A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940

Social Christianity was a major force in the life of the United States, Canada, and Britain for more than sixty years, beginning in the closing decades of the Victorian age. As a tide of concern swept through Protestantism in the face of mounting social ills, Social Gospelers and Christian Socialists urged a less competitive, more compassionate society. They pioneered in many fields of modern social science and actively engaged in social work and party politics. In A Kingdom on Earth, Paul T. Phillips provides an unusually broad view of the movement from both sides of the Atlantic. He is also unique in carrying the story up to 1940, thereby tying Social Christianity to the origins of the welfare state.Using a wide range of sources, A Kingdom on Earth places the activities of Social Christians firmly in the social and cultural contexts of the day. Phillips's analysis reveals the dilemmas of a movement that sought to achieve social harmony and justice through close cooperation with secular reformism. Such dilemmas invariably led to rivalries with competing ideologies and brought secularizing influences into the churches themselves. In spite of these worldly aspects, however, Phillips finds that the inspiration and essence of the movement were essentially religious.

History

Phillips, Paul T.

Americas

Penn State University Press

Social Christianity was a major force in the life of the United States, Canada, and Britain for more than sixty years, beginning in the closing decades of the Victorian age. As a tide of concern swept through Protestantism in the face of mounting social ills, Social Gospelers and Christian Socialists urged a less competitive, more compassionate society. They pioneered in many fields of modern social science and actively engaged in social work and party politics. In A Kingdom on Earth, Paul T. Phillips provides an unusually broad view of the movement from both sides of the Atlantic. He is also unique in carrying the story up to 1940, thereby tying Social Christianity to the origins of the welfare state.
Using a wide range of sources, A Kingdom on Earth places the activities of Social Christians firmly in the social and cultural contexts of the day. Phillips's analysis reveals the dilemmas of a movement that sought to achieve social harmony and justice through close cooperation with secular reformism. Such dilemmas invariably led to rivalries with competing ideologies and brought secularizing influences into the churches themselves. In spite of these worldly aspects, however, Phillips finds that the inspiration and essence of the movement were essentially religious.

Goldwin Smith (1823-1910) was a celebrated, transatlantic writer on current events, politics, religion, history, and literature. While he made his academic mark teaching at Oxford, Cornell, and later as a resident guru at Toronto, his facile pen earned him a far greater reputation with general readers throughout the English-speaking world. Determined to rouse concern over issues that he deemed to be important to the advancement of humanity, Smith was deemed the controversialist by the Dictionary of National Biography. A study of his life and his writings provides new insight into liberalism, anti-semitism, the role of the journalist, and other aspects of life in late 19th century North America and Britain.
As a public intellectual, Goldwin Smith spoke out on a variety of issues, frequently provoking intense debate. Phillips argues that the core of Smith's thought and the driving force behind his role as a controversialist lay in his moral philosophy, which provided a sense of direction to Smith's many and sometimes disparate writings and activities. This study will also probe the serious dilemma posed by Smith's path to agnosticism in the last decades of his life. By moving to a position of virtual unbelief, Smith risked damage not only to his carefully-crafted public persona, but also to a life's work as an impassioned moralist.

The Controversialist: An Intellectual Life of Goldwin Smith

Biographies & Memoirs

Phillips, Paul

Arts & Literature

Praeger

Contesting the Moral High Ground: Popular Moralists in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain (McGill-Queen’s Studies in the Hist of Re) (Volume 2)

In mid-twentieth century Britain, four intellectuals - Julian Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Barbara Ward - held sway over popular conceptions of morality. While Huxley and Russell championed ideas informed by agnosticism and atheism, Muggeridge and Ward were adherents to Christianity. In Contesting the Moral High Ground, Paul Phillips reveals how this fundamental dichotomy was representative of British society at the time, and how many of the ideologies promoted by these four moralists are still present today. As world-class public figures in an open forum of debate, Huxley, Russell, Muggeridge, and Ward all achieved considerable public attention, particularly during the turbulent 1960s. Phillips captures the rebellious spirit of the time, detailing how these thinkers exploited the popular media to disseminate ideas on prevailing social issues - from justice and world peace to protection of the environment. Phillips skilfully traces the foundations of their thought to their earlier careers and social movements of previous generations, and shows how many of their approaches were adopted by a host of present-day groups from the Christian Right and Left to the New Atheists and environmentalists. A significant contribution to British intellectual history, Contesting the Moral High Ground provides new insights into the moral philosophies of four of Britain's most influential minds in the twentieth century.

Europe

McGill-Queen's University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Phillips, Paul T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Phillips, Paul T.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Phillips, Paul T.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940

A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940

A Kingdom on Earth: Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940

The Controversialist: An Intellectual Life of Goldwin Smith

Contesting the Moral High Ground: Popular Moralists in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain (McGill-Queen’s Studies in the Hist of Re) (Volume 2)

Contesting the Moral High Ground: Popular Moralists in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain (McGill-Queen’s Studies in the Hist of Re) (Volume 2)