The mentality that Rauschenbusch deployed to seduce his readers — the turn away from troubling debates about doctrine, the shift from personal salvation to social reform, and the reassurance that progressive disdain for traditional religion was in fact a
sign of a more
authentic and scientific
faith — provided a way to remain Christian while setting aside whatever seems incompatible with modern life.
Unfortunately, in the Western Church, after the substitution
of «right beliefs» for «works» or «fruits
of the Spirit» as the
sign of authentic faith by in classical Protestantism and the Enlightenment's emphasis on a reductionistic understanding
of reason based solely on empirical logic,
faith became confused with orthodox theological beliefs.