures of industrial life with both faith and public action. His writing helped reshape American Protestant thinking in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
The Social Principles of Jesus
by Walter Rauschenbusch
About the author
Born in Rochester, New York, in 1861, Walter Rauschenbusch grew up in a religious family and went on to study at the University of Rochester and Rochester Theological Seminary. He later became a Baptist pastor and then a professor at Rochester Theological Seminary, where he taught church history.
Much of his outlook was shaped by years of ministry in New York City among working-class immigrant communities. Seeing hardship up close led him to argue that Christianity should not only care for individual souls but also confront social problems such as poverty, injustice, and unhealthy labor conditions. That conviction made him one of the central figures in the Social Gospel movement in the United States.
Rauschenbusch also became known through influential books that brought theology and social reform together in a way that reached far beyond the church world. He died in 1918, but his ideas continued to influence later conversations about faith, justice, and the responsibilities of public life.