On
10th April, 1848, a group of Christians who supported Chartism
held a meeting in London. People who attended the meeting included
Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles
Kingsley and Thomas Hughes. The meeting
was a response to the decision by the House
of Commons to reject the recent Chartist
Petition. The men, who became known as Christian Socialists, discussed
how the Church could help to prevent revolution by tackling what they
considered were the reasonable grievances of the working class.
Frederick Denison Maurice was acknowledged
as the leader of the group and his book The
Kingdom of Christ (1838) became the theological basis of
Christian
Socialism. In the
book Maurice argued that politics and religion are inseparable
and that the church should be involved in addressing social questions.
Maurice rejected individualism, with its competition and selfishness,
and suggested a socialist alternative to the economic principles of
laissez faire. Christian Socialists promoted the cooperative ideas
of Robert Owen and suggested profit sharing
as a way of improving the status of the working classes and as a means
of producing a just, Christian society.
The Christian Socialists published two journals, Politics
of the People (1848-1849) and The
Christian Socialist (1850-51).
The group also produced a series of pamphlets
under the title Tracts on Christian Socialism. Other initiatives
included a night school in Little Ormond Yard and helping to form
eight Working Men's Associations. In 1850
Thomas Hughes, Edward Neale, Lloyd Jones,
and other members of the group helped to establish the London Cooperative
Store.
Disagreements between members resulted in the Christian Socialists
being inactive between 1854 and the late 1870s. The 1880s saw a revival
of the movement and by the end of the century a variety of Christian
Socialist groups had been formed including the Socialist
Quaker Society, the Roman Catholic Socialist Society, the Guild
of St. Matthew, and the Christian Social Union.
Christian Socialists also dominated the leadership
of the Independent Labour Party formed in 1893.
This included James Keir Hardie, Philip
Snowden, Ben Tillett, Tom
Mann, Katharine Glasier, Margaret
McMillan and Rachel McMillan.
The Christian Socialist movement also influenced many of the leaders
of the American Socialist Party such
as Norman Thomas and Upton
Sinclair.
(1)
In his book, Father Figures, Kingsley
Martin, the son of a Unitarian minister,
explained the role of Nonconformists
in the history of social reform.
Social
revolt in Britain had sprung from dissent. The leaders of Chartism
learnt their eloquence in dissenting chapels and the Anti-Corn agitation
was led by Quakers and other nonconformists. Dissenters became the
backbone of the working-class party, and the ILP was composed of dissenting
moralists who would not accept the usual political compromises. They
readily responded to the oratory of lay preachers like Philip Snowden
and Arthur Henderson, and it is no accident that so many of the leaders
of the Labour Party have been Christians who believed they were inaugurating
a moral and social revolution. Morality and politics were one.
(2)
James Keir Hardie, From Serfdom to Socialism
(1907)
This
generation has grown up ignorant of the fact that socialism is as
old as the human race. When civilization dawned upon the world, primitive
man was living his rude Communistic life, sharing all things in common
with every member of the tribe. Later when the race lived in villages,
man, the communist, moved about among the communal flocks and herds
on communal land. The peoples who have carved their names most deeply
on the tables of human story all set out on their conquering career
as communists, and their downward path begins with the day when they
finally turned away from it and began to gather personal possessions.
When the old civilizations were putrefying, the still small voice
of Jesus the Communist stole over the earth like a soft refreshing
breeze carrying healing wherever it went.
(3)
In 1910 James Keir Hardie explained the
influence that Christianity had on his political beliefs.
I
have said, both in writing and from the platform many times, that
the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and the
inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more from
the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources combined.
(4)
After attending her first Christian Socialist
meeting in Edinburgh, Rachel
McMillan wrote to her cousin about her new views (24th March,
1887)
I am sending with this letter some
of Mr. Gilray's pamphlets on Socialism. I am very glad to have had
them, and could never have collected them for myself. I think that,
very soon, when these teachings and ideas are better known, people
generally will declare themselves Socialists. They are bound to do
it, if they think at all. I instinctively felt they were good people,
and now I believe they are the true disciples and followers of Christ.
(5)
Tom Mann,
Memoirs (1923)
One of my Nonconformist friends was Rev. Belcher, minister of the
Congregational Church, Hackney. He invited me to occupy the pulpit,
and I did so. There was a great congregation, and when in the heart
of my address I denounced the hypocrisy of the churches, there were
hisses. as I proceeded there were cheers, and for the space of thirty
or forty minutes there was frequent alternations of cheering and hissing.
My close friendship with various ministers of religion led to the
circulation of a report that I was about to enter the Church. One
morning a pressman called upon me to ask what truth there was in the
statement that appeared in The Times: "We are informed that Mr.
Tom Mann, the well-known Labour leader, is an accepted candidate for
Deacon's orders in the Church of England."
(6)
Rev. Roden Noel, Christianity
and Social Advance (1893)
Surely that man or woman is no Christian at all, except in name, in
so far as he or she remains indifferent to the awful abyss that yarns
between rich and poor; to the insufficiency of the share in our immense
wealth which falls to the lot of those who produce it.
(7)
Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham,
speech as President of the Christian Social Union (1890)
Socialism is co-operation, the method of Individualism
is competition. The one regards man as working with man for a common
end, the other regards man as working against man for private gain.
The aim of Socialism is the fulfillment of service, the aim of Individualism
is the attainment of some personal advantage, riches, or place of
fame. socialism seeks such an organisation of life as shall secure
for every one the most complete development of his power. Individualism
seeks primarily the satisfaction of the particular wants of each one
in the hope that the pursuit of private interests will in the end
secure public welfare.
(8)
Fred Copeman, Reason in Revolt (1948)
In my political work I have found that my Christian
experience has given me a fresh dynamic. I am certain that the Labour
Party will lead this country to success if it clings to the fundamental
principles of Christianity in its interpretation of our modern industrial
and social problems. Dialectical materialism as expressed by Marx
and Lenin, seems to me an excuse to enable individuals to ignore personal
moral standards and to justify themselves under the cloak of proletarian
interests. The working class to me is made up of millions of human
beings like myself, with the same human kindnesses, the same hatreds,
the same weaknesses and the same aspirations. True happiness cannot
come to the workers at the expense of the happiness of any other section
of the population. It can only be obtained by justifying the claims
of the working people in the eyes of their opponents. The success
of Socialism can only be achieved by ensuring that all people see
the justice and the beauty of it, and willingly join in building it.
No true philosophy can
endure on a basis of hatred. Socialism, to me, is beautiful and practical.
There is nothing more practical than a freely convinced human mind;
all other things, all other sacrifices, all successes, will come from
that. People in the mass will be convinced when they see living examples
of the beliefs which modern politicians proclaim.
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