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In Darkest Ambiguity and the
Way Out
from JAC Issue #14
by
Captain Matt Clifton
I hold in my
hands the work of a prophet and visionary. Its intricate
foldout captivates me. Its dedication to its author’s wife
brings a tear to the surface. Its preface and chapters arrest
my heart and head with images of darkest despair and the
frightening audacity of a prophet’s hope.
More than any other, this work is responsible for the Army of
2001. In the territory where I serve as an officer of just
eight weeks, that Army is variously in the first war cries of
glorious victory and the last, tragic sputters of defeat. Any
Salvationist with a heart for the Army’s future will want to
know why that Army has, in places, struggled and declined. An
answer to that question must examine the impact of William
Booth’s visionary text, ‘In Darkest England and The Way Out’,
on the Army’s mission. I offer this analysis to those
comrades, reflective as it is of my own relentless search for
authentic Salvationism.
The Salvation Army’s missiological framework to October 1890
“Angelos, I think it would have been much better if The
General had left Socialism alone. I don’t like his sort.
However, if he can make Christianity and Socialism fit, I
shall pronounce him the finest genius of the age.”
A devil, Diabolos, in conversation with an angel, Angelos
[Pearson, 1891]
Later to become The Salvation Army, The Christian Mission was
founded in 1865 with the single objective of saving souls.
Booth’s targeting of the poor with this objective can be
traced back to his indignance at their absence from the
churches, which he had noted as far back as 1846 [Collier,
1968:24]. The Mission’s energies were fully consumed by
evangelism until after The Salvation Army was founded in 1878.
It began to dawn on some in Booth’s Army that preaching was
ineffective unless the physical needs of the poor were
attended to [Green, 1986:50]. Thus organised social relief
began in diverse ways in several countries through the
mid-1880s. The perceived importance of this aspect of the
Army’s mission increased in Booth’s thinking. He established a
social reform office to systematise the work, culminating in
the publication of ‘Darkest England and the Way Out’ in
October 1890. Booth had become deeply dissatisfied with
existing efforts to relieve the needs of the poorest in
society, whom he identified as the ‘submerged tenth’ of
England’s population, living in the cities with a living
standard below that of even a London cab-horse [Booth,
1890:20-23]. After describing the intensely bleak and deprived
conditions of the poor, Booth delineates a vast scheme aimed
at eradicating the problem completely. Its core idea is the
possibility of reformation of the whole person via three
pragmatic stages. Booth’s workers would reach out to the poor
in the cities and address their immediate needs through the
various enterprises of The City Colony. Some would be fully
reformed here, but most would need the further opportunity of
agricultural work in The Farm Colony. Emigration overseas to
The Colony Across The Sea would cater for the huge numbers
anticipated.
It should be noted that no other church or organisation had
similar ambitions in mind. In chapter four, Booth is scathing
about the efforts of every other agency: government,
charities, prisons, trades unions and secular reformers. He
exhibits a total disinterest in lobbying for governmental
provision on the basis that social reform is possible only on
the foundations of Christian faith [Booth, 1890:34-35].
Prior to publication of the scheme, the Army’s missiological
emphases were as follows:
• Salvation - Soul winning as the prime objective
• Social reform - Meeting the social needs of the poor
as a means to conversion
• The poor - Evangelising those neglected by the
churches
• The whosoever - Salvation and holiness for all
• The world - The salvation of the whole world
The place of social reform as a means to conversion and moral
regeneration is repeatedly affirmed in the book, exemplified
in chapter five: ‘I must assert in the most unqualified way
that it is primarily and mainly for the sake of saving the
soul that I seek the salvation of the body.’ [Booth, 1890:45].
By now, social reform is necessary: ‘But what is the use of
preaching the Gospel to men whose whole attention is
concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep themselves
alive? You might as well give a tract to a shipwrecked sailor
who is battling with the surf that… threatens to drown him.’
[Booth, 1890:45]. However, Booth sows confusion by
simultaneously describing a dual mission: spiritual and social
salvation as a ‘war on two fronts’ [Green, 1986:72]: ‘As
Christ came to call not the saints but sinners to repentance,
so the New Message of Temporal Salvation, of salvation from
pinching poverty, from rags and misery, must be offered to
all.’ [Booth, 1890:36]. Booth applied his thinking by signing
the Social Trust Deed on 30 January 1891, establishing the
Field and Social departments that remain to this day. Although
Green goes so far as to say that Booth’s missiological
framework was definitely dualistic [1986:53], a survey of
Booth’s writings including ‘Darkest England and the Way Out’
does not place him firmly in this category: social reform is
more often understood as a means to save the soul {1}, this
being ‘the only real, lasting method of doing him any good.’
[Booth, 1890:45].
What did the scheme achieve in relation to the Army’s
mission?
“Diabolos, I advise you not to oppose General Booth’s scheme,
for it would be to labour in vain; the contents of that book
will be practically carried out. The scheme is Christ-like,
and it will surely succeed.”
[Pearson, 1891]
In terms of social reform only, the scheme was a partial
success{2}. However, success may be properly defined only in
relation to the Army’s mission. Booth’s assessment in the 1911
International Social Council (ISC) aligns with the emphases
listed earlier:
• Salvation
• Social reform
• The poor
• The whosoever
• The world
"The first benefit I will mention is the Salvation of
thousands of souls… The world has been further benefited by
the removal of misery on such an extensive scale as had never
even been dreamed of as possible… Think of the multitudes who,
by our operations are daily saved from starvation, vice,
crime, disease and death… The world has been further benefited
by the knowledge of salvation throughout every part of the
habitable globe." [Booth, 1911:20-21]
Clearly, the scheme had furthered the Army’s mission. However,
from the start, Booth feared that engaging his Army in social
reform would detract from soul winning: ‘But please read, mark
and learn. There must be no neglect of Salvation Work pure and
simple for Social operations.’ [Booth, 1890b:9]. His fear was
realised: ‘There has been a great lack of direct aim at the
true goal of our Social Work... consequently the work, being
superficial, has in some cases only had superficial and
temporary results.’ [Booth, 1911:18]. William Beveridge’s
analysis of 1910 queries the regenerative achievements of the
scheme. He identified, for example, that the sheer numbers of
men being helped prevented the ‘sustained individual
influence’ needed for permanent change [quoted in Gauntlett,
1990:30]. The vast scale of the undertaking was Booth’s
enormous risk: ‘If the individual is merely helped from day to
day, you would probably increase the evil with which you are
attempting to deal.’ [Booth quoted in Gauntlett, 1990:30].
Furthermore, Booth’s tendency to see social reform as
legitimate alongside as well as towards soul winning (strongly
reinforced by the departmental structure) arguably diluted the
zeal for conversions. Certainly in the second ISC of 1921,
Bramwell Booth urges his leaders to restore the correct
emphasis: ‘Again I say that a great danger is facing us… the
dear old General did not start out merely to do charitable and
philanthropic work… I ask you to rise up in the power of the
Spirit, and let us make our Institutions what it was
originally intended they should be.’ [Booth, General Bramwell,
1921:35-36]. In both the 1911 and 1921 Councils, each General
feels the need to stress that the Social officer is as much
interested in the soul as the Field officer is [Booth,
1911:53-77; Booth, General Bramwell, 1921:34-36]. The scheme
proved a turning point in the Army’s respectability, and this
may have seduced officers into shaping their work for an
admiring society{3}.
Conclusion
Could the Army’s mission have been achieved without the
scheme? The answer must be no, for reasons which have already
been highlighted. Firstly, eternal salvation for the
‘submerged tenth’ was directly obstructed by temporal misery.
That misery had to be removed as a means to salvation for ‘the
whosoever’. Secondly, it is hard to see how the salvation of
the world could have been credibly envisaged without the
suitably audacious scale of the scheme. Thirdly, no other
church or organisation had the same objective. Only Booth’s
Army was mobilised for the immense task.
However, the scheme’s flaws endangered the mission. Firstly,
the implementation proved too ambitious and individuals
received only superficial help. Secondly, Booth’s
missiological ambiguity, together with his tendency to
dualism, diverted his officers from their evangelistic focus.
Thus arose the temptation to stoke the fires of
respectability.
The scheme may therefore be celebrated, and its necessity to
the mission affirmed. Nevertheless, the pivotal lesson of
‘Darkest England’ is that of the need for clarity of purpose
and fidelity to our sacred calling{4}. While many variations
on the theme are heard from the platform and read in mission
statements, our quintessential passion is for soul winning.
The one ambition of the authentic Salvationist is to move
hearts from depravity to holiness. Notwithstanding his
ambiguous presentation, a study of the Founder can draw no
other conclusion.
Today’s Army
The scope of this article does not permit a detailed
evaluation of today’s Army. I encourage the reader to make
their own observations of the Army of their experience, and
offer to that end the following comments in respect of our
continued efforts in social services:
Where our mission has been described as twofold, and social
service elevated to the status of core purpose, the seductive
option of offering soup and soap without salvation has been
legitimised and the importance of our social services
magnified in the view of the public. There are territories
where the Army is understood to be a charity first and a
church/mission second, if at all. There are communities where
it is assumed that a Salvationist on the doorstep is
fundraising for social services, not sharing the gospel. There
are Army centres where client-facing staff are not Christians,
evangelism is restricted or forbidden by the funding body and
clients come, are helped and go without hearing the gospel. In
these places, ambiguity of purpose has led to the severing of
our vital, evangelistic nerve.
To these situations may be applied the key insight from
examining ‘Darkest England’. It is surely this: the core
purpose of providing social services is to facilitate the
salvation and growth in holiness of the person in need. As
with anything occupying the energies of officers and soldiers,
their existence is justified and their effectiveness evaluated
on these criteria alone. This is no legalistic rigidity, but
an absolute driven by clarity of purpose, fidelity to our
origins and sacred calling, and a consuming passion for the
salvation of the lost.
Notes:
{1} An important article in ‘All The World’, 1889,
entitled ‘Salvation for Both Worlds’, outlines the dualistic
missiology described by Green. ‘Darkest England and the Way
Out’ reinforces this idea on page 36. However, the book gives
greater emphasis to the primacy of soul winning [Booth,
1980:preface, 45, 85, 104, 110, 218, 256, 284]. Other writings
at this time and later reinforce this emphasis [examples
include Booth, 1890b:9; 1894:8; 1911:56, 76; Sandall,
1953:xiv; The Salvation Army, 1914:62]. This missiology was
communicated to the public through vivid images such as that
on the front cover of ‘The War Cry’, 16 May 1891. A
sword-wielding warrior astride his horse overcomes a beast
with four heads. To kill the beast (sin), its heads must be
cut off (social problems such as drunkenness, ‘sweating’
(cruelly cheap labour), poverty and crime).
In the academy of the East End slums, Booth pioneered a
missiology that prefigured theological heavyweights of the
following century: ‘This is the origin of their task – as a
community to confess Him… Jesus Christ is in totality and
fullness the content of its task… The ministry of the
community is essentially and in all forms and circumstances
the declaration of the Gospel.’ [Barth, 1962:796-797,
844-845]; ‘There exists, therefore, a Christian responsibility
for secular institutions… the crucial point is that an
interest in the conditions of the world is found only within
the context of the whole proclamation of Christ.’ [Bonhoeffer,
1965:323].
{2} Existing outreach in the City Colony was expanded and a
successful Farm Colony operated in Hadleigh, Essex. Due to
insufficient finances, the Colony Over The Sea was never
properly commenced, although some emigration did occur. For
further details beyond this essay’s scope see Fairbank,
1983:149-156; Gauntlett, 1990:27-36.
{3} The scheme’s high profile brought public respectability
where there had previously been antagonism, evidenced in
reports and letters published in The War Cry during this
period. The Chief of the Staff under Bramwell Booth,
Commissioner Edward J. Higgins, deals with the attendant
problems in his address to the 1921 ISC [Higgins, 1921:147].
{4} The issue of clarity of purpose benefits from much greater
experience than mine in Clifton, 1999:147-163.
Bibliography
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