Analysis Of Walter Rauschenbusch's Shall Unbelief Win

After the Great War, the word was in disarray. Millions had died, and even more were wounded in some gruesome ways due to trench and chemical warfare. Many of the world’s economies were also suffering due to the depletion of resources from the war, and the reparations owed from the treaty. The Christian response to this, and other crises of the time, was quite interesting. While Henry Fosdick’s “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” advocated less for doctrine and more towards a social gospel that Walter Rauschenbusch’s “Christianity and the Social Crisis” emphasized, Clarence MacArtney’s “Shall Unbelief Win” did not agree with Fosdick. Much of What Fosdick argued for pointed back towards the work of Rauschenbusch. In referring to the kingdom of God, Rauschenbusch states, “It is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven” (25). It is
MacArtney definitely never denies the importance of Christians pursuing building a better society, he just wants to make sure this is done in a way where God is still present in Christianity. He definitely believes helping society is important, but he believes accurate doctrine, at least on the Five Fundamentals is just as important. He states, “I believe that in this day one of the greatest contributions that a man can make to the success of the Gospel is to contend earnestly and intelligently and in a Christian spirit, but nevertheless, CONTEND, for the faith” (48). At the end of his sermon, MacArtney reveals his fear about what will happen if many people listen to the teachings of Fosdick and the Modernist movement. He concludes, “The movement is slowly secularizing the Church, and if permitted to go unchecked and unchallenged, will ere long produce in our churches a new kind of Christianity, a Christianity without worship, without God, and without Jesus Christ”