Moral Order and the Influence of Social Christianity in an Industrial City, 1890-1899: A Social Profile of the Protestant Lay Leaders of Three Hamilton Churches --Centenary Methodist, Central Presbyterian and Christ's Church Cathedral

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, traditional Protestant social thought which stressed the idea of individual regeneration underwent a gradual readjustment to include the reforming impulse directed towards saving society from the collective ills of industrial life. In order to understand more precisely the origin and nature of this transformation, this study examines the social composition of three Hamilton churches --Centenary Methodist, Central Presbyterian and Christ's Church Cathedral --from 1890 to 1899, a critical decade in the history of religious and secular arrangements in Canada. It is premised on the proposition that local congregations provided the immediate context in which the new social gospel was often developed; they were the recipients of its message and their susceptibility to it would deeply affect its future course. This study belies the uncritical view of businessmen as heroic "Captains of Industry" or as unfeeling exploiters of an underprivileged working class. The high degree to which most of the lay leaders participated in the business and spiritual affairs of their church and the range of their community interests is suggestive of the extent to which the sacred and the secular were intertwined. Drawn from the middle classes, they saw themselves as directing agents responsible for the material, moral and social well-being of society. At the center of their belief system was the notion that practical consistency in character and conduct must form the basis of a rational capitalistic organization of industrial labor. While most of the lay leaders would never make the shift to the social gospel associated with the new liberalism, their action in manifesting a robust Protestant spirit engaged with social ills as they saw them clearly set a mood of social optimism and a style of activism on which the social gospel could thrive.