God's Man for the Gilded Age: D.L. Moody and the Rise of Modern Mass Evangelism

By Bruce J. Evensen

At his death on the eve of the 20th century, D.L. Moody was widely recognized as one of the most beloved and important of men in 19th-century America. A Chicago shoe salesman with a fourth grade education, Moody rose from obscurity to become God's man for the Gilded Age. He was the Billy Graham of his day--indeed it could be said that Moody invented the system of evangelism that Graham inherited and perfected.

Bruce J. Evensen focuses on the pivotal years during which Moody established his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic through a series of highly popular and publicized campaigns. In four short years Moody forged the bond between revivalism and the mass media that persists to this day. Beginning in Britain in 1873 and extending across America's urban landscape, first in Brooklyn and then in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Boston, Moody used the power of prayer and publicity to stage citywide crusades that became civic spectacles. Modern newspapers, in the grip of economic depression, needed a story to stimulate circulation and found it in Moody's momentous mission. The evangelist and the press used one another in creating a sense of civic excitement that manufactured the largest crowds in municipal history. Critics claimed this machinery of revival was man-made. Moody's view was that he'd rather advertise than preach to empty pews. He brought a businessman's common sense to revival work and became, much against his will, a celebrity evangelist. The press in city after city made him the star of the show and helped transform his religious stage into a communal entertainment of unprecedented proportions.

In chronicling Moody's use of the press and their use of him, Evensen sheds new light on a crucial chapter in the history of evangelicalism and demonstrates how popular religion helped form our modern media culture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195162447
• ISBN13: 9780195162448
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Moody and the press

Evensen does not provide an introduction (or even an acknowledgment page) for his book, so the casual reader might assume that this is simply an academic biography. Actually, with hardly a nod toward Moody's early years, Evensen proceeds to tell only the story of Moody's early revivals, those that made his reputation--from the 1873-75 campaign in Great Britain through the 1877 meetings in Boston--and how these evangelistic campaigns were puffed by local newspapers for both material gain and civic pride. As Evensen well says, "Moody made a business of saving souls and went about it in a businesslike manner. That was why organization and lots of it, with a premium placed on media relations, was a centerpiece in his strategy." (177) Evensen writes well enough and makes many thoughtful comments about both Moody's style of evangelism and the nature of the late nineteenth-century press. Still, Evensen often quotes his newspaper sources excessively, and one is left with the feeling that his portrait of Moody does not capture the essence of the man. The finest public relations would never have brought in the crowds unless Moody had had more than good business sense.