US AP Calendar

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

11.2.7 - Social Darwinism and Social Gospel

Analyze the similarities and differences between the ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel (e.g., using biographies of William Graham Sumner, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Social Darwinism is the application of Charles Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest" to sociaty. It is the belief that only the animals best suited for the environment will survive to reproduce. This ideal also applies to human beings in society. Only the best people would succeed. In a perfect world, this Social Darwinism would lead to a Utopian society. But life - unfortunately - does not work like that.

Social Gospel was the movement of spreading the teachings of Jesus to the public.

Obviously, the main difference would be the presence of religion in Social Gospel. This creates the ever-ongoing dispute between religion and evolution. (Way to be original Mr. Waldram ^_^).


Nghiem Le P1

Mr. Waldram said...

Just for the record I took these questions from the CA Standards so the originality can be attributed to Governor Schwarzenegger and his band of friends in Sacramento I did like your breakdown of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel. Evolution of social status being based on personal ability and application to succeed does actually fit nicely with social gospel’s concept of individual ability to be saved. Personal salvation vs. personal success will bring personal happiness… so to speak. Do you agree with personal responsibility of each, or do you believe in communal salvation and economic success or one or the other? Which social gospel or social Darwin writers would you agree or disagree with?