Opinion of Walter Rauschenbusch

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I tend to take a negative view of anyone who believes that collectivism is inherently good. HP.

So you have a negative view of Jesus? 

More seriously, Rauschenbusch promoted the Social Gospel, not the Socialist Gospel, tho unfortunately some libertarians seem to think that anything done to help people in general is socialist.

I'd need to read some of his work to reach a final conclusion, but judging by the Wikipedia article, he seems like a mixed bag.  Certainly he came along at a time when social responsibility needed to be revitalized, but the way the article is written it sounds he overdid it, to the point of marginalizing the need for individual responsibility and the need for an individual connection to the Divine.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Socialism and collectivism have both had a number of meanings over the years, so without context I'm reluctant to say which particular meaning those words had for Rauschenbush. Socialism and collectivism need not be implemented from above by the government.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, I'm not even halfway through with his book, but just an FYI: Rauschenbusch considered sin as something that was inescapable and typically unconscious, not just something that people happen to do.  He thought there was a societal price to pay for basically every sin an individual committed because their impacts on humanity are unavoidable (which I guess you could argue is a little extreme, since not all sins are of the same degree or carry the same consequences for obvious reasons).  However, I'd say it kind of makes sense if you're looking at it through a Calvinist pair of lens, as Calvinism and free will are generally at odds with each other.

That's not necessarily a Calvinist view of sin.  Indeed, I''m certainly not a Calvinist, but what you describe sounds like my own view of sin.  Because we lack God's omniscience, we can never be absolutely sure of whether our acts are good or evil.  We have free will, but only when we surrender the gift of free will and do as God wills can we be certain of doing good. Calvinism and the other isms that hold to total depravity assert that we are incapable of making that surrender on our own.  But my own view of sin is compatible not only with the monergism of total depravity, but also with synergism and even Pelagianism.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Incidentally, as part of my personal bible study for today, I came across Deuteronomy 29:19-21 which is tangentially related to this. In those verses, especially in verse 21, that if warranted a sinner will be punished individually. "₂₁ YHWH will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law." Coming as this does in the midst of a couple of chapters detailing collective blessings and curses on Israel if they should either follow or abandon the covenant, I'd say that these verses rebuke the concept that societal sins are more important than individual sins.