‘Christ's kingdom in Scotland’: Scottish Presbyterianism, social reform, and the Edwardian crisis

This article examines the response of Scottish Presbyterian reformers to the socioeconomic and political dimensions of the ‘Edwardian Crisis’. For such individuals the circumstances of the early twentieth century, despite the undoubted difficulties they posed, offered the opportunity to bring about a modern version of the ‘godly commonwealth’, with the principal means of realizing this being Christianized social reform. The article focuses on how the ‘social problem’ was analysed; the challenge of socialism; the solutions offered; and the ultimate fate of the ‘social gospel’.