At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).
Likewise, many wealthy people, including big business leaders, came to realize that it was their role in society was to give back. Due to all the negative responses, people such as Andrew Carnegie were huge philanthropists . They stated that because they were wealthy and were better inclined than most, they should be willing to help those at the bottom. Andrew Carnegie’s, Gospel of Wealth, explicitly stated how the wealthy have a moral obligation to give back (Outside Evidence). Other major responses to changes and the impact of big business were responses from the government.
The Social Gospel believed that many of the problems in society began because the rich were taking advantage of the poor. The Social Gospel often blamed capitalism for creating poor working conditions that were affecting impoverished communities. It also believed that by following and living a good
Social Gospel was a Protestant Christian movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Social Darwinism, a person’s wealth, social status, and property showed their fitness. Poor people were considered lazy and fell under wealthy people and were seen as weak, or not fit to survive. Social Gospel covered excess urbanization and industrialization. Christian people helped workers and poor people and favored them over wealthy people.
The volunteers are similar to the volunteers I work with every day at City Year. Everyone comes from different states and different cultures, but we are all share the same purpose. That purpose is to bridge the gap in the education
Underpinnings and Effectiveness of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” In Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”, Carnegie proposed a system of which he thought was best to dispose of “surplus wealth” through progress of the nation. Carnegie wanted to create opportunities for people “lift themselves up” rather than directly give money to these people. This was because he considered that giving money to these people would be “improper spending”.
The Protestant Preachers began to attack individual sins like drinking and believed that wealth should be distributed to people in need. Walter Rauschenbusch and Washing Gladden believed power and wealth should be equal and competition was not Christian like. Their efforts looked to expand the church’s appeal to the lower class citizens. They wanted to make the lower class more aware of their morals and to live as Jesus would live. The churches began to establish programs for lower class citizens to alleviate poverty, fight child labor, and make better housing available to those in need.
In contrast, The Survival of the Fittest, written by Herbert Spencer, was aimed toward a larger population. While both sources promote the idea of individualism, the difference in their purpose and ideas of individualism highlights the fundamentally different values and beliefs both sources represent. In the Gospel of Wealth, Carnegie says, “The millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; entrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself” (The Gospel of Wealth). This excerpt shows that, for Carnegie, individualism means using one’s wealth and resources to serve the greater good and support those around us rather than simply pursuing oneself. While on the other hand, Spencer believes that the concept of survival of the fittest naturally occurs within society, “It favors the multiplication of those worst fitted for existence, and, by consequence, hinders the multiplication of those best fitted for existence—leaving, as it does, less room for them” (The Survival of the Fittest).
Carnegie, Conwell, and Alger Advocates of Wealth for All During the late nineteenth century, a form of Social Darwinism emerged called the Gospel of Wealth also known as the Success Gospel. Social Darwinism is “Herbert Spencer’s adaptation of Charles Darwin’s concepts of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” as it applies to human society” (Nash p. 417). Social Darwinists believed that the social order was the product of the natural selection of the individuals that were best suited for the existing living conditions. These individuals were white, Anglo-Saxon, wealthy men.
These people get a plethora of experiences, such as the ones I mentioned earlier. As one can see, volunteering has many different viewpoints depending on where the person
Protestant Reformation Protestant Reformation was a European Christian movement. This movement, led by Martin Luther reformed the Roman Catholic Church practices and begin Protestantism. The reformation started because of the corruption of Roman Catholic Church. The corruption that begin the protestant reformation was phony relics and indulgences. The church priests would sell these relics to poor people knowing that they were fake and build on lies only to make money for the church.
Darwinian evolution had a strong impact on early anthropological theorists. The prevailing view was that culture generally develops (or evolves) in a uniform and progressive manner, just as Darwin argued species did. It was thought that most societies pass through the same series of stages, to arrive ultimately at a common end. The sources of culture change were generally assumed to be embedded within the culture from the beginning, and therefore the ultimate course of development was thought to be internally determined. However, the thought that culture evolves in a linear uniform manner is not accepted today.
Social Darwinists felt that the poor, who they believed were lazy with low morals, had only themselves to blame for their condition (Keller 550-551). Social Gospel was a progressive movement of religious reformers that arose during the second half of the nineteenth century. It put importance on the need for Christians to participate in community service. One of the organizations that participated in this movement was the Salvation Army, let by William and Evangeline Booth. They preached the gospel
When the poor are involved in their own transformation, the Biblical story is integrated into their personal history and results in community transformation. Myers argues a holistic understanding of poverty through an inherently relational issue and encourages society to change its’ original reference in order to understand the impact on the individual, family and household as a whole. When a Christian response is based in truthfulness, righteousness, and justice, it is expressed through relationships (with God, the church, etc.). In essence, Myers believes transformational
Volunteering is not an exclusively novel activity throughout the human history. During world war one, just in British there were 90,000 volunteers worked at home and abroad providing vital aid of caring for sick and wounded soldiers as recorded by British Red Cross. During wartime, no matter in which society there were people that spontaneously engaged in helping others in need. Volunteering does not only exist during the time of emergency or crisis, in fact it is always an indispensable resource for providing social service and improving our community.
