<論説>アメリカ革新主義の精神的風土 : ソーシャル・ゴスペルにおけるグラドンの役割

Abstract

南北戦争後の半世紀間にアメリカのキリスト教界に与えられた近代的工業社会と科学的諸思想との挑戦に応答して形成された社会的福音(ソーシャル・ゴスペル)の運動は、右派、左派、中道派など種々の傾向の宗教人多数(主として新教の)によって推進され、革新主義時代に最高潮に達した。普通ソーシャル・ゴスペルの「父」、「開拓者」などと呼ばれるワシントン・グラドンは、中道派的性格を特に強く備え、その思想や諸提案はソーシャル・ゴスペルの代表的組織の計画(プログラム)の箇条書き(フオーミユレーシヨン)に如実に反映されていることによっても、代表的ソーシャル・ゴスペラーといえる。彼は高層批評の成果を受容しつつも聖書の説く義の実現と愛の律法の実行とを強調して、改革の動機づけと究極的目標とを宗教の次元から与え、進化論を逆用して進歩に対する楽天的信念と義務感とを養い、労慟者や弱者に味方しつつ、競争よりは協調を、自由放任よりは公的統制と監督をと唱えて、アメリカの修正資本主義・社会福祉国家への移行をスムーズならしめ、教会を制度教会化し、連合させて近代社会に適応させるために貢献した。

The Social Gospel movement, formed in response to the challenge of the industrialism and of scientific thoughts given to American Christendum during the half century after the Civil War, was pushed forward by many ministers (mainly Protestant) with various inclinations that ranged from conservatives, radicals and middle-of-the-roadists. Washington Gladden, commonly called "the father" or a "pioneer" of the Social Gospel, was essentially a man of the middle-of-the-road, and may be called a representative Social Gospeler as well, because, his views and proposals were mostly taken into the 1912 Formulation of the Programs of the most representative organization of the Social Gospel, i. e., the Federation of the Churches of Christ in America. Accepting the major achievements of the Higher Criticism, Gladden emphasized the importance of realizing the righteousness and the law of love taught in the Bible, and gave the incentive and the ultimate goal for the social reform from the religious dimension. He made use of the evolutionism to inculcate the optimistic faith in, and the sense of duty for, progress. Speaking for the rights of the laborers and the poor, he preached that cooperation was better than competition and that more public control and supervision should take the place of laissez-faire. Thus he helped smoothen the way of America towards the revised capitalism and the social welfare state, and contributed to the institutionalization and combination of the churches in America in the process of their adaptation to modern society.