It is generally recognized by scholars familiar with Twentieth Century American religious thought that Walter Rauschenbusch was a significant and creative thinker whose writings on church and society constitute one of America's most influential theological developments. However, given the fact that his life and theological writings emerged from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and in awareness of the charges leveled at Rauschenbusch and Liberal Protestantism by the Christian Realism School it is fair to ask what is alive and what is dead in Rauschenbusch's theology. Does he have relevance for our time? Has his work molded the present climate more than most of us know? If so, how and through whom? / This dissertation defends the thesis that Rauschenbusch does indeed provide a theological model that is adequate for our present situation. It also argues that Rauschenbusch has been an even more significant thinker in American Social Theology than we have previously suspected, and his thinking in regard to social justice continues to shape the American consciousness through another generation of interpreters. / To investigate the thesis this dissertation examines the social ethics and theology of Walter Rauschenbusch as it is enunciated in the thinking of Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., because these two men confess to being influenced by Rauschenbusch. This dissertation advances the argument on the relationship between Niebuhr and Rauschenbusch by specifically, though not exclusively, examining Niebuhr's magnum opus Nature and Destiny of Man, all the while noting that there are differences as well as similarities between the two men. In its investigation of the relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Walter Rauschenbusch the dissertation pays specific attention to his social ethic of nonviolence and his theological understanding of sin, salvation and eschatology. Throughout the investigation of their relationship to Rauschenbusch one question remains central: what (in their understanding) is the possibility of bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth in accordance with Rauschenbusch's beliefs regarding the Kingdom of God. / This dissertation concludes that all three men share in a passion for social justice, but Niebuhr and King appeal to Rauschenbusch's theology and to his passion as an inspiration for their own. It is argued that Niebuhr was a highly individualistic thinker who developed new roads not pursued by Rauschenbusch in his search for social justice and that while he was profoundly influenced by Rauschenbusch, Niebuhr must be seen as standing alongside the Rauschenbuschian tradition rather than in it. In its conclusions regarding the relationship between King and Rauschenbusch this dissertation holds that King's thinking is quite derivative of Rauschenbusch's social ethic and theology. This dissertation also concludes that Rauschenbusch's theology continues to provide an adequate social model for our present situation and supports that conclusion by limited examination of areas of possible influence. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-11, Section: A, page: 4669. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74340 |
| Contributors | BRUNSON, DREXEL TIMOTHY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 463 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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