When the Reverend Mark Allison Matthews died in February 1940, thousands of mourners gathered at a Seattle church to pay their final respects. The Southern-born Presbyterian came to Seattle in 1902. He quickly established himself as a city leader and began building a congregation that was eventually among the nation’s largest, with nearly 10,000 members. Throughout his career, he advocated Social Christianity, a blend of progressive reform and Christian values, as a blueprint for building a morally righteous community.

In telling Matthews’s story, Dale Soden presents Matthews’s multiple facets: a Southern-born, fundamentalist proponent of the Social Gospel; a national leader during the tumultuous years of schism within the American Presbyterian church; a social reformer who established day-care centers, kindergartens, night classes, and soup kitchens; a colorful figure who engaged in highly public and heated disputes with elected officials. Much of the controversy that surrounded Matthews centered on the proper relationship between church and state — an issue that is still hotly debated.

Dale Soden is professor of history at Whitworth College, Spokane.

"As Dale E. Soden Shows, the Reverend Mark A. Matthews’s concerted efforts to create a ‘righteous community’ out of wide—open Seattle led to over three decades of religious/political jousting. This balanced biography of one of the most colorful western clerics of the early twentieth century provides a welcome addition to both religious history and the history of the Pacific Northwest."—Ferenc Szasz, University of New Mexico

"For much of the first half of the 20th century, Mark Matthews was a vigorous and dominant figure in Seattle and the Northwest, playing a civic role well beyond that of pastor of the city’s largest church. Historian Dale Soden deftly portrays the man, his growing city, and a social influence that reached a national scope."—Charles P. LeWarne, author of Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885—1915