The Social Gospel Movement in the 19th Century

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The 19 twenties and thirties is an interesting period. Franklin roosevelt was very clearly a product of the social, the social gospel movement in the protestant churches. Roosevelt was educated at grotton school. He remained for the rest of his life close to a reverend endicat peabody,. The effect of thea depression and the of fachism in europe, i think, knocked a lot of the force out of the social gospel movement.

In episode 162 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael speaks with one of the nation’s preeminent experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman, about his new book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism — a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of an until-now unrecognized force — religion.

Critics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets — among economists as well as many ordinary citizens — is a form of religion. And, it turns out, that in a deeper, more historically grounded sense there is something to that idea. Contrary to the conventional historical view of economics as an entirely secular product of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Friedman demonstrates that religion exerted a powerful influence from the outset.