America's Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation
More than a conventional biography, Grant Wacker’s interpretive study deepens our understanding of why Billy Graham has mattered so much to so many, and how his uncanny ability to appropriate trends in the wider culture allowed him to transform his born-again theology into a moral vocabulary capturing the aspirations and fears of average Americans.
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Short Review: This is probably a 4.5 star book, but I am rounding up because I wish we had more books like this. America's Pastor is not a biography of Billy Graham, but an honest appraisal of his life and ministry and a look at how Graham was a man of his time. I have read Graham's book Just as I Am and decided not to read another biography until a while after he died because I didn't think that Graham could really be talked about honestly right now. But after two good reviews and an offer of a review copy I picked it up and I am glad I did. It starts with a short biographical sketch, but then has 8 chapters of looking at Graham through different lenses, Preacher, Icon, Southerner, Entrepreneur, Architect, Pilgrim, Pastor and Patriarch.
The only negative is that the method necessarily requires a bit of repetition to make different points so it drags just a bit toward the end. But this is the best thing I have read on Graham. It is honest but extremely charitable. I think it hits a near perfect balance.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/americas-pastor/