Overview

Modern megachurches that dot the nation’s landscape may seem unorthodox with their stadium seating and showbiz flourishes, but they are deeply rooted in America’s history of mass evangelical movements that blend business principles and media savvy. In this even-handed and meticulously researched book, award-winning journalist and author David Clary traces the longstanding entrepreneurial roots of evangelicalism, and how America provided a perfect backdrop for the creation and proliferation of a movement and its enterprising preachers. In the beginning of the 19th century, George Whitefield transcended sectarianism and took his message to the people. Successors like Dwight L. Moody and ballplayer-turned-fundamentalist-preacher Billy Sunday united big business and revivalism. The flamboyant Los Angeles preacher Aimee Semple McPherson knew that radio’s intimacy was ideal for listeners seeking a personal relationship with Jesus and became the first American woman to hold a radio broadcasting license in 1924. Early to proponents the benefits of television, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts built multimedia empires with Graham embarking on worldwide crusades and counseling U.S. presidents. Protestant minister Norman Vincent Peale’s potent cocktail of psychology, self-help, and business tips framed by biblical guideposts sowed the seeds of today’s popular “prosperity gospel”. In the 1970s, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell took up the torch of televangelism while still engaging in the business of winning souls and advancing their political ideas (political ideas that run much deeper than any one president or politician). Today’s prosperity megachurches – most notably Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston – may seem crass, but their message that believers can improve their material fortunes through faith is a powerful and pervasive one in America. This legacy even informs today’s evangelical pastors, who are trained to impose a corporate structure upon their churches. Soul Winners is a thoughtful and informative history that reveals the longstanding connections between business, politics, and religion in America, and the profound effect that evangelism has had on the country.

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9781633887824

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Reviews

Clary provides a smart, accessible overview of the history of modern evangelicalism and helps us understand how Christians who claim to represent the prince of peace became shills for Donald J. Trump-this is an excellent book. - Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War

Soul Winners succeeds admirably on several levels. Clary shows that the history of evangelicalism in American life is braided with entrepreneurial innovation and marketing savvy, resulting in a dynamism and vitality unmatched by any other religious tradition. In so doing, the author also provides a succinct and lively history of evangelicalism itself. This is an excellent book. - Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor in Religion, Dartmouth College With exceptional skill, David Clary has brought together the stories of America's most successful evangelical entrepreneurs - from Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson to Franklin Graham and Paula White - providing us with a vivid and fair-minded (if sometimes frightening) portrayal of their outsized cultural, economic, and political influence. A valuable and eminently readable resource. - Robert Wuthnow, author of Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy The United States would not be what it is today without the influence of evangelism. David Clary's Soul Winners is an extraordinarily rich and entertaining history of the out-sized, highly driven and innovative Protestant preachers who have forged American society--for better or worse--into its current religious and political condition. -- Dan Barker, Co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation Clary provides a smart, accessible overview of the history of modern evangelicalism and helps us understand how Christians who claim to represent the prince of peace became shills for Donald J. Trump--this is an excellent book. - Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War

With exceptional skill, David Clary has brought together the stories of America's most successful evangelical entrepreneurs - from Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson to Franklin Graham and Paula White - providing us with a vivid and fair-minded (if sometimes frightening) portrayal of their outsized cultural, economic, and political influence. A valuable and eminently readable resource. - Robert Wuthnow, author of Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy The United States would not be what it is today without the influence of evangelism. David Clary's Soul Winners is an extraordinarily rich and entertaining history of the out-sized, highly driven and innovative Protestant preachers who have forged American society--for better or worse--into its current religious and political condition. -- Dan Barker, Co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation Clary provides a smart, accessible overview of the history of modern evangelicalism and helps us understand how Christians who claim to represent the prince of peace became shills for Donald J. Trump--this is an excellent book. - Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War

Author Information

David Clary is an award-winning author and news editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. His book Gangsters to Governors was cited five times in the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority opinion in 2018 that struck down the federal ban on sports gambling. Clary is a graduate of Syracuse University, where he studied newspaper journalism and political science. For more information visit his website, www.davidclaryauthor.com.

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