Before the American Civil War, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States was often thought to be opposed to civic engagement by the hierarchy or in the name of the church. In the years between 1886 and 1919, this same denomination became a vocal advocate for the labor movement and the needs of the working classes. This advocacy was shown by church leaders who arbitrated strikes and organized workers. This change from civic disengagement to social activism was institutionalized by the ruling body of the denomination with the Joint Commission on Social Service in 1913.

This dissertation begins to answer the question of how the Episcopal Church moved from a position of relative civic non-engagement to a leading role in the Social Gospel movement. During the last half of the 19th century, a combination of establishmentarian thinking as exemplified by William Reed Huntington and the incarnational theology popularized by F. D. Maurice gave Episcopalians the theological grounding to believe that they had a more inclusive social responsibility.

Two Episcopalian organizations, the Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor (CAIL) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), provide case studies for this transformation in social theology. CAIL, founded in 1887, was an activist organization that worked to organize labor, improve workers’ living conditions and arbitrate labor disputes. The CSU did not engage in direct activism, but published pamphlets to educate Episcopalians on the issues of the day.

These organizations, regarded as two influential Social Gospel groups, left a legacy of study and action that have continued to inspire Episcopalian social theology from the beginning of the 20^th century to the present day. To their contemporaries, the activism shown by these two organizations seemed almost revolutionary.