The tie that binds all Americans, regardless of their demographic background, is faith in the American system of government. This faith manifests as a form of civil, or secular, religion with its own core documents, creeds, oaths, ceremonies, and even individuals. In The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion: Symbols, Sinners, and Saints, contributors seek to examine some of those core elements of American faith by exploring the proverbial saints, sinners and dominant symbols of the American system.

This authoritative volume offers the fullest account to date of Christian fundamentalism, its origins in the nineteenth century, and its development up to the present day. It looks at the movement in global terms and through a number of key subjects and debates in which it is actively engaged.

Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham were America’s most popular religious leaders during the mid-twentieth century period known as the golden years of the Age of Extremes. It was part of an era that encompassed polemic contrasts of good and evil on the world stage in political philosophies and international relations. The 1950s and early 1960s, in particular, were years of high anxiety, competing ideologies, and hero/villain mania in America. Sheen was the voice of reason who spoke against those conflicting ideologies which were hostile to religious faith and democracy; Peale preached the gospel of reassurance, self-assurance, and success despite ominous global threats; and Graham was the heroic model of faith whose message of conversion provided Americans an identity and direction opposite to atheistic communism. This study looks at how and why their rhetorical leadership, both separately and together, contributed to the climate of an extreme era and influenced a national religious revival.

This book provides reliable information about important world religious leaders, correcting the misinformation that can be on the internet. Religious leaders have shaped the course of history and deeply affected the lives of many individuals. This book offers alphabetically arranged profiles of roughly 160 religious leaders from around the world and across time, carefully chosen for their impact and importance and to maximize inclusiveness of faiths from around the world. Scholars from around the world, each one an expert in his or her field and all holding advanced degrees, came together to create an essential resource for students and for those with an interest in religion and its history. Every entry has been carefully edited in a two-stage review process, guaranteeing accuracy and readability throughout the work. Not strictly a biographical reference that recounts the facts of religious figures' lives, the book helps users understand how the selected figures changed history. The entries are accompanied by excerpts of primary source documents and suggestions for further reading, while the book closes with a bibliography of essential print and electronic resources for further research.

Billy Graham: American Pilgrim offers groundbreaking accounts of Billy Graham's shaping of religion, politics, and culture throughout the second half of the twentieth century. His singular career provides a many-paned window for viewing the history and character of our times.

Billy Graham stands among the most influential Christian leaders of the twentieth century. Perhaps no single doctrine, practice, political position, or preacher has united the sprawling and diverse world of evangelicalism like Billy Graham. Throughout his six-decade career, Graham mainstreamed evangelicalism and through that tradition brought about major changes to American Christianity, global Christianity, church and state, the Cold War, race relations, American manhood, intellectual life, and religious media and music. His life and career provide a many-paned window through which to view the history and character of our present and recent past. Billy Graham: American Pilgrim offers groundbreaking accounts of Graham's role in shaping these phenomena. Graham stayed true to evangelical precepts yet journeyed to positions in religion, politics, and culture that stretched his tradition to its limits. This book's distinguished contributors capture Graham's evolution and complexity. Like most people, he grew in fits and starts. But Graham's growth occurred on an international stage, influencing the world around him in ways large and small. This book delves into this influence, going beyond conventional subjects and taking a fresh and nuanced look at the complex life and legacy of one of the most important figures of the last century.

No one has preached the gospel to more people than evangelist Billy Graham. But behind this exceptional man is an equally exceptional woman who made his global ministry possible. Through her love, support, prayers, and personal ministry, Ruth helped shape the ten core values that have been foundational to the Grahams' ministry: · partnership · authenticity · humility · intimacy · focus · integrity · faith · global responsibility · empowerment · grace In light of these core values, personal friend of the Grahams and director for Campus Crusade for Christ International in Switzerland Hanspeter Nüesch describes both the life and ministry of Billy and Ruth. This deeply personal book illuminates the legacy the Grahams leave to couples doing ministry today and into the future, sharing stories and anecdotes from their life and times. Includes a foreword from Gigi Graham and more than one hundred photographs that capture the life of one of the most influential figures of the last century.

This book provides a narrative historical, postcolonial account of African American religions. It examines the intersection of Black religion and colonialism over several centuries to explain the relationship between empire and democratic freedom. Rather than treating freedom and its others (colonialism, slavery and racism) as opposites, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets multiple periods of Black religious history to discern how Atlantic empires (particularly that of the United States) simultaneously enabled the emergence of particular forms of religious experience and freedom movements as well as disturbing patterns of violent domination. Johnson explains theories of matter and spirit that shaped early indigenous religious movements in Africa, Black political religion responding to the American racial state, the creation of Liberia, and FBI repression of Black religious movements in the twentieth century. By combining historical methods with theoretical analysis, Johnson explains the seeming contradictions that have shaped Black religions in the modern era.

Pastor Greg Laurie sheds light on Graham's lesser-known struggles--such as a broken heart before he met the love of his life and a crisis of faith from which he emerged stronger than ever. Explore the evangelist's private challenges and public successes to his disappointments and joys in this portrait of one of history's most well-known Christian lives.