ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the major ideas that came together in the closing decades of the nineteenth century to form the core of social gospel thought. Faith in evolution was one of the key concepts in the theology of the social gospel. However, Asa Gray set a pattern that was to be followed by a number of later American theologians, including the social gospelers, when he argued for a “Lamarckian” interpretation of Charles Darwin’s work. Faith in evolutionism appeared very clearly in the works of the three most prominent social gospelers, Walter Rauschenbusch, Josiah Strong, and Washington Gladden. Very closely aligned with the social gospelers’ acceptance of evolution was their faith in inevitable progress. It looks at the leading social gospel figures and describes a tremendous surge of optimism about the potential for progress. A creed based on the innate goodness of humanity would be a cornerstone of social gospel theology.
