Howard Chase, Red Hill, Kansas

Reverend Charles Sheldon (1857-1946) was an American minister in the Congregational churches and leader of the Social Gospel movement. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover (1879). He became an advocate of the late nineteenth century school of thought known as Christian Socialism. In the 1880s Sheldon developed a series of sermons that he preached from the pulpit of the Congregational church in Topeka, Kansas. The theme of the sermons was later fictionalised into the novel In His Steps. Sheldon's theological motif reflected his socialist outlook, and it helped to inspire the theologian Walter Rauschenbusch who is generally credited with creating the Social Gospel. In 1900 he became editor for a week of the Topeka Daily Capital applying the "What Would Jesus Do? " concept. Amongst his other works are: Richard Bruce; or, Life That Now is (1892), His Brother's Keeper; or, Christian Stewardship (1895), Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and its Consequences (1899), John King's Question Class (1899), The Crucifixion of Philip Strong (1899), The Miracle at Markham: How Twelve Churches Became One (1899), The Heart of the World (1905) and The High Calling (1911).