The first comprehensive history of modern American evangelicalism to appear in a generation; American Apocalypse shows how a group of radical Protestants; anticipating the end of the world; paradoxically transformed it.Matthew Avery Sutton draws on extensive archival research to document the ways an initially obscure network of charismatic preachers and their followers reshaped American religion; at home and abroad; for over a century. Perceiving the United States as besieged by Satanic forces―communism and secularism; family breakdown and government encroachment―Billy Sunday; Charles Fuller; Billy Graham; and others took to the pulpit and airwaves to explain how Biblical end-times prophecy made sense of a world ravaged by global wars; genocide; and the threat of nuclear extinction. Believing Armageddon was nigh; these preachers used what little time was left to warn of the coming Antichrist; save souls; and prepare the nation for God’s final judgment.By the 1980s; President Ronald Reagan and conservative Republicans appropriated evangelical ideas to create a morally infused political agenda that challenged the pragmatic tradition of governance through compromise and consensus. Following 9/11; the politics of apocalypse continued to resonate with an anxious populace seeking a roadmap through a world spinning out of control. Premillennialist evangelicals have erected mega-churches; shaped the culture wars; made and destroyed presidential hopefuls; and brought meaning to millions of believers. Narrating the story of modern evangelicalism from the perspective of the faithful; Sutton demonstrates how apocalyptic thinking continues to exert enormous influence over the American mainstream today.
#1414830 in Books Harvard University Asia Center 2009-03-31Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 2.00 x 6.40 x 9.00l; 2.35 #File Name: 0674033256678 pages
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