Women and the Social Gospel Novel

The American Social Gospel and the role of women in American religion recently have emerged as significant concerns for American religious historians, after a period of relative neglect. In 1976 Ronald C. White, Jr. and C. Howard Hopkins called for a fresh, more inclusive look at the Social Gospel, pointing to women as among the “neglected reforms and reformers” in Social Gospel study. Scholarship on women and religion has exploded in the last decade, focusing not only on important individuals and traditional religious images of women, but also on women's own ideas and activities. This article is presented with the hope that it not only may add to the study of the history of women in American religion, but also may contribute to a new understanding of the Social Gospel movement.