From a historical point of view it is misleading to describe, as tradition does,
Christian Socialism as a movement started in 1848 in answer to the February
Revolution and ensuing events. True enough, the events of that year had caused
the setting up of a small brotherhood which subsequently became the core of the
Christian Socialists, but it was characteristic of its members that, despite being
filled with a burning desire to come to the rescue of their distressed fellow-men,
they had but very vague ideas about where and how to set to work.

To a great extent this even applied to Ludlow, otherwise the most far-seeing
of this company of young men. It is true that, impressed with events in Paris
during the Revolution, Ludlow had realized as early as in 1848, almost as in
a vision, that the paramount duty of Christians of his time was to Christianize
Socialism by taking the social problems seriously and in every way striving to
remedy the evils under which the working classes were labouring. But the main
emphasis for him lay on evangelization among the workers in order to win them
for the Christian faith and so give them, through Christianity, what they hoped
to gain through Socialism. Ludlow well understood why Socialism must fascinate
the workers, but, as far as we can make out, he himself viewed it rather negatively.
Not denying that it had pointed to vital problems and struck at truths which had
been almost forgotten, he thought its attempts to solve the problems of society
inadequate, just as its conception of man and of society seemed to imply a denial
of Christian doctrine. This view of his was, no doubt, due to the fact that his
study of the French Socialist thinkers had been rather perfunctory--at least, their
works had not appealed to him. In 1848 he had not the least inclination for
Socialistic thinking; at most, he may be said to have realized that Socialism
constituted a challenge to the Church, but Christian Socialism as the solution to
the problem of the relation between Christianity and Socialism had not then
entered his mind. His approach to social problems was determined by his political
radicalism, tempered with Arnold's and Meyer's conceptions of Christianity.

Ludlow's spiritual horizon had since then gradually widened. Through Maurice
he had learnt to emphasize even more the social aspects of the Christian faith.
Of equal importance was his meeting the workers at the conferences. Here he was
confronted with Socialism and the idea of Co-operation as the corner-stone of a
new order of society. His attention was drawn to the question of the Organization
of Labour, in comparison with which political issues appeared to be of secondary

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