Social Darwinism vs. Social Gospel The Changing and Opposing views of Americans.

Social Darwinism vs. Social Gospel

The Changing and Opposing views of Americans

Essential Vocabulary

• Ideology: An organized collection of ideas.

• Social Reform: Changes in society for the better

• Natural Selection: Process that living things survive due to their favorable traits

Social Darwinism• Definition:

•An application of the theory of natural selection to social, political, and economic issues.

• "the strong survive"

Social Darwinism• Where was it used?• The theory was used from the

late 19th century to the mid 1920s to support laissez-faire capitalism and political conservatism.

• During the age of New Imperialism, this theory justified the exploitation of "lesser breeds without the law" by "superior races”.

• Nazism and Fascism used to justify extreme nationalism

Social Darwinism• What did people who believed

in this theory want?

•To promote laissez-faire capitalism (no government regulations)

•To justify extreme nationalism (jingoism)

Social Darwinism

Social Gospel• Definition:• The movement applied

Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war.

• (ie. YMCA, Salvation Army)

Social Gospel• Where was it used?

• In the United States prior to and after World War I, the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the progressive movement which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering and poverty in society.

Social Gospel• What did people who believed in

this theory want?• The Presbyterians described its

goals in 1910 by proclaiming:– The great ends of the church are

the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

William Graham Sumner

William Sunday

Washington Gladden

H.G. Wells

Dwight L. Moody

Herbert Spencer

Coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”

Jane Addams