One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham

by Grant Wacker

Overview

Christianity Today 2020 Book Award of Merit in History/Biography

For more than five decades Billy Graham (1918-2018) ranked as one of the most influential voices in the Christian world. Nearly 215 million people around the world heard him preach in person or through live electronic media, almost certainly more than any other person. For millions, Graham was less a preacher than a Protestant saint. While remaining orthodox at the core, over time his approach on many issues became more irenic and progressive. And his preaching continued to resonate, propelled by his powerful promise of a second chance. 

Drawing on  decades of research on Billy Graham and American evangelicalism, Grant Wacker has marshalled personal interviews, archival research, and never-before-published photographs from the Graham family and others to tell the remarkable story of one of the most celebrated Christians in American history. 

Where Wacker’s previous work on Graham, America’s Pastor, focused on the preacher’s relation to the nation’s culture, One Soul at a Time offers a sweeping, easy-to-read narrative of the life of the man himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802874726
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Series:	Library of Religious Biography (LRB)
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,054,244
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Grant Wacker is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Christian History at Duke Divinity School. A past president of the American Society of Church History, he is the author of Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture, Religion in Nineteenth Century America, and America's Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: Landscape of a Life 1

Part 1 Young Barnstormer

1 Southern Farm Boy 9

2 College Years 14

3 Youth for Christ 20

4 England Calls 25

5 Becoming Billy Graham 27

6 Mears and Templeton 31

7 City of Angels 35

8 Beantown 41

9 Wins and Losses 45

10 Launching the Ship 49

11 Korean War 52

12 He Liked Ike 55

13 Pulling Down the Ropes 60

Part 2 Leading Evangelist

14 Core Message 67

15 "Harringay" 71

16 Christianity Today 76

17 Big Apple 82

18 Flesh Became Words 88

19 Preacher at Work 93

20 Art of the Crusade 98

21 Other Players 102

22 Critics in the Pulpit 108

23 Critics in the Crowd 112

24 Man in the Arena 115

25 Wounded Souls 117

26 Grateful Friends 122

Part 3 Priestly Prophet

27 Cross and Crucifix 129

28 Kennedy versus Nixon 133

29 Enter LBJ 136

30 Racial Justice 139

31 Civil Rights and Civil Order 144

32 Great Society 148

33 Endless War 153

34 Twisted Path to Peace 158

Interlude: Myth and Icon 161

35 Man for All Seasons 165

36 Billy Graham, Inc. 171

37 Perils of Power 175

38 Ford, Carter, and Reagan 179

Part 4 Senior Statesman

39 World Conferences 187

40 World Crusades 194

Interlude: American Abroad 199

41 Sin of Total War 204

42 Fallout at Home 209

43 Parson and Pope 213

44 Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II 217

Interlude: Why So Many Presidents? 222

45 Nation's Chaplain 225

46 Fractured Saint 229

47 Modern America 234

Interlude: The Reverend Doctor Graham 239

48 Second Chances 245

49 Seasoned Soldier 251

50 "Mrs. Billy Graham" 259

51 Gentle Patriarch 263

Conclusion: What Manner of Man? 268

Epilogue: They Called Him Billy 276

Appendix on Letters 281

Appendix of World Preaching Events 284

Notes 288

Further Reading 301

Permissions 309

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

07/29/2019

Historian Wacker (America’s Pastor) provides an overview of the public life and career of Christian evangelical leader Billy Graham (1918–2018) in this comprehensive biography. Beginning with Graham’s rocky start to pastoring at Bob Jones Bible College in 1936, Wacker explains how this experience and Graham’s transfer to Florida Bible Institute confirmed his desire to preach. With only a brief introduction to Graham’s theology, Wacker’s analysis focuses mainly on Graham’s preaching crusade and rise to fame in the 1940s, including revivals that lasted for weeks and his role as an advisor to American presidents. Graham had an outsized public influence on issues such as segregation, poverty, and American wars abroad—on which he frequently clashed with politicians. Wacker draws from the work of fellow historians to round out his portrait, such as what initially sparked Graham’s interest in social reform (an experience giving to evangelical humanitarian organization World Vision) and how he successfully harnessed television (and later the internet) to promote his Bible crusades. Wacker also often includes quotes from press conferences and interviews (“I think Vietnam has taught us... that we are not all-powerful and that America is not the Kingdom of God”) to give the flavor of Graham’s voice. This detailed, enjoyable biography will please readers interested in Graham’s political life and influence on American culture. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Russell Moore
— author of The Storm-Tossed Family
“When I hear the word ‘evangelist,’ the first face I imagine is always that of Billy Graham. And when I think of careful analysis of Graham’s monumental reshaping of the world religious landscape, the only name I can imagine is that of renowned historian Grant Wacker.”

Molly Worthen
— author of Apostles of Reason
“This fast-paced biography cuts through Billy Graham mythology to reveal who the great evangelist really was as a human individual.”

Kenneth L. Woodward
— author of Getting Religion
“Easily the best short biography of Billy we are likely to get.”

R. Marie Griffith
— John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
“A beautifully crafted, eloquent, and deeply illuminating account of Billy Graham’s unparalleled evangelistic career, penned by one of the most eminent American religious historians of our time.”

Harry S. Stout
— Yale University
“Grant Wacker is the finest Billy Graham scholar in the world today. . . . A must read for anyone interested in the amazing story of evangelical revivals in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.”

Publishers Weekly
“This detailed, enjoyable biography will please readers interested in Graham’s political life and influence on American culture.

From the Publisher