Josiah Strong papers, 1855 -- 1969

Josiah Strong was born January 19, 1847 in Naperville, Illinois. He was a descendant of Elder John Strong, one of the early settlers in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Naperville and experienced an evangelical conversion at the First Congregational Church as a young teen. Afterward he attended Western Reserve College; following graduation in 1869, he enrolled at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati and was ordained Minister. Not long after ending his studies at Lane in 1871, he married Alice Bisbee of Chardon, Ohio. Rev. Strong spent some time as Pastor of a home missionary church in Cheyenne, Wyoming. From 1877-1883, Rev. Strong was Pastor of the First Congregational Church of Sandusky, Ohio. It was there that he became aware of the major social problems within America and what inspired him to eventually become involved with the Social Gospel movement. This was a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean environment, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Beginning in 1885, Strong published several books that dealt with religious solutions for social and economic problems, and emphasized interdenominational cooperation to achieve these social goals. Among his most widely read and influential published works are: Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis, New Era, The Twentieth Century City, The Times and Young Men, Religious Movements for Social Betterment, and The Challenge of the City. Strong served as General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance for the United States from 1886-1898, a coalition of Protestant missionary groups. In reaction to the Evangelical Alliance's lack of involvement in what he saw as an urgent need to deal with social problems in late 19th century USA, he founded the League for Social Service in 1898, which in 1902 was re-named the American Institute of Social Service, an organization to "promote social and industrial betterment." Strong edited its magazine, The Gospel of the Kingdom. He is considered a leader of the Third Great Awakening, a hypothetical historical period proposed by William G. McLoughlin that was marked by religious activism in American history and spans the late 1850s to the early 20th century. Strong had three daughters named Mary, Elsie, and Margery, and one son, Howard. Mary died tragically in 1894. Strong appears to have been close to his children, as evident in his correspondence with his daughters in the collection. Strong died on April 28, 1916.