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Philosophy Part IT. The Problem for Christian Sociology me pn RS meg ay ne en ee The Fhilosophy and Program of the Highlander Folk School. # summary of a discussion by Jemes Dombrowski, Chairman, “ighlander Folk School, at the Hillsboro *resbyterian Church, November 19th, and in the “hepel, Dector's Build- an ing, Nashvilis, Tennessee, November 2°*th, 1939. 1. One important motivation of the majority of those who have been responsible for the Highlander Folk School has been the attempt to relate religious idealism to the social problems of to-day, particularly to relate the social aspirations of religion and of the labor movement. 2. This concern for social justice stands a& the heart of bl las the prorhetic Febrew Christian religion as set forth by such men as Bishop Grundwig, the spiritual father of the Danish Folk Schools, Yalter Rauschenbusch, Harry F, ‘Yard, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Bishon Francis J, McConnell. 3. The Sociel Gospel is the term used to designate the type of religious thought expounded by these thinkers. - They emphesize the importence of the socie] factor in the development of character. The satvetion of the individual, according to this school of theology, is impossible apart from the salvetion of the whole of society. &. * definition of religion universrliv ecceptable would be most difficult to formulate, seid Pr. John Benton in his recent inaugural address es Dean of the School of Re- ligion of Vanderbilt University. Put it is egreed gener- ally that religion is present whenever we confront the brnte facte of reality with an ideal, or ps he put it, whenever we are aware of the ’ension between what is and what ourht to be. 5. The "as 1s"-Southern workers (that includes most of us» number thirteen million, 42% on farms, 19% in factories, with un income averaging a half of that of the rest of the netion. ith a fourth of the population, the south has two-thirds of the tenants. A tenant earns 473 a year par norenn a charerronnar Fram $38 to $73 per person. Tn 1935 person, a sharecropper from son 5Q” of all the women in industry in Tennessee made less than *12 o week. A survey of the femilies removed to make way for the Vorris dam area showed en average annual cash income per family of $50. There are five million forgotten people in the southern mount: ins. living standards are commensurate with thet income, The average annual expendi- ture per family for meat end veret tles is *231, in the south it is less that $150, end in Vississinpi it is £73. One out of five houses in the rural south tes no toilet of wr eae saVurle Ms any kind. The averege annual exnenditure for the education | Ll. FSH- 2 oh eeepc se te”