Altar Call in Europe: Billy Graham, Mass Evangelism, and the Cold-War West

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Uta A. Balbier (Senior Lecturer in Modern History, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, King's College London)

Altar Call in Europe

Billy Graham, Mass Evangelism, and the Cold-War West

Uta A. Balbier (Senior Lecturer in Modern History, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, King's College London)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
07 July 2022

History of the Americas; The Cold War; Christianity; Protestantism & Protestant Churches; Christian sermons

Billy Graham's ministry is often described as a quintessentially American success story. However, by 1954, Billy Graham was bigger news in London than in Texas. Altar Call explores how Graham's encounters and perception in Europe shaped what was from the beginning on an international ministry. Graham was responsible for an unparalleled transformation of US evangelicalism in the second half of the twentieth century. He is also remembered as America's pastor-in-chief, having met with every US President since Harry S. Truman. But Graham's path to triumph was paved abroad. The revival meetings Graham held in London, Berlin, and New York in the 1950s provided lively fora for ministers, politicians, and ordinary Christians to imagine and experience the future of faith, the role of religion in the Cold War, and the intersections between faith and consumer culture in new ways. Graham challenged believers and religious leaders alike to re-position religion amidst the rise of consumerism, moral post-war regeneration, and cold-war tensions. At this confluence of anxieties and desires across the Atlantic, Graham's ministry revealed remarkably similar needs among the faithful and those yearning for renewal. It is the responses of Church leaders to this need, rather than inherent differences in religious sensitivities, that helps to explain the divergent paths to secularization between the US and its European allies, Germany and the UK.

By: Uta A. Balbier (Senior Lecturer in Modern History Senior Lecturer in Modern History King's College London)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 164mm, Width: 241mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 535g
ISBN: 9780197502259
ISBN 10: 0197502253
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 07 July 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures List of Abbreviations Introduction: Altar Call in Europe Chapter 1: Reviving Religion. Billy Graham's Early Crusades in the Religious Landscapes after the Second World War Chapter 2: Selling Religion. The Business of Revivalism at the Early Billy Graham Crusades Chapter 3: Politicizing Religion. Rechristianization, Anti-Communism, and the Making of the Spiritual Free World Chapter 4: Living Religion. Everyday Religious Life during the Billy Graham Crusades Chapter 5: Experiencing Religion. Communities and Conversions at the Billy Graham Crusades Epilogue: The Secular Crusades: Graham's Return in 1966 Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index

Uta A. Balbier is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at King's College London where she is teaching classes on American cultural and religious history. Before joining King's, she was a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.

Reviews for Altar Call in Europe: Billy Graham, Mass Evangelism, and the Cold-War West

By presenting a sound transnational analysis of religion, participating in the continuing debate about the state of Western European Christianity in the 1950s, and deploying innovative methodologies to assess the importance of Billy Graham's visits to Europe, Uta A. Balbier's book deserves much praise. Scholars who wish to better understand the early postwar period will find Altar Call in Europe an illuminating read with its focus on the tensions (and also affinities) between consumerism and faith and the importance of Christian rhetoric in the early days of the Cold War. * Michael E. O'Sullivan, translated from H-Soz-Kult von * This engaging history will be of significant use to anyone studying 20th-century evangelicalism. * CHOICE * In terms of methodology and source bases, Balbier has the linguistic skills to access many untapped German sources: newspapers, books, and archives. This was a massive boon to her project, which has heartily contributed to the field of Billy Graham studies. Any reader interested in 1950s and 1960s European evangelism, lived religion and consumerism, Christian organizational development, or Billy Graham should pay serious attention to this study. * Ian S. Wilson, European Journal of American Studies *