Great prophets communicate great visions. Isaiah foresaw an age of peace in which lions and lambs could be friends and children might safely play near the lairs of venemous reptiles. But, to do lasting good, Isaiah’s prophecies and visions needed to be heard by people who were not themselves equally great prophets, to be recorded, told, retold, discussed, and embedded within living religious structures and liturgies. An effective prophet must inspire prayers and hymns. He has to reach the people. A prophet must be popular.

The Social Gospel was an American Protestant vision created, refined, told and retold between the Civil War and World War II. That mighty movement was effective. It was reverenced, turned into prayers, hymns and Sunday school lessons. Through  the works of Charles M. Sheldon, Congregational preacher of Topeka,  Kansas, the Social Gospel went global. By 1933 Sheldon’s book,  IN HIS STEPS, had  sold 23 million copies  and been translated from English into 21 other languages.

Sheldon created IN HIS STEPS to attract young people to Sunday evening services. At first, he did no more than read aloud each episode from his pulpit.  There is a good  account of Sheldon’s techniques and his impact in a 1976 book by Ronald C. White, Jr. et al. called THE SOCIAL GOSPEL: RELIGION AND REFORM IN CHANGING AMERICA. Chapter 14,  focusing on “Popular Culture and Social Religion” (pp. 143-167), showcases Rev. Mr. Sheldon.

The Topeka pastor’s series began with an imaginary congregation enduring a ho hum  sermon about following Jesus. Then a “dusty, worn, shabby-looking young man” stood up and challenged the congregation (p.143). New machinery ten months ago had made his printer’s craft obsolete. Across America hundreds, thousands were without work. To those with jobs the newly unemployed looked like tramps. Christians, the stranger said, are supposed to follow Jesus.  He had looked for days for a job in this city. What do Christians mean when they live in luxury and sing “Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee?” What does following Jesus mean? Does it mean to come together and sings songs about sacrifice and brotherly love and then not show those qualities to the poor? In a few days the stranger died. The fictional preacher then challenged his flock not to do anything without first asking “What would Jesus do?” Fifty fictional parishioners then came forward to work with their pastor to respond to the stranger’s challenge.

IN HIS STEPS tells their stories, episode by episode. One character was an heiress, another a soprano, another a college president, yet another a railroad superintendent and on and on. The soprano began to work at a rescue mission. The newspaper editor drew up a code of ethics for his publication. The college president ran for mayor on a prohibition platform. Everybody  noticed the difference in their community once a mere fifty people took following Jesus seriously. People fell in love and married for new, apostolic reasons. At the end of the story, the pastor had a vision of a national revival of religion (p.146f).

In the 1890s a professor at Grinnell College, George D. Herron, burst upon the scene. He invited churches to reconstruct society. He said that 

“the worst charge that can be made against a Christian is that 
he attempts to justify the existing social order.”

In Minneapolis from 1894 to 1899 Herron and others issued THE KINGDOM, a journal of gospel-based radical reform. It inspired creation of a community in Georgia which issued a magazine, THE SOCIAL GOSPEL, a name soon appropriated by the larger movement. The Social Gospel movement took the message of Jesus seriously, especially his concern to heal and comfort the poor, the ill and the dying. The Georgia community, which lasted for three years, was established on 1,000 acres and styled itself the Christian Commonwealth Colony. Its purpose was “to obey the teachings of Jesus Christ in all matters of life, and labor, and in the use of property.” In the first issue of THE SOCIAL GOSPEL the colony’s founders said: 

“Our main problems are as to how we may house more homeless, and feed more hungry, and provide industry for more labor, and bind up more broken-hearted, and inspire more faith and  courage, and minister to more need, and contribute more happiness.”

Nearer in time and space, sharp-eyed Black Mountain Novelist Yvonne Lehman writes Christian romance novels. She portrays the prophetic dimension of Christianity as something concretely available to individual  men and women as they come face to face with racism, homosexuality, overwork, uncaring romantic partners, abortion and family feuds. Mrs. Lehman’s goal is not the political reform of American society but to show how a Christian vision makes practical sense  day by day for ordinary people.

Yvonne Lehman belongs to a vigorous American tradition: following a prophet’s vision;  applying that vision to concrete reality; and showing plain folks a path heading towards their high spiritual destiny.  She thus exemplifies the thesis of Hastings Rashdall : “Ideals pass into great historic forces by embodying themselves in institutions.” Divine prophetic ideals are also made practical in novels, co-ops, liturgies, hymns and many other channels.

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for Asheville TRIBUNE