96 - Walter Rauschenbusch: American Reformer

Walter Rauschenbusch: American Reformer
By Paul M. Minus
New York, Macmillan, 1988. 243 pp. $19.95.

This is a biography that should have a wide appeal. Whenever the church seeks to discover the theological basis for social ministry, wherever we need to work together on the strategies for social reform, whenever we need a pattern for how to hold piety and politics together, Walter Rauschenbusch has been there before us. A product of German pietism, Rauschenbusch discovered in his eleven years at the Second German Baptist Church (1886-97) that the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City was "not a safe place for saved souls." Forced by his urban experience back to biblical and historical sources, and suffering almost total deafness, Rauschenbusch returned to Rochester Seminary to teach until his death at fifty-six in 1918. With the publication of Christianity and the Social Crisis in 1907, he became an international figure. A Theology for the Social Gospel in 1917 was his systematic attempt at theological reflections about a movement that was bringing a "new Reformation" in the churches. Never forsaking his evangelical heritage, as evidenced by his remarkable prayers, he believed the task for the twentieth century was to focus on social salvation even as the latter part of the nineteenth century had focused on individual salvation.

Paul Minus is to be commended for giving us a biography that will appeal both to those who want to get to know Rauschenbusch for the first time and to those who want to renew their conversations with this American prophet. Minus, who taught church history at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio from 1964 to 1988 conveys the genius and passion of this American reformer in a concise biography rendered in clear and often compelling prose. This study utilizes materials not available for the earlier biography (1942) by Dores R. Sharpe, Rauschenbusch's secretary.

Some biographies tell us more than we want to know. Minus has exercised judgment and restraint in always keeping the reader in mind. The personal and the public Rauschenbusch are kept in balance. To this reviewer, the final three chapters are the cumulative high point. In "History Professor," Minus captures why Rauschenbusch's students at Rochester Seminary were captivated by their teacher. This is an instructive chapter for all who want to teach-in parish, university, or seminary. In "Apostle of a Mighty God," we are taken beyond the privatization of contemporary American religion to a vision for a whole society. Finally, in "Dissenter," we learn, perhaps for the first time, what it meant to stand for peace in the era of World War I. Fame was fleeting in the context of war hysteria and I was shaken as Minus suggests that Rauschenbusch died of a broken heart.

97 - Walter Rauschenbusch: American Reformer

Some may argue that Minus could have done more to tell us of the theological critiques of Rauschenbusch. I would have enjoyed hearing about Rauschenbusch's relationship to other key figures of the social gospel movement. Their impact on Rauschenbusch as the secondary figures in the story are often not really developed.

I commend this book with enthusiasm for what I hope will be a broad audience. Modern evangelicals are rediscovering their roots, but they often have overlooked Rauschenbusch. Persons committed to peace and justice will profit much from Rauschenbusch's continual concern to provide theological foundations for social reform.

Ronald C. White, Jr.

The Huntington Library
San Marino, California