Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 95:377 (Jan 1938)
Article: Editorials
Author: Anonymous

BSac 95:377 (Jan 38) p. 1

Editorials

Sociology and Ministerial Training

In a report given a year ago before a group of the American Sociological Society, but now published in the October-December, 1937, number of Religious Education, Professor Earle Eubank of the University of Cincinnati writes of the results of an investigation of sociological instruction in American Protestant seminaries. This painstaking report exhibits facts which underlie the trend in a large portion of the professing church, and therefore should be of interest to those who are jealous for the divinely appointed ministry of the true representatives of the Lord in the earth. It is with some of these facts that this editorial comment must be limited.

First, it will be illuminating to read Professor Eubank’s definition of the social gospel. After noting the fact that during the nineteenth century there was a social awakening in the Western world which, however, lagged in the religious field, due to the fact, he says, that “so tremendous was the influence of medieval theology that the churches were still preoccupied with the individualistic task of saving individual souls while paying little attention to the community as a whole,” he comments: “Eventually, however, largely due to the prophetic voice of Walter Rauschenbush, there began to stir within the churches in America, a new vision of a social gospel, one in which the redemption of the individual was perceived to be inseparable from the redemption of society; a gospel which recognized that the canons of righteousness should be applied to social relations quite as much as to individual conduct; a gospel which saw that full growth of the individual spirit necessitated soil of a righteous social order.”

Such a general statement is largely meaningless unless it is accompanied by definitions of its own terms; for, with a

BSac 95:377 (Jan 38) p. 2

variety of meanings of the terms, there is no common ground for understanding the intent of the writer. What does our author mean by redemption, as applied by him to both the individual and society? Whatever implications we may draw from his words, it is certainly not the Scripture revelation of the doctrine of redemption through the blood of Christ. Moreover, it is quite contrary to the consistent teaching of the Bible to make individual redemption dependent upon the redemption of the social order. In the very nature of the case, the salvation of the individual must precede any enduring improvement in social relations. Too often the practical effect of the attempt to apply the social gospel in blanket form has been to deny the need of individual regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the exhortation for reformation within mundane relations being thought sufficient. That such a spiritual st...