According to Rauschenbush, the conditions of our current social order stand in direct contradiction to Christian conceptions of justice and fraternity (page viii). What is the condition of the current social order? Simply put, Rauschenbusch describes the condition as one where economic exploitation in a system of industrial capitalist greed is esteemed. Big business and industrialization is damaging society. The lives of people are a means to better financial ends. But for the Christian, lives are the priority over financial gain. Thus, in Christianizing the Social Order, Walter Rauschenbusch follows up on his first very impacting book Christianity and the Social Crisis by providing us with a lengthy description of what we are to do in the social crisis. If the crisis requires the steady and slow growth of the kingdom of God within society, what does that require of those seeking to participate in that effort? Rauschenbusch describes the process as one of Christianizing: "Christianizing the social order means bringing it into harmony with the ethical convictions which we identify with Christ" (page 125). The current social order defies, and belittles these convictions of our Christian ethical life. But to Christianize the social order means that the highest state of our moral sense, demonstrated in the life and teaching of Jesus, should be allowed to reshape the institutions of our social life. That does not mean another attempt at a theocracy or putting Christ into the US Constitution; but Rauschenbusch describes the way of Christ as the "ultimate standard of moral and spiritual life" and "the categorical imperative with a human heart" (page 125). An unchristian order makes good people do bad things, but a Christian order makes bad people do good things.
He begins his description of the process of Christianizing in part one by reviewing the impact of popular embrace of a social interpretation of the gospel, and its conservative critics: "The most important and persistent obstacle of progress is the conservative stupidity and stolidity of human nature ... In every social order the ablest individuals rise to controlling positions and in trench themselves in the places they have attained. Their effort is to preserve for themselves and their children the power and wealth which they have acquired" (pages 30-31). Conservatism here is descriptive of Christian, and non-Christian citizens who seek to hold onto the present social structure. In part two, he revisits the theological foundation of the social movement, Jesus' devotion to the kingdom of God: "The purpose of all that Jesus said and did and hoped to do was always the social redemption of the entire life of the human race on earth. If we regard him in any sense as our leader and master, we cannot treat as secondary what to him was the essence of his mission. If we regard him as the Son of God, the revelation of the very mind and will and nature of the Eternal, the obligation to complete what he began comes upon us with an absolute claim to obedience" (page 67). Hence, the social focus of the gospel is not absent of personal concern, for the advocate of the Social Gospel is concerned with the will of God on earth concretely, as well as in the human heart. It is a complete concern for healing from the ravishes of sin. Consequently, a social focus does not lead a Christian astray from the "real Christian matters": "Does it stand to reason that we shall go astray from Jesus Christ if we engage in the unequal conflict with organized wrong? What kind of 'spirituality' is it which is likely to get hurt by being put to work for justice and our fellow-men?" (pages 104-105).
The remaining four parts of the book describe in detail the progress of a social focus by describing what institutions have been Christianized (family, church, American political institution, and education system [pages 128-155]), and what is left to work on. In sum, the influence of capitalism in society is too great. It threatens the notion of co-humanity (page 353), it places financial gain above human life (page 242), it belittles nature (page 253), and resists love -- the most important Christian characteristic (page 321). Justice is based on love in Rauschenbusch's work. For unjust privilege relies on unearned financial gain -- profiting from the sweat and danger of a poor persons labor. But justice in society must first come by repentance of sin, for collectively we are in need of a new mind and heart, and a new conception of how we are to live together, "a new conviction about the worth of a human life and the use God wants us to make of our own lives" (page 459). And then, we must change our economic system. A changed heart lends itself to a more faithful economic practice, and a more faithful economic practice is a must in order to preserve a faithful heart. And in order to Christianize the social order, we must multiply the number of hearts who will go about making this kind of change in heart and practice.