Christian Ethics in the Inner City

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to show the traditional role of the Jewish-Christian religion as balancing social inequalities through man's fulfillment of his responsibilities to his neighbor. Both the Old Testament prophets and Jesus emphasized the socio-ethical purpose of religion, and promised damnation to those who did not participate. The liberals, such as Rauschenbusch, and the modernists, such as Mathews, utilized the prophets and Jesus in their attempt to prove that religion is an agency through which society approaches perfection. In the eyes of these men, getting rid of injustices constituted perfection.