Welfarism, Socialism, and Religion

This chapter suggests that ethical socialism was a response to the crisis of faith. It shows how various welfare liberals and ethical socialists adopted immanentism in an attempt to reconcile religion and science. They located God in evolutionary processes here on earth. They suggested that each person contains a divine spark and so is related to all others in fellowship. Many of them experimented with new ways of living in an attempt to realize the divine in themselves and in their relations with others and nature. Ethical socialism and liberal welfarism did not provide a new home for old religious emotions so much as emerge as part of a new set of religious beliefs.