Sister Aimee

Thursday's class will involve extensive discussion and analysis of one of the most important female evangelists in American religious history, Aimee Semple McPherson.

Of the books written about her, one of the most important and most recent is Matthew Avery Sutton's Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. The book uses the life of Sister Aimee to better understand the politics of early twentieth century America, which it does masterfully. In it we see a complicated and complex woman of deep religious conviction, and a curious preacher concerned with communicating her message in relevant ways.
The PBS documentary on Sister Aimee we viewed clips of in class drew extensively from Dr. Sutton's book, and you can find a link to that here. Read the eyewitness accounts from Sister Aimee's church, Angelus Temple. I've actually taken a tour there with a religious history seminar I took 4 years ago, and it is an amazing building and apparently still a vibrant church.


You can Listen to Sister Aimee's sermons to hear how she presented her message, and you can view some photos here and here. Here's another interesting on-line photo exhibit. And there's even a movie about Sister Aimee, and she has also been the subject of plays and cast as movie characters. Two other sites worth checking out are here and here. You might also listen to this interesting interview with Matthew Avery Sutton.

Your assignment: Watch clips from the documentary posted below. View the first 20 minutes (it focuses closely on her time in California), and then from about 50:00 to 55:00 (you will her actual audio from Sister Aimee's teaching). Click here to view the documentary clips if the video doesn't work below.



Using information about Sister Aimee from our class discussion, as well as what you gleaned from the PBS documentary and Dr. Sutton's article, answer the following questions. Leave your answer in the comments: In what ways was Sister Aimee a woman of her times in early 20th century America? How does her work, preaching, and style of presentation compare to that of George Whitefield, or other ministers or religious celebrities we've discussed in class? Why?

Documenting American Religion

In order to facilitate more class discussion about primary source evidence, I've added two new links under "Documenting American Religion." The first link "Document Analysis Form," takes you to a pdf form to complete, and the second, "Document Analysis Worksheets," brings you to the National Archives website with multiple document forms for various types of documentary evidence.

You may choose either form to fill out for class. I will be collecting document analysis forms tomorrow 9/1.

Religion and Politics

To enrich our discussion and the 1980s and the rise of the Religious Right, this post provides additional resources for investigating the intersection of faith and politics.

(Read more about this picture of George W. Bush here.)

The subject of countless books and studies, and various documentaries, the rise of the Religious Right and its life in contemporary politics, most notably emerging during the 1976 and 1980 Presidential elections, and significant factor in the 2000 and 2004 election, is an integral part of understanding contemporary America. And, of course, discussions and questions about religious faith have been a part of the 2008 presidential campaign. The latest installment on the topic is Stephen Mansfield's book on Barack Obama's faith.

The well known evangelist Billy Graham was the subject of some important studies that appeared last summer--all on the topic of religion and politics. The ABC documentary "Pastor to Power: Billy Graham and the Presidents," is a nice companion to the book by Time writers Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy titled The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House. Since last summer, another important book to appear is Randall Balmer's God in the White House. Here's a radio interview with Balmer about his book.

Back to Billy Graham, Balmer's documentary on Graham is a good one, and Rice University sociologist William Martin wrote one of the most important biographies on Graham.

Here's a trailer for a documentary on George W. Bush's religious faith, and at the end there's a clip of him speaking at Second Baptist Church in Houston in 1999. There's also a picture of Bush on the campaign at this SBC in Stephen Mansfield's The Faith of George W. Bush.

In a previous post I mentioned the documentary The Jesus Factor (you can view the entire documentary on-line; this is a very helpful resource with tons of material for discussion). You may also want to check out historian Randall Balmer's 2006 essay "Jesus is Not a Republican." And here's a group supporting Jesus for President (and here too). Evangelical activist and author Jim Wallis here answers the question, "Was Jesus a Politician?" Finally, sociologist and author Tony Campolo weights in with "Is Jesus a Republican or a Democrat?"

The radio show Speaking of Faith also recently aired shows on evangelicals and politics. One is on the progressive evangelical Jim Wallis, the other on the conservative activists Rick and Kay Warren. Most recently, Speaking of Faith had a show on a generational dynamic in evangelical political action.

The End is Near...

Since tropical storm Edouard interrupted one class, we'll have to revise and improvise here at the end.


So, on Thursday we'll cover post-1960s American religious history including several key religious figures of the 1970s, the rise of the Religious Right, the resurgence (or rather the more visible) of the Religious Left, and then American religion in the 21st century.


I'll abbreviate my discussion of Lonnie Frisbee, perhaps the most famous Christian hippie preacher you've never heard of. David Di Sabatino put together a wonderful documentary, so you'll want to check out the website. Frisbee's life, ministry and significance in some ways still present the Religious Right (or what's left of it) with some challenges. In certain ways, as you will see, the spiritual manifestations present with Frisbee's preaching bring us full circle in terms of discussing popular religion and lived religion.

On Thursday we'll also spend some time talking about Jim Jones. His story began with such promise as he preached racial equality and (in essence) socialism in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s but ended dismally and tragically in 1978. I was only a year old when "it" happened, but ask your parents and they maybe can offer some memories of it. A new PBS documentary captures the triumphs, tensions, and tragedies of Jonestown. And here's an interesting site put together by some Rice students.

Finally, you should be well under way composing your final paper and putting together your PowerPoint presentation. We'll touch base and you can give a status report on Thursday, since it is due a week later on 8/14.

W.E.B. Du Bois: An American Prophet?

To help preface our discussion on Thursday, I offer the following links to articles, essays, and other items of interest. This, like the post on Sister Aimee, will provide you with a wealth of information for your final project.

Start here with a short biographical sketch of Du Bois, and a photo-text exhibit on Du Bois's life.

The University of Massachusetts-Amherts contains the largest collection of Du Bois's papers, and hosts an on-line repository with tons of pictures and a large number of documents. (You can read "Credo" here.) In fact, the Afro-American studies department at UMass-Amherst takes it name from Du Bois. Here's another collection of things Du Bois (click on the animated map to see where in the world Du Bois traveled), and a short summary of his early life in Great Barrington.



Here's a report about the history of Du Bois's Encyclopedia Africana project, another project related to Du Bois's encyclopedia idea, and some pictures from Du Bois landmarks in Ghana.

I mentioned in the Du Bois lecture that he spent time studying in Germany. Read some thoughts about that here, and read Du Bois's musings on the "talented tenth."

In terms of Du Bois resources on-line, there's Professor Robert Williams's fabulous repository of Du Bois resources, the resources page at the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass-Amherst, Dr. Steven Hale's Du Bois on-line selections, resources from the Documenting the American South project, the Perspectives in American Literature (PAL) page, the reading room at Harvard's Du Bois Institute, documents from the FBI files of Du Bois (though redacted), Du Bois's New York Times featured author page (subscription required), the e-project at the University of Virginia Library (scroll down for Du Bois), and in other various places Paul Harvey points out.

Another interesting site comes from Dr. Richard Rath, a historian who does sensory history among other things, teaches at the U. of Hawaii and with some students developed a kind of soundtrack to Souls of Black Folk. It is amazingly cool, and a helpful resource in teaching. Check it out here.

Other on-line readings from Du Bois include Darkwater (1920) which includes an interesting story titled “Jesus Christ in Texas.” Du Bois's “A Litany at Atlanta” is a psalm of lament written in response to the 1906 Atlanta race riot.

Thursday night's discussion will focus on the work of Edward J. Blum, who has agreed to join us for class to discuss his recent book W.E.B. Du Bois, American Prophet (U. of Pennsylvania, 2007).

Ed has also written a few things for the University of Pennsylvania Press blog. Here's a piece about how Du Bois might respond to several contemporary high-profile atheists--interestingly enough a charge leveled many times over at Du Bois himself. Here's an editorial wherein Blum offers political advice to Barak Obama and the Democratic Party via the work of Du Bois. Finally, here's an entry celebrating Du Bois's birthday.

And while there are other on-line items regarding Du Bois I will highlight in class and subsequently post links to, you may want to listen to one of Blum's lectures when he spoke at the University of Houston in April. It will help to further contextualize ch. 4.