Origins of Modern Religion, Modern Charity and Modern Labor Problems

Here are a series of “Lectures” that look at the development of modern approaches to religion (“modern” c. 1905) and its connections with labor issues and charity. The history is “long view,” starting in the 12th century, and Earl Davis’ core take away from this history is change from autocracy to democracy: “It is the change for a world in which the institution was the important thing, and little attention was paid to the value of the individual person. He was valuable only as he served as a part of the material which built up the great institution, whether it was the Holy Roman Empire or the Holy Catholic Church. In the world of today the theory is quite different no matter how far short we fall of our ideal in common practice, the fact still remains that we are living under the principle of a ‘Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.'” (Lecture 1). The lectures then trace this change and its implications for charity and labor.