Perhaps one of the most influential theologians of the early twentieth century was Walter Rauschenbusch, who has been described as a prophet of one of the most influential ideas in theology in the early part of his era: the social gospel. He is the author of many influential writings. His most important book was Christianity and the Social Crisis, which was published in 1907 and made Rauschenbusch a very sought-after speaker. Additionally, his Christianizing the Social Order, Prayers for Social Awakening, and A Theology for the Social Gospel are also among his most influential writings.
However, Walter Rauschenbusch is only one person in a Rauschenbusch family legacy. Most do not know that Walter had two sisters: Frida Rauschenbusch, born in September 1855, and Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough, born in 1859. Both sisters would go on to do work within the field of social redemption. However, I think that Emma is perhaps the most interesting member of the Rauschenbusch family. In an autobiographical note to his wife Pauline, Walter would describe Emma as “a wild bumble bee. . . She was active physically, up to mischief, with an inclination to insist on her rights, and with a capacity for friendship and also for jealousy of others.”
Little did Walter know this “inclination to insist on her rights” would be something that Emma would do her for her entire life. Her insistence on her rights would eventually expand to include all women. In her dissertation, A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Woman, she explored the life, writings, views and legacy of famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the theme of what she called the “emancipation of women.”
In the conclusion of her dissertation, Emma demanded that a woman “win for herself the rights to which she has claim as a human being.” She continued to long for and to fight for the day that to pass “when one human being could dictate to another: Thy rank in society, or in this case thy sex, robs thee of the opportunity of striving after the attainment of the highest possible degree of development of all thy faculties.” This, in an age in which the role of the woman in society was to keep the home and to bear children, was a radical idea. It still is today. Even today, Emma’s vision has not truly been realized. Even today there is a glass ceiling that keeps women from attaining the highest development and use of all of their abilities. “No!” cries Emma. Women are human beings too and thus deserve all of the rights pertaining to men as their equal. May we continue this fight today as we honor a mind well ahead of her time – and, perhaps, even our time, as well.
Andrew Scott
ABHS Research Assistant
Sources:
Christopher H. Evans, The Kingdom is Forever Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004).
Title page from book drawn from Emma Rauschenbusch’s dissertation. Google books link: https://books.google.com/books?id=cIQEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
