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George D. Herron and the Kingdom Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert T. Handy
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary, New York

Extract

The story of the Kingdom movement of the 1890's is one of the most important chapters in the history of American social Christianity. In the middle years of the 1890's the Christian social movement really began to exert significant influence upon the American Protestant churches and to modify the character of certain denominations. The Kingdom movement played an important role in the events of these crucial years.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1950

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References

1 Bibliotheca Sacra, LII (1895), 205.

2 Franklin, , “From the Interior,” The Congregationalist, LXXIX (0106, 1894), 263.Google Scholar

3 “Pointers from Pittsfield,” Ibid., 747.

4 “Changes in Religious Thinking,” Ibid., LXXIX (July–December, 1894), 580.

5 “The Supremacy of Social Questions,” The Methodist Review, LXXIX (1897), 453.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Dombrowski, James, The Early Days of Christian Socialism in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), chap. v, 6073Google Scholar; “The Seminaries Discover a Social Problem”; also see Abell, Aaron Ignatius, The Urban Impact on American Protestantism, 1865–1900 (“Harvard Historical Studies,” LIV [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1943], chap. ix, 224–45Google Scholar: “Changing Trends in the Seminaries.”)

7 Holbrook, Z. Swift (ed.), “What Is Sociology?”, Bibliotheca Sacra, LII (1895), 458504.Google Scholar

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9 Cf. Dombrowski, Early Days, Abell, Urban Impact, Hopkins, Charles Howard, The Rise of the Social Gospel in American. Protestantism, 1865–1915 (“Yale Studies in Religious Education,” Vol. XIV [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940]Google Scholar, and May, Henry F., Protestant Churches and Industrial America (New York: Harper & Bros., 1949)Google Scholar. All of these works, in one way or another, stress the importance of the 1890's. May carries his study to 1895, Dombrowski and Abell carry theirs to 1900. These dates suggest that the developments that have been traced achieved a degree of success and maturity by then. Hopkins' study goes to 1915, but he entitled Part III of his book “1890–1900: The Social Gospel Comes of Age.” Hughley, J. Neal, in his critique of the social gospel from a neo-orthodox viewpoint, Trends in Protestant Social Idealism (New York: King's Crown Press, 1948), 8Google Scholar, also stresses the importance of the years just preceding 1900.

10 Breed, David R., “Christian Beneficence and Some Theories Affecting Property,” The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, V (1894), 287.Google Scholar

11 “The Movement for the Kingdom,” The Kingdom, VII (18941895), 3.Google Scholar

13 “Twenty-Five Years of Grinnell” (unpublished typescript, Grinnell College Library, 1918?), 9 f.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., 9.

15 Brief accounts of Herron's activities and thought can be found in Dombrowski, Early Days, 117–93, and Hopkins, , Rise of the Social Gospel, 184200Google Scholar. A fuller study of Herron's career as a Christian social leader is my “Herron, George D. and and the Social Gospel in American Protestantism, 1890–1901” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1949).Google Scholar

16 E.g., cf The Christian Union, XLII (1890), 804–05Google Scholar. The address appeared in pamphlet form (The Message of Jesus to Men of Wealth [New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1891])Google Scholar and was reprinted as chap. iv of Herron's, The Christian Society (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894), 99122.Google Scholar

17 The Larger Christ (New York: Fleming H. Revel Co., 1891)Google Scholar, A Plea for the Gospel (New York: Thomas Y. Crowd & Co., 1892)Google Scholar, The Call of the Cross: Four College Sermons (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1892)Google Scholar, and The New Redemption: A Call to the Church to Reconstruct Society According to the Gospel of Christ (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1893).Google Scholar

18 For good discussions of Gates, cf. Gates, Isabel Smith, The Life of George Augustus Gates (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1915)Google Scholar; Douglass, Truman O., “Builders of a Commonwealth” (13 vols.; unpublished typescript: original at Iowa State College College, copy at University of Chicago, n. d.), XI, 255–62Google Scholar; Nollen, John ScholteEducational Pioneer; The Centennial History of Grinnell College 1846–1946” (unpublished typescript, Grinnell College, a. d.), 7799.Google Scholar

19 “Movement for the Kingdom,” 4.

20 “Twenty-Five Years,” 9.

21 Annual Report of the President of Iowa College, 1898 (Grinnell, 1898), 41.Google Scholar

22 “The Chair of Applied Christianity at Iowa College,” The Congregationalist, LXXIX (0106, 1894), 557.Google Scholar

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24 The American Monthly Review of Reviews, VIII (1893), 111.Google Scholar

25 The columns of the college papers, Scarlet and Black and The Unit, and those of the town paper, The Grinnell Herald, abound with references to Herron's extensive lecture activity in these years.

26 The lectures given on this tour were published as Herron's fifth book, The Christian Society.

27 “Dr. Herron at Montreal,” The Kingdom, VII (18941895), 44.Google Scholar

28 George Howard Gibson, “Dr. Herron at Lincoln,” Ibid., 171 f.; see also Dombrowski, Early Days, 178.

29 The Christian State: A Political Vision of Christ. A Course of Lectures Delivered in Various American Cities (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1895)Google Scholar. In this book, the note of both theological and social radicalism that had been evident in his work from the start became more pronounced; these trends made him increasingly the center of sharp controversy. He said, for example, “It will doubtless be expedient that present forms of institutions progressively pass away, in order that the government of the world by the immediate inspiration of God may increase and be fulfilled” (121).

30 Brown, C. O., Professor Herron's Teachings Reviewed: Ought the Church of Christ to Join the Propaganda of Socialism? An Address to the First Congregational Church, San Francisco, Sunday Evening, April 21, 1895 (San Francisco, [1895]).Google Scholar

31 McLean, J. K. et al. , “Professor Herron in California,” The Kingdom, VIII (18951896), 115–19Google Scholar; Knapp, Adeline et al. , “ProfHerron, George D.: The Man and His Work ia California,” The Arena, XIV (1895), 110–28Google Scholar. The latter was republished as a pamphlet, ProfHerron, George D.: The Man and His Work on the Pacific Coast (Boston: The Arena Publishing Co., [1895]).Google Scholar

32 These lectures he revised and repeated, and published as his seventh book, Social Meanings of Religious Experiences (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1896).Google Scholar

33 The story of the founding of The Kingdom and an account of its policies can be found in Dombrowski, Early Days, 110–20.

34 May, Protestant Churches, 255.

35 Hopkins, Rise of the Social Gospel, 165.

36 The Kingdom, XI (1898–1899), 499.

38 Commons, John R., “American Institute of Christian Sociology,” The Congregationalist, LXXVIII (0712, 1893), 32Google Scholar; Irving Meredith, “American Institute of Christian Sociology,” Ibid., 134 f.; “American Institute of Christian Sociology,” Encyclopedia of Social Reform, ed. W. D. P. Bliss (1897)Google Scholar. Cf. also Abell, , Urban Impact, 110 f.Google Scholar, and Hopkins, , Rise of the Social Gospel, 164 f.Google Scholar

39 The Kingdom, VII (18941895), 9.Google Scholar

40 “A School of the Kingdom, “The Kingdom, VII (18941895), 9Google Scholar; “A School of the Kingdom,” ibid., VIII (1895–1896), 22; “The Retreat and Summer School at Iowa College,” The Congregationalist, LXXIX (July–December, 1894), 58 f.Google Scholar; McCowan, Hervy Smith, “The School of the Kingdom,” Our Day, XV (1895), 6270.Google Scholar

41 E. g., in November, 1894, a week-long “School of the Kingdom” was held in Detroit; Bemis, Edward W., Commons, John R., Hall, Thomas C., Addams, Jane, and Herron, George D. were the chief speakers (The Kingdom, VII [18941895], 471).Google Scholar

45 E. g., cf. Breed, “Christian Beneficence,” and Brown, Herron's Teachings.

46 The congregatinalist, LXXIX (0106, 1894), 791.Google Scholar

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48 “Shall We Abolish Institutions,” The Cogregationalist, LXXIX (0106, 1894), 971.Google Scholar

49 The Independent, XLVII (1895), 913.Google Scholar

50 “Dr. Herron and His Work,” The Congregationalist, LXXX (0106, 1895), 990.Google Scholar

51 This judgment modifies the view that has been generally held, that Herron's influence in the churches continued undiminished until about 1901, when his divorce and remarriage undermined it (cf. Laubenstein, Paul F., “A History of Christian Socialism in America” [unpublished S.T.M. thesis, Union Theological Seminary, 1925], 86Google Scholar; May, , Protestant Churches, 256Google Scholar).

52 E. g., John H. Commons later said that he found himself so out of sympathy with certain trends in Herron's message that he raised an issue which split the Institute of Christian Sociology and led to its disappearance (Myself [New York: The Macmillan Co., 1934], 51)Google Scholar.

53 “Twenty-five Years,” 10.

54 The Pilgrims of Iowa (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1911), 264.Google Scholar

55 “Educational Pioneer,” 98.

56 Steiner, Edward A., cited by Gates, Isabel Smith, Life of George Augustus Gates, 17.Google Scholar