新托福阅读材料： Religion and Reform.docVIP

新托福阅读材料: Religion and Reform 小马过河为大家准备了“新托福阅读材料：Religion and Reform”， 供各位备考托福的考生们参考使用，来提高自己的托福成绩！免费咨询电话：400-0123-267 　　Religion and Reform 　　In the 1880s some liberal Protestant seminaries, such as Union in New York, 　　began to teach reform as a religious duty. Younger ministers in the cities of- 　　ten threw open their churches to the disadvantaged and entered the battle 　　against the suffering that surrounded them. In 1887, for example, Episco- 　　palians created the Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests 　　of Labor, which supported unions and worked for the elimination of sweat- 　　shops, child labor, and slums. Congregationalists soon joined the effort, and 　　Methodists were not far behind. The Federal Council of Churches, organized 　　in 1908, frequently injected itself into a variety of reform movements. Roman 　　Catholics slowly lent their support after the appearance of Rerum novarum 　　(1891), Pope Leo XIII’s dramatic encyclical criticizing the excesses of capi- 　　talism and defending the existence of labor unions. 　　A vital part of this surge for reform was a body of literature promoting 　　what came to be called the Social Gospel. This involved a modification of 　　the traditional emphasis on individual sin and salvation that stressed good 　　works through the improvement of society. Washington Gladden’s influen- 　　tial Applied Christianity (1886) attacked speculators and monopolists, main- 　　tained the right of labor to organize, and urged profit sharing. Charles M. 　　Sheldon’s best-selling novel In His Steps (1896) contended that true Chris- 　　tians would lead reform efforts and transform their communities into mod- 　　els of virtue. Walter Rauschenbusch, in Christianity and the Social Crisis 　　(1907) and other books, condemned the industrial revolution on religious 　　grounds, labeled capitalism “essential atheism,” and advocated the commu- 　　nism of early Christianity (not of Marx). 　　Most supporters of the Social Gospel limited their criticism