Billy Graham

This is the most coherent and best-edited collection of essays I have ever read. It reads like a multiauthored book that was carefully planned and plotted, because it was. The editors convened the fourteen participants for two meetings—one in Kennebunkport, Maine, and the other a conference at Wheaton College—where they presented their work to each other in draft form. These gatherings were followed by extended drafts, more conversation, and careful editing—all funded by a major Lilly Endowment grant awarded to the unfortunately now-defunct Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. The eleven eminently readable chapters are framed nicely in an introduction by Grant Wacker. Part 1, “Religion,” includes chapters on Billy Graham as an intellectual (by Andrew Finstuen), a preacher (by Michael S. Hamilton), a promoter of Christian music (by Edith L. Blumhofer), and a world ambassador (by William Martin). Part 2, “Politics,” includes chapters on Graham and poverty (by David P. King), political and social vision (by Curtis J. Evans), and civil rights (by Darren Dochuk). Finally, part 3, “Culture,” has chapters on Graham and the media (by Elesha Coffman), evangelical manhood (by Seth Dowland), and Ruth Bell Graham (by Anne Blue Wills). The book ends with an afterword by Margaret Bendroth and an epilogue, “What Now?,” by the former Charlotte (NC) Observer religion editor Ken Garfield

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