Echoes of a Method: Inductive Christian Social Ethics, Social Practices, and the Radical Social Gospel

Abstract:Christian social ethics emerged out of and in conversation with major social movements in U.S. history and today is defined by a commitment to studying these movements. The radical social gospelers who helped found the field argued that the best way to study modern social problems was to study these problems in the places where they were most painfully experienced and in the movements where people were building power to overcome them. Many organizers were (and still are) drawn to Christian social ethics to enhance their organizing work. Today, this inductive approach echoes through the field as scholars argue about the role of ethnography and social anthropology. Some argue that this is the work of political theology. I argue that many social ethicists fail to recognize the methodological legacy of the social gospel and in turn how this approach to social ethics offers a rich future that is deeply connected to organizing movements.