Josiah Strong (1847-1916) was one of America's leading religious and social voices during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A clergyman who proposed revolutionary religion-oriented solutions to perceived inequities in America's social and economic network, Josiah Strong adhered to a brand of Christianity that came to be known as Christian Socialism. The impact of his words and actions was felt beyond the borders of religion, however. In the 1890s he also emerged as one of the country's strongest voices in support of American imperialism, a philosophy that held that the nation needed to expand its sphere of influence around the world to ensure its continued primacy and to save heathen cultures. The support of Strong and other American religious leaders lent America's expansionist impulse a veneer of righteousness and altruism.

Wrote Influential Book Our Country

Strong was born into an Illinois family with deep colonial roots. When...