(1836-1918)
The father of the New Theology movement. He published the first of his many books on the Social Gospel in 1876. A transplanted New Englander, he spent his most influential years at the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio. In the Ohio capital he encountered the labor struggle first hand.
In his congregation were both employers and employees, so during times of industrial strife Gladden witnessed with alarm "the widening of the breach between these classes." In a number of evening addresses he focused on the labor problem and expressed his conviction that the teachings of Jesus contained the principles for the right ordering of society.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Jesus, Social-Gospel, Washington-Gladden[/tags]