The American clergyman Washington Gladden (1836-1918) was a pioneer of the Social Gospel and a key spokesman for liberal Protestantism.

On Feb. 11, 1836, Washington Gladden was born in Pottsgrove, Pa. Much of his childhood was spent in western New York, a district famous for its religious enthusiasms. This fact, coupled with his family's piety, aroused in young Gladden strong spiritual interests. In the mid-1850s he entered Williams College, where he received a degree preparatory to entering the ministry. In 1860 Gladden accepted his first pastorate in a Congregational church in Brooklyn. For the remainder of his life he devoted his principal energies to ministerial duties in urban areas, first in New York City, then in Massachusetts, and finally for over 30 years at the First Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio.

From the outset Gladden was influenced by the new theological and social concerns animating American Protestantism in the late 19th...