Social Darwinism and The Social Gospel Movement

1. Social Darwinism and The Social Gospel Movement U.S. History Mr. Rodrigues

2. Darwinism • Charles Darwin • Joined a British scientific expedition aboard the H.M.S. Beagle and journeyed around the world. • Collected specimens of plants and animals. • He found fossils of extinct animals that resembled living animals, and he noticed many variations within the same species. • After returning from his voyage, Darwin spent twenty years studying his specimens. • In 1859 Darwin published On the Origin of the Species by the Means of Natural Selection, a book that explained his new theory.

3. The Theory of Natural Selection • Darwin made the following observations: • The resources of an environment are limited. • Creatures produce more offspring than can possibly survive. • Members of a species must compete for limited resources and for survival. • No two members of a species are exactly alike. • Each organism contains an individual combination of inherited traits. • Some traits are useful for survival; other traits are not. • Organisms that have useful traits reproduce in greater numbers. • Their offspring inherit the traits. • Organisms with unfavorable traits eventually die off. • The fittest survive. • Nature selects different traits at different times. • Varieties within a species gradually create a new species.

4. Social Darwinism • The publication of this theory started a sensational controversy. • Many writers applied Darwin's theory to sociology. • They developed a controversial theory called Social Darwinism. • “Survival of the Fittest” • Many people, from Karl Marx to Adolf Hitler, employed Social Darwinism in their arguments.

5. The Social Gospel Movement • The Social Gospel Movement was a religious movement that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century. • Peaked in the decade before WW1 • Ministers, especially ones belonging to the Protestant branch of Christianity, began to tie salvation and good works together. • They argued that people must emulate the life of Jesus Christ. • To honor God, people must put aside their own earthly desires and help other people, especially the needy. • The purpose of wealth was not to hoard it but to share it with other, less fortunate people.

6. The Social Gospel Movement • The ideas that originated from the Social Gospel would heavily influence the Progressive Movement. • The Social Gospel Movement also attacked the concept of Social Darwinism. • Followers of the Social Gospel Movement implemented numerous reforms to help other people. • One of their most important contributions to society was the creation of settlement houses. • Settlement houses provided numerous opportunities for less fortunate people, including access to education, free or low-cost health care, free or low-cost housing, and innumerable other benefits.

7. The Social Gospel Movement • Leading advocate in the United States • Washington Gladden. • Beginning in the 1880s, Gladden served as the minister of the First Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio. • Gladden encouraged his congregants to play an active role in community life by attacking immorality in their fellow citizens and government officials. • mid-1880s: calls for bargaining rights for labor, a shorter work week, factory inspections, inheritance taxation, and regulation of natural monopolies

8. Resources • Social Darwinism • Small Planet • http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/activity.html • Social Gospel Movement • Ohio History Central • http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1527 • “Social Gospel." Encyclopedia of American History. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 12 Jan. 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/social-gospel