Blog post by Jon Snyder, Ph.D., Access Services Coordinator in the Arts & Special Collections Research Center
Walter Rauschenbusch
While researching hymnals, you may encounter oddities that catch your eye and lead to more questions than answers. That was my experience when I found Evangeliums-Lieder by Walter Rauschenbusch and Ira D. Sankey. Sankey is a well-known figure in church music; along with his collaborator Dwight L. Moody, he created, promoted, and used publications such as Sacred Songs and Solos and Gospel Hymns around the early twentieth century. Their evangelical efforts significantly contributed to the development of gospel music in the United States and internationally.
Sankey introduced many gospel hymns accompanying himself on his portable reed organ, while Moody would preach. Gospel hymns were used as a simple and unsophisticated way of communicating the evangelistic message, as illustrated in the advertisement for their meetings: ‘Mr. Moody will preach the gospel and Mr. Sankey will sing the gospel.’ They established gospel hymns as an accepted means of evangelism. – Harry Eskew
Ira D. Sankey
Following the popularity of Sankey’s publications in both the United States and Great Britain, their work was translated and published for use worldwide, particularly in missionary collections. However, this is when the story gets interesting. In Baylor’s collection, I came across a translation for use in the United States – in German. This raises the question: Who created this German publication, using similar plates and formatting to the original, and for whom was it intended?
Two title pages: Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 and Evangeliums-Lieder 1 und 2.
Walter Rauschenbusch, the son of a German-American Lutheran pastor, came to be known as a leader of the Social Gospel movement. In some ways opposed to the individual focus of evangelists like Moody and Sankey, the Social Gospel movement called attention to the institutional sins of the time, including capitalist greed, poor living conditions, child labor, and women’s rights. He wrote several books on the matter, including Christianity and the Social Crisis and A Theology for the Social Gospel. As a faculty member at Rochester Theological Seminary, this would not be uncommon. Rauschenbusch then went one step further and formed the Brotherhood of the Kingdom. Initially, eleven individuals from different denominations and backgrounds focused on recentering Christianity and social norms to bring the Kingdom of God to Earth. Although he was a Baptist pastor and professor, he looked outside of the Baptist tradition to work with others across New York City.
Before he transitioned to the Seminary, Rauschenbusch was the pastor at the Second German Baptist Church in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. It was while serving this congregation, which consisted of many German-speaking immigrants, that the Social Gospel drive within him was born, as he saw many of his congregation living in terrible conditions.
To find respite and rejuvenation, Rauschenbusch had regularly attended summer revivals outside of the city, including a ten-day event in August 1888. Having been uplifted by the approachable and singable songs of Sankey at the revival, Rauschenbusch “coveted for his congregation and other German-language churches an opportunity to sing the hymns in their native tongue.” Initially, this led to a small handbook of twenty-four hymns, but a full collaboration with Sankey ultimately resulted in the 218 hymns of Evangeliums-Lieder.
Opening hymns of praise
Comparing “The Lord will Provide”
Thus, in his ecumenical perspective, similar to that found in the Brotherhood of the Kingdom, Rauschenbusch turned to the singing evangelist Ira D. Sankey. However, it would seem that the Social Gospel of Rauschenbusch is incongruous with the individual-driven gospel spirit of Sankey. Rauschenbusch’s primary biographer, Paul M. Minus, wrote,
Rauschenbusch did feel uneasy about the theology of many of the hymns, for they typically obscured the social dimensions of sin and salvation. But he believed that they were correct in praising the God who saves people from sin, and he was glad to help Christians celebrate their deliverance and declare their discipleship. – Paul Minus, Rauschenbusch biographer
Over time, the two collaborated on four hymnals: Evangeliums-Lieder (1890), Evangeliums-Lieder no.2 (1894), Evangeliums-Lieder Nos. 1 and 2 (1897), and Evangeliums-Sänger (1910). Rauschenbusch also helped the official German Baptist Hymnal, Neue Glaubensharfe (1917).
As churches can tend to turn inward to find the music of the congregation, focusing more on the music of the past and within their own tradition, perhaps we can all learn from Rauschenbusch in making musical and linguistic choices that help our congregations worship God.
Bibliography
Evans, Christopher Hodge. The Kingdom is Always but Coming: A Life of Walter Rauschenbusch. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010.
Minus, Paul M. Walter Rauschenbusch: American reformer. New York: Macmillan, 1988.
Rauschenbusch, Walter. Walter Rauschenbusch: Essential spiritual writings. Edited by Joseph J. Fahey. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2019.