Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough had her own perspective on the power of Christianity and revolutionary nature. In her time in India, she portrays a theology of suffering and the suffering of Jesus on the cross. During her time as a missionary in India, Emma witnessed and endured a terrible famine that cost the lives of many. Through this, however, the Madiga pariah tribe that she worked with desired to hear to words of Jesus, “Come to me, all who are weary and I will give you rest.”
She writes that the groups of Madigas would say, “Our God does not send trouble because He is thirsting for the lives of men. He has let this come upon us because He saw that men were going wrong—that they were doing puja to gods in whom there was no salvation. Jesus Christ, by dying for us, has taken all of our troubles upon himself.” Emma’s idea of the power of Christianity was the fact that it liberates people from their struggles, both within their souls and the social order.
This is further evidenced by the fact that when she discusses the preaching of the missionaries, she says “Their preaching was characterized neither by profound thinking nor by brilliant oratory. It was just the story of Christ and Him crucified told over and over again. Much as, in the days of primitive Christianity, simple but earnest men told the sublime story of the life and death of Christ to everyone, so these men went out to make Christ the centre of their thoughts and words.” The power of Christianity, to Emma, seems to be nothing more or less than Jesus himself. This is a similarity to her brother Walter Rauschenbusch, who discussed the personality of Jesus and how revolutionary that personality was and is.
I believe that we have some to learn from Emma today. We must keep in mind that Christianity does not involve any profound thought or speaking skills. The power of Christianity is in Jesus and his life and death. Christianity is about boldness, not depth of thought. Jesus must be our starting point: nothing more, nothing less. He also must be where we are going. We must reach out to our neighbors who are broken and hurting as Christ did. It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick. Christ lived and died to take away the separation of us all. Christ has united us all in life and death. As Christ is one, we are one with him and each other. We must live this conviction out in boldness as Emma did. The work of the Kingdom is not easy, but it is needed so that we may see justice roll down like waters, and righteousness flow like an ever flowing stream.
Andrew Scott, ABHS Research Assistant
Source of photographs:
Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough, While Sewing Sandals (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1899).
