Scaling Niceness: Is Christian Social Innovation a New Social Gospel Movement?

Abstract

Religious communities have shown a growing interest in social innovation as a way to have impact in their communities, leading some observers to wonder if we are in the beginning of a new social gospel movement. This article explores Christian social innovation's relationship to “social Christianity,” but cautions that faith formation of participants must be improved if we are to expect Christian social innovation to become a social “gospel” movement. Current levels of religious instruction in the US do not seem to help people distinguish Christianity from concepts like “niceness” and “helping,” making it easy to confuse Christian social innovation with secular humanitarianism. This is a problem the original social gospel movement avoided, thanks largely to the era’s practices of religious formation practiced in families and congregations. If the impact of Christian social innovation is to parallel that of the social gospel movement, it needs a coherent theological vision and moral vocabulary to guide social innovators. The author recommends creating systems of formation that will help faith communities embody as well as espouse social Christianity.