The Cross, the Fall, and the Resurrection

The Social Gospel Movement rose in the early twentieth century in America as a response to modern industrial realities. It supported the national progressive party of its era, the Republican Party. As the Democratic Party became America’s national progressive party, following the New Deal era, it failed to integrate the Social Gospel into its midst and has since experienced difficulty mobilizing religious voters and defining the sacred. Contemporary Democrats, religious scholars, and clergymen call on the Democratic Party to connect either with a revitalized Social Gospel. These calls make sense in the context of the competing Republican Party’s successes relating to traditional and conservative Protestant voters. But given the historical inability of the Democratic Party to connect meaningfully with a religious movement- even one seemingly tailor-made like the Social Gospel Movement, a new coalition of progressive Christians is unlikely to center the Democratic Party within a coherent religious tradition in the near future.