A definition of social work: A thesis in sociology

								

etymology would assume, indeed it may be given in a mood of revulsion,
in the hope of expiating a sin or in mere fear of the indignation of
the deprived. The recording angel probably keeps a record of the motive
and the spirit, but charity, in its simple objective meaning on men’s
lips, inheres in the act of relief.
The brief characterization of philanthropy which we are testing was
two-fold. It declared philanthropy to be a free gift and a gift to
need. Just as the one qualification of the act was that it must be in
no way exacted so the one qualification of the recipient was that his
candidacy must consist only in need. Does this also hold true in our
own country and our own time? Surely it is plain beyond any call for
proof that only that is charity which is bestowed where need appoints
the recipient. Free gifts are made to the prosperous, there is mutual
helpfulness among equals, there are services prompted by loyalty and
personal affection, but these, though unforced, are not called charity.
But it will not do to dwell too much on the negative implications
of “need,” on deprivation or suffering. We might almost avoid that
rather misleading word and say that a gift is charity only when the
outstanding circumstance is occasion for it. But it is a familiar
observation that ardors or privations which are accepted as the order
of life while we see no prospect of remedy become conscious hardships
at the mere rumor of succor and so it necessarily happens that the
very act of service or relief prompted only by its own fitness is the
creator of an ex-post-facto need even where the situation previously
scarcely merited so strong a name.
Charity is not, however, preoccupied with material need only or with
physical suffering or any other one phase of life. Moral redemption,
intellectual opportunity, artistic realization--these also have come
within its purview. It may follow mortal man into his every predicament
and minister to his hungers of whatever sort. Only if we keep this
well in mind will we be justified in associating it with so negative
a term as need. It is the unconscious champion of the perfectibility
of man. “The normal life,” “our common inheritance,” “humanity in
whatever form,” “the rights of the humblest individual”--these are
its commonplaces that have lost significance from frequent and often
perfunctory repetition. But the fact that they are the commonplaces of
the subject is in itself significant. The commonplaces of all subjects
are not of that sort.
These then are the essentials of charity “a free gift and a gift to
need.” May we go on to inquire what additions or alterations have
developed these into social work, or is social work a thing so far
transmuted from charity that it no longer shows the very elements of
its original? A reperusal of our digest of the charities directories
shows the many forms of social work all of them still to include the