Soul Winners: The Ascent of America's Evangelical Entrepreneurs

Modern megachurches are deeply rooted in America's history of mass evangelical movements that blend business principles and media savvy. 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.

Format: Hardback
Length: 290 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2022
Publisher: Prometheus Books

The 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 radios 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 proponents of 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 Osteens Lakewood Church in Houston – may seem crass, but their message that believers can improve their matters.

Weight: 626g
Dimension: 160 x 238 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781633887824