Social Reconstruction: American Catholics Radical Response to the Social Gospel Movement and Progressives
Abstract
This article situates Catholic social reconstruction within the broader American reform landscape of the early twentieth century. The Social Gospel movement, led largely by Protestant clergy, called for a transformation of economic and social institutions along Christian lines. Catholic leaders, while sympathetic to many of the movement's goals, saw its theology and its relationship to the state quite differently.
Dr. Lubienecki argues that Catholic social teaching offered its own vision of reconstruction, one rooted in papal encyclicals from Rerum Novarum (1891) onward but adapted to American conditions. This was neither simple agreement nor simple opposition to the Protestant reformers, but a distinctive Catholic response that drew on natural law, subsidiarity, and an understanding of the family as the basic unit of social order.
The article shows how Catholic educators, labor school directors, and clergy developed concrete programs to translate this social doctrine into practical guidance for working-class Americans navigating industrial capitalism.
Publication Details
Journal: Journal of Catholic Education Volume: 24, No. 1, 2021 DOI: 10.15365/joce.2401052021 Open access PDF: Digital Commons LMU