ABSTRACT
While denominational crises roiled Protestantism in the wake of the Second World War, key elements of Social Gospel principles migrated beyond those denominations into a variety of global governmental and civil society contexts. This chapter traces that migration using the concepts of social evangelists, social engineers, and social reconstructionists. Social evangelists articulated Social Gospel aims and commitments in the institutions of civil society; this chapter describes the role of religious leaders involved in efforts to establish the United Nations as examples of these evangelists. Social engineers sought to develop, test, and perfect methodologies to carry out global health and development work that would make a measurable difference; this chapter describes Bill Foege’s contributions toward the eradication of smallpox and his subsequent efforts at global childhood immunization in partnership with his colleague James Grant at UNICEF as examples of the social engineer. Social reconstructionists focus on a critical analysis of the social and political systems that thwart health and development efforts; the chapter examines the ideas of Ivan Illich regarding clinical, social, and cultural iatrogenesis as an example of social reconstructionism.
