The evolution of American religious social services: A study of change in the Methodist, Jewish, and Catholic communities in the United States

Methodist, Jewish, and Catholic traditions have historically maintained a leading presence in the field of social services in the United States. Although each group exhibited varying responses to the influence of America's shifting cultural values, all three utilized the depth and richness of their religious ideologies to ensure the continued success of their social service agencies and programs. This study analyzes how these three American religious traditions emphasized different internal religious ideologies in response to three specific cultural influences. These include: the social problem that accompanied massive immigration, the availability of government funding to religious social services, and the pressures of the professionalization of American social work. The study used both archival material and professional journals. Archival materials were found at the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, Massachusetts and New York, New York and the United Methodist Church archives in Madison, New Jersey. Primary materials were also found in professional social work journals such as the Journal of Jewish Communal Services, the Catholic Charities Review, and the Journal of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After careful analysis of these primary sources and secondary sources of many accomplished scholars in the fields of American Religious History, Sociology of Religion, and History of Religions the study argues that all three American religious traditions—Methodist, Jewish, and Catholic—rose to the challenge of continuing to support their religious ideologies of aid to the less fortunate even as the cultural landscape demanded new perspectives on social problems. Instead of abandoning the belief that religious ideology demanded involvement in solving social problems, each tradition emphasized different internal ideologies to support social programs. All three traditions remain a powerful force in American social services because the ideologies at the core of their power proved rich enough to provide flexibility in a century of flux.