Walter Rauschenbusch

“The reign of God is the reign of love.”

“The worst of all heretics is the man who in his heart really believes nothing.”

“The aim of the social gospel is to make the purpose of God the supreme law of society.”

“The kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.”

“Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus.”

“The social gospel is the old message of salvation, but enlarged and intensified.”

“The new evangelism must be a social evangelism.”

“The fundamental purpose of Jesus was the establishment of the kingdom of God, which is a collective concept, involving the whole social life of man.”

“Property exists to serve humanity, not humanity to serve property.”

“The saving of the soul is a social process.”

“Religious morality is not a private affair. It is a public force.”

“The first step to the new is the demolition of the old.”

“It is the function of religion to teach the individual to live for something that is more than his own pleasure or even his own survival.”

“The family has to be a school of democracy.”

“The kingdom is for each of us the supreme task and the supreme gift.”

“When the Church tries to nerve herself for her new duties by recalling the old enthusiasms, she will find the theology of the apostolical age still a quarry of constructive material.”

“Asceticism is the truest and highest form of selfishness.”

“The old gospel was salvation from the sins of the individual. The new gospel is salvation from the sins of society.”