{{Short description|Philosophy with the focus on morality}} [[File:The Drunkard's Progress - Color.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|''The Drunkard's Progress'': by Nathaniel Currier 1846, warns that moderate drinking leads, step-by-step, to total disaster.]] '''Moralism''' is a philosophy that arose in the 19th century that concerns itself with imbuing society with a certain set of morals, usually traditional behaviour, but also "justice, freedom, and equality".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Theissen |first1=Gerd |title=The Bible And Contemporary Culture |date=2007 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=9781451408607 |page=147 |language=English}}</ref> It has strongly affected North American and British culture, concerning private issues such as the family unit and sexuality, as well as issues that carry over into the public square, such as the temperance movement.<ref name="KingemannFuchsZielonka2006">{{cite book |last1=Klingemann |first1=Hans-Dieter |last2=Fuchs |first2=Dieter |last3=Zielonka |first3=Jan |title=Democracy and Political Culture in Eastern Europe |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134170418 |language=English}}</ref>
The term has been used in a pejorative sense to describe the attitude of "being overly concerned with making moral judgments or being illiberal in the judgments one makes".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Archer |first=A. |title=The problem with moralism |journal=Ratio |year=2018 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=342–350 |doi=10.1111/rati.12168|s2cid=148850005 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
== French moralists == {{Excerpt|French moralists}}
== North America == In tracing the origins of moralism, sociologist Malcolm Waters writes that "Moralism emerged from a clash between the unrestrained character of frontier expansionism, a middle-class, Protestant emphasis on respectability cultivated in small-town America and an egalitarian and anti-intellectual evangelism among splinter Protestant groups."<ref name="Walters2002">{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Malcolm |title=Daniel Bell |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134845576 |page=[https://archive.org/details/danielbell0000wate/page/73 73] |language=English |url=https://archive.org/details/danielbell0000wate/page/73 }}</ref>
In the 19th century, the issues of abolition and temperance formed the "twin pillars" of moralism, becoming popular through Christian Churches in the United States, both Protestant and Roman Catholic.<ref name="Welter2011">{{cite web |last1=Welter |first1=Brian |title=Philosophy professor finds both Christians, secularists lacking |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2011/philosophy-professor-finds-both-christians-secularists-lacking.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118122935/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2011/philosophy-professor-finds-both-christians-secularists-lacking.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 18, 2018 |publisher=Catholic News Service |language=English|date=6 May 2011|quote=In many essays, Taylor shows how this excessive moralism in both the Protestant and Catholic churches from the 17th century onward led to a "polite" Christian society where being polite was more important than being Christian.}}</ref><ref name="Robins2004">{{cite book |last1=Robins |first1=R. G. |title=A. J. Tomlinson: Plainfolk Modernist |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199883172 |language=English}}</ref> Moralism as promoted by some Christian denominations, such as the Quakers, manifested in wide support for abolitionism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=James Emmett |title=Imaginary Friends: Representing Quakers in American Culture, 1650-1950 |url=https://archive.org/details/imaginaryfriends00ryan |url-access=limited |date=2009 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=9780299231743 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/imaginaryfriends00ryan/page/n63 51] |language=English|quote=Still operating at the margins of American religious discourse, Quaker civic moralism would see its legitimacy in the public sphere grow as increasing numbers of American citizens grew sympathetic with the Unionist and abolitionist causes.}}</ref>
The rise of postmillennialism in the 19th century "encouraged a general culture of Protestant moralism and pushed it toward a series of social reform movements, from antislavery and abolitionism (freedom for the slaves now), to protests against Indian Removal, to antiwar and peace efforts, to women's rights, to temperance work before and after the Civil War."<ref name="BrekusGilpin2011">{{cite book |last1=Brekus |first1=Catherine A. |first2=W. Clark | last2 =Gilpin |title=American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity |date=2011 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=9780807869147 |page=50 |language=English}}</ref> As such, the campaign for women's suffrage, evidenced by the ethos of organisations such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), was highly driven by the moralism of that era.<ref name="Delany2007">{{cite book |last1=Delany |first1=Sheila |title=Writing Woman: Sex, Class and Literature, Medieval and Modern |date=2007 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=9781556354434 |pages=11 |language=English}}</ref>
In the latter part of 20th century, as well as the 21st century, moralists in the United States turned their attention to championing the movement to criminalize abortion care.<ref name="KingemannFuchsZielonka2006"/> Moralists have also focused their efforts in maintaining blue laws, such as those that discourage Sunday shopping, in accordance with first-day Sabbatarian beliefs and the sensibilities of some labourers and trade unions.<ref name="Steinfels2013">{{cite book |last1=Steinfels |first1=Peter |title=The Neoconservatives: The Origins of a Movement: With a New Foreword, From Dissent to Political Power |date=2013 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781476729701 |page=37 |language=English}}</ref>
== See also == {{columns-list|colwidth=20em| *Christian left *Christian mission *Christian right *Conservative holiness movement *List of Temperance organizations *Methodism *Nonconformist conscience *Pietism *Prohibition in the United States *Secondary poverty *Social Gospel *Victorian morality *Woman's Christian Temperance Union }}
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == *[http://www.wwctu.org/ World Women's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420194544/https://www.wwctu.org/ |date=2019-04-20 }} *{{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20160225201247/http://ldausa.org/ The Lord's Day Alliance of the U.S.]}}
Category:History of social movements Category:Christian theological movements Category:Abolitionism Category:Temperance movement Category:Morality Category:Trade unions Category:Women's suffrage Category:19th century in the United States Category:Pejorative terms