Influenced by the class struggle theories of Karl Marx, ministers like John Frederick Maurice of London and Charles Kingsley, a country rector, combined liberal theology with enough socialist doctrine to give them the name of Christian Socialists. They sympathized with the Chartist movement, which was intended to extend the privileges of the Reform Bill of 1832 to the working people, though Maurice and Kingsley could not go the full length of the Chartist demands. They accomplished little permanently, but they showed that there were leaders in the Church who took to heart the needs of the working classes. Maurice and Kingsley were successors of the evangelicals in their social mood and representatives of a Broad Church phase of Anglicanism, which was characterized by liberal thinking as well as social sympathy. Others, both Anglicans and Dissenters, who would not actually call themselves socialists, were still friendly to those who were struggling for social recognition and a better living. Robert Hall, an eminent Baptist preacher, championed the cause of the trade unions when they were unpopular. John Bright, a religious Independent, worked to give working people the right to vote. The Primitive Methodists, who separated from the parent body in 1808, found their opportunity for service among the miners, the factory workers, and the fishermen. Members of the High Church party of Anglican clergy organized the Guild of St. Matthew in 1877 and a Christian Social Union in 1889. These organizations had political, educational, and religious features, but they were designed particularly for the study of social problems and their solutions.
Impact: Each of these movements and efforts demonstrated the growing attitude among Protestants that the emphasis on individual salvation should not obscure the Church’s social obligations.