Rauschenbusch, Walter

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918). American theologian and American Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rauschenbusch was a key figure in the Social Gospel movement that flourished in the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also the maternal grandfather of the influential philosopher Richard Rorty and the great-grandfather of Paul Raushenbush.

Walter Rauschenbusch was born October 4, 1861, in Rochester, New York, to Germans Augustus Rauschenbusch and the former Caroline Rump.

After high school, he went to study in a gymnasium (equivalent to a preparatory school) in Gütersloh, Germany. Thereafter, he returned to the U.S. and studied at the University of Rochester where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1884. Then, he studied theology at the Rochester Theological Seminary of the American Baptist Churches USA and obtained a Bachelor of Divinity in 1886.