1. Marty, Martin E., Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America (New York: Dial Press, 1970), 177-87.Google Scholar A study of evangelism in the African American churches is obviously beyond the scope of this paper, but it would be most fruitful and would likely reveal further options for transcending the conflict traced here between “converting souls” and redeeming the social order.

2. Wuthnow, Robert, The Restructuring of American Religion (New York: Princeton University Press, 1988), 153-72.Google Scholar

3. Hoge, Dean R., Division in the Protestant House: The Basic Reasons behind Intra-Church Conflicts (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 78–83.Google Scholar

4. See Schmidt, Jean Miller, Souls or the Social Order: The Two-Party System in American Protestantism (Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing, 1991).Google Scholar

5. Scharpf, Paulus, A History of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), 325.Google Scholar

6. Schmidt, , Souls or the Social Order, 103-27.Google Scholar

7. Minutes, Meeting of the Board of Managers of the Evangelism Department of the Federal Council of Churches, April 15, 1947, National Council of Churches Archives (hereafter NCA), Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Homrighausen served for years as chairman of the Board of Managers of the Evangelism Department of the Federal Council and later the National Council.

8. Mackay, John A., Christianity on the Frontier (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 50, 53.Google Scholar

9. Barlow, Walter, God So Loved (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1952), 157-58.Google Scholar

10. See, e.g., Jesse M. Bader, “Report of the Executive Director to the Board of Managers of the Joint Department of Evangelism,” December 7, 1951, NCA; Bader, Jesse M., Evangelism in a Changing America (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1957), 175-76.Google Scholar

11. See Report of Executive Secretary, May 5, 1944; on Visitation evangelism, see Minutes, April 17, 1945, NCA.

12. Federal Council of Churches, Executive Committee, “A Call to the Churches,” September 18, 1945, NCA.

13. On the “religious revival,” see, e.g., Ahlstrom, Sydney E., A Religious History of the American People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 950-63.Google Scholar The leading contemporary account is Herberg, Will, Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1955), 46–71.Google Scholar

14. See Coalter, Milton J., “Presbyterian Evangelism: A Case of Parallel Allegiances Diverging,” in The Diversity of Discipleship: Presbyterians and Twentieth-Century Christian Witness, ed. Coalter, Milton J., Mulder, John M., and Weeks, Louis B. (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991), 43–44.Google Scholar

15. Campaigns and results in the Presbyterian denominations are discussed in Coalter, “Presbyterian Evangelism,” 41-44.

16. Report of Executive Secretary, September 24, 1946; December 2, 1949; December 8, 1950; April 14, 1950, NCA.

17. See Lemuel Peterson, “Making Sense Out of a Census,” National Council Outlook (hereafter NCO), June 1951, 8-9; Mueller, Beata, “A New Blueprint for Evangelism,” NCO, April 1952, 10–11 Google Scholar; “The Old Time Religion Still Works,” NCO, December 1951, 18.

18. Henry, Carl F. H., The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947), 63–65, 9-11.Google Scholar

19. Sweazey, George E., Effective Evangelism: The Greatest Work in the World (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1953), 33–34 Google Scholar; Bader, , Evangelism in a Changing America, 113-19Google Scholar; “A Call to the Churches,” September 18, 1945, NCA, 1; Editorial, “Four United Emphases,” NCO, April 1951, 16; and Editorial, “Do the Work of an Evangelist,” NCO, February 1951, 19.

20. Editorial, “Theology, Evangelism, Ecumenism,” Christianity Today (hereafter CT), January 20, 1958, 21; Cecil Thompson, “Evangelism and Protestant Theological Seminaries,” April 9, 1948, 3-4, NCA.

21. See Bader, , Evangelism in a Changing America, 184-85Google Scholar; Bader, , “What Is Right with the Billy Graham New York Crusade?” CT, September 16, 1957, 22–24.Google Scholar

22. Mackay, , Christianity on the Frontier, 46–47, 50-51, 75, 83.Google Scholar

23. On Bader's advice to Graham, see Martin, William, A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story (New York: William Morrow, 1991), 139 Google Scholar; for his defense of Graham, see Bader, , Evangelism in a Changing America, 185-86.Google Scholar

24. For the story of Graham's and Templeton's friendship and split, see Martin, , Prophet with Honor, 109-12.Google Scholar

25. The reports on Templeton's missions include “Council Personalities,” NCO, April 1951, 14; “Youngstown Learns to Pray,” NCO, December 1951, 4, 5; “ ‘Chuck’ Templeton Visits Harrisburg,” NCO, April 1954, 20. The denominational leader was Dr. John Peters, in Minutes, Board of Managers Meeting, Evangelism Department, December 7, 1955, NCA.

26. See, e.g., Martin, , Prophet with Honor, 218-24, 239-40.Google Scholar

27. Ferm, Robert O., Cooperative Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 12 Google Scholar; Ferm, Robert O., “Cooperative Evangelism: Why Not?” CT, April 14, 1958, 16.Google Scholar

28. Ferm, , Cooperative Evangelism, 19–23.Google Scholar

29. Mackay, , Christianity on the Frontier, 71 Google Scholar; Barlow, , God So Loved, 42 Google Scholar; Charles Clayton Morrison, “Can Protestantism Win America?” Christian Century (hereafter CC), April 3, 1946, 425-27; Morrison, Charles Clayton, “The Protestant Situation,” CC, April 10, 1946, 458-60Google Scholar; Editorial, “Opposition to Evangelism a Strange Phenomenon,” CT, February 18, 1957, 23; cf. Bader, Jesse M., “What Is Right with the Billy Graham New York Crusade?” CT, September 16, 1957, 23.Google Scholar

30. Sweazey, , Effective Evangelism, 33 Google Scholar; Martin, , Prophet with Honor, 165.Google Scholar

31. Herberg, , Protestant, Catholic, Jew, 234.Google Scholar The ratio of Protestants to Catholics had dropped dramatically during the waves of immigration lasting through World War II, but it settled and remained steady, at a little more than 3 to 2, throughout the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. See Ahlstrom, , A Religious History of the American People, 1002.Google Scholar

32. Thompson, Cecil, “Evangelism and Protestant Theological Seminaries,” April 9, 1948, 2, NCAGoogle Scholar; Morrison, Charles Clayton, “Roman Catholicism and Protestantism,” CC, May 8, 1946, 585-88Google Scholar; Editorial, “Billy Graham and the Pope's Legions,” CT, July 22, 1957, 20-21. See also Lowell, C. Stanley, “The Rising Tempo of Rome's Demands,” CT, January 7, 1957, 11 Google Scholar; Anonymous, “America's Need: A New Protestant Awakening,” CT, October 28, 1957, 5 (“expose” by “a former Jesuit trainee”); and Lowell, C. Stanley, “If the U.S. Becomes 51% Catholic,” CT, October 27, 1958, 8–12.Google Scholar Lowell, Charles C. Morrison, and John Mackay were all founders of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which brought together secularists, fundamentalists, and mainliners in the cause of anti-Catholicism.

33. Hudson, Winthrop S., Religion in America, 4th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 351 Google Scholar; Mackay, , Christianity on the Frontier, 69 Google Scholar; Bader, , Evangelism in a Changing America, 175-76Google Scholar; Report of FCC Biennial Commission on “The Witness of the Church in Our Time,” December 10, 1948, 1, 4, NCA.

34. Mackay, , Christianity on the Frontier, 113 Google Scholar; see also 69.

35. Bader, , Evangelism in a Changing America, 69–70.Google Scholar

36. See Bullock, Robert H. Jr., ‘Twentieth-Century Presbyterian New Church Development: A Critical Period, 1940-1980,” in The Diversity of Discipleship, ed. Coalter, , Mulder, , and Weeks, , 57–60, 63.Google Scholar Overall figures on the dramatic increases in postwar church construction are presented in Ahlstrom, , A Religious History of the American People, 953.Google Scholar

37. Morrison, “Can Protestantism Win America?,” 425; Morrison, Charles Clayton, “Protestantism, Thou Ailest Here, and Here!,” CC, May 22, 1946, 653.Google Scholar

38. Coalter, , “Presbyterian Evangelism,” 52 Google Scholar (discussing the low ebb of evangelism among 1970's Presbyterians because of the lack of training over a long period).

39. See Ahlstrom, , A Religious History of the American People, 950-54.Google Scholar

40. See Herberg, , Protestant, Catholic, Jew, 254-72Google Scholar; and Marty, Martin E., The New Shape of American Religion (New York: Harper and Row, 1959).Google Scholar

41. See Niebuhr, Reinhold, “Literalism, Individualism, and Billy Graham,” CC, May 23, 1956, 640-41Google Scholar; Editorial, “Fundamentalist Revival,” CC, June 19, 1957, 749-51.

42. See Templeton, Charles B., Evangelism for Tomorrow (New York: Harper's, 1957), vii, 33-43, 87.Google Scholar Templeton's doubts continued to accumulate to the point where he left the ministry to become a playwright and Journalist. His story became a kind of morality play for fundamentalist polemicists, purportedly showing the consequences of relaxing on even the smallest of the “old-time convictions.” See Rice, John R., The Evangelist (Murfreesboro, Tenn.: Sword of the Lord Foundation, 1968), 267-68.Google Scholar

43. Niebuhr, , “Literalism, Individualism, and Billy Graham,” 641 Google Scholar; Walker, Alan, The Whole Gospel for the Whole World (New York: Abingdon Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Templeton, , Evangelism for Tomorrow, 43.Google Scholar

44. Babbage, Stuart Barton, “Review of Current Religious Thought,” CT, June 9, 1958, 35 Google Scholar; Wirt, Sherwood, “The ‘Young Turks’ of Evangelism,” CT, May 23, 1960, 3–6 Google Scholar; Carnell, E. J., “Can Billy Graham Slay the Giant?,” CT, May 13, 1957, 3–5; “A Layman's Faith,” CT, July 8, 1957, 33.Google Scholar

45. Homrighausen, Elmer, “Billy Graham and the Protestant Predicament,” CC, July 18, 1956, 848-49.Google Scholar

46. In describing these events, I am covering ground earlier trod by Mark Silk in his Spiritual Politics: Religion and America since World War II (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 60-69, 103-4.

47. Berlyn V. Farris, “Report to the Joint Department of Evangelism of the National Council of Churches,” December 8, 1954, NCA; Minutes, Board of Managers Meeting, May 4, 1955, NCA.

48. Minutes, Board of Managers Meeting, December 7, 1955, NCA; Executive Committee Meeting, March 7, 1955, NCA.

49. Minutes, Board of Managers Meeting, May 2, 1956, NCA.

50. See Silk, , Spiritual Politics, 103-4.Google Scholar

51. Farris to F. Eppling Reinartz, United Lutheran Church in America, February 8, 1957, NCA; NCC Commission to Study Evangelism, , The Good News of God: The Nature and Task of Evangelism (New York: NCC, 1957), 18, 22Google Scholar; Elmer Homrighausen to Roswell Barnes, July 25, 1957, NCA.

52. Report of Executive Director, May 8, 1957, NCA; Berlyn V. Farris to Donald C. Bolles, undated, Summer 1957, NCA; Berlyn V. Farris to Roswell Barnes, October 7, 1957, NCA.

53. Editorial, “The Year the Revival Passed Crest,” CC, December 31, 1958, 1499.

54. Similar trends are traced in the Presbyterian denominations in Coalter, “Presbyterian Evangelism.”

55. Ibid., 44-46.

56. Ibid., 48.

57. Niebuhr, “Literalism, Individualism, and Billy Graham,” 642.

58. On the entrance of mainline churches into the civil rights struggle in the 1960's, see Findlay, James F. Jr., Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).Google Scholar

59. See, for example, Berger, Peter L., The Noise of Solemn Assemblies: Christian Commitment and the Religious Establishment in America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961)Google Scholar; Winter, Gibson, The Suburban Captivity of the Churches: An Analysis of Protestant Responsibility in the Expanding Metropolis (New York: Macmillan, 1962)Google Scholar; and Berton, Pierre, The Comfortable Pew: A Critical Look at Christianity and the Religious Establishment in the New Age (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1965).Google Scholar

60. Cox, Harvey, The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective (New York: Macmillan, 1965).Google Scholar The relationship between “secular theology” and activism is explored in Findlay, , Church People in the Struggle, 30–32.Google Scholar

61. Stagg, Paul L., The Converted Church: From Escape to Engagement (Valley Folge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1967), 11-14, 55–57 Google Scholar; Williams, Colin, What in the World? (New York: National Council of Churches, 1964), 105, 53-54.Google Scholar

62. NCC Statements quoted in Editorial, “Lifting the Face of Evangelism,” CT, July 3, 1965, 943-44; Coalter, “Presbyterian Evangelism” 46-48; Templeton, , Evangelism for Tomorrow, 42.Google Scholar

63. See Altizer, Thomas and Hamilton, William, Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966)Google Scholar; van Buren, Paul M., The Secular Meaning of the Gospel: Based on an Analysis of Its Language (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 6, 19.Google Scholar

64. At that Convention, “evangelism” (though not defined in a formal way) was a major theme for the first time in several years.

65. See Reynold N. Johnson, “Crisis and Opportunity in Evangelism: A Report on the Evangelism Section at the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches,” December 4-9, 1966, NCA; Press Release G.A.C. 17, December 6, 1966, NCA.

66. “Will the NCC Discover Evangelism?,” CT, January 6, 1967, 25; see also Schmidt, , Souls or the Social Order, 217.Google Scholar

67. Hadden, Jeffrey K., in The Gathering Storm in the Churches (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1970)Google Scholar, documented the growing gap between the mainline clergy—especially denominational and NCC staff—and the laity on theological and political issues, especially biblical literalism, civil rights, and Vietnam. Important surveys for the book (see 230-34) were conducted at the 1966 Miami NCC assembly.

68. Editorial, , “That the World May Know,” CT, November 11, 1966, 160.Google Scholar

69. Bayly, Joseph P., The Gospel Blimp (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960), 83–84.Google Scholar

70. World Congress on Evangelism, One Race, One Gospel, One Task—Official Reference Volumes: Papers and Reports, 2 vols., ed. Henry, Carl F. H. and Mooneyham, W. Stanley (Minneapolis: World Wide Publications, 1967), 1:5; 1:16; 2:523; 1:24-25.Google Scholar

71. Hoge, , Division in the Protestant House, 78–83.Google Scholar

72. Cavert, Samuel McCrea, Church Cooperation and Unity in America: A Historical Review, 1900-1970 (New York: Association Press, 1970), 146-49Google Scholar; Coalter, “Presbyterian Evangelism,” 53-54.

73. Billy Graham to Edwin Espy, January 4, 1967, NCA; Edwin Espy to Billy Graham, January 9, 1967, NCA.

74. Roof, Wade Clark and McKinney, William, American Mainline Religion: Its Changing Shape and Future (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1987), 33–39.Google Scholar

75. Sweet, Leonard I., “The 1960s: The Crises of Liberal Christianity and the Public Emergence of Evangelicalism,” in Evangelicalism and Modern America, ed. Marsden, George M. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 29–45.Google Scholar

76. “Falwell Puts Politics behind Him—For the Most Part,rdquo; CT, December 11, 1987, 53.

77. Silk, Mark, “The Rise of the ‘New Evangelicalism’: Shock and Adjustment,” in Between the Times: The Travail of the Protestant Establishment in America, 1900-1960, ed. Hutchison, William R. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 297.Google Scholar