ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM:
AN ESTIMATE.
To what extent and in what particulars have the agitations of the English and American Christian socialists for improved social conditions been vitiated by defective social ideals?
The term "Christian Socialism" is of vague import, both as to doctrine and as to the personnel of its adherents. The term was first adopted in its English application by Frederick Denison Maurice to denote the doctrines of the group of social reformers led by himself. The leading spirits of this group were Maurice, Kingsley, Hughes, Neal, Ludlow and others; but though the term had a more definite implication than at any time since, even then its application was quite vague. The movement originated with the Owens communism on the one hand and with the Chartist agitation on the other. From the latter it derived its occasion, from the former its method. A formal organization was entered into and publications established: at first Politics for the People, and later The Christian Socialist. From lack of support neither continued long.
More recently the movement has revived under the name of the "Christian Social Union." The most flourishing society publishes a quarterly magazine, The Economic Review. Other less important publications are issued on both sides of the Atlantic. This movement finds its occasion in present social problems and is an attempt at a solution through the efforts of the church. Both of these formal organizations have been in the main identified with the established church, or rather with the adherents of this church; though there are numerous other writers and workers of other denominations who are frequently termed Christian socialists, for their aims are similar.
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