Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America [Paperback]

Randall Balmer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195300467 | ISBN-13: 978-0195300468 | Publication Date: April 27, 2006 | Edition: 4

Randall Balmer's Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory is an insightful and engaging journey into the world of conservative Christians in America. Originally published fifteen years ago and the basis for an award-winning PBS documentary, this timely new edition arrives just as recent elections have left an ever-growing number of secular Americans wondering exactly how the other half thinks.
From Oregon to Florida, and from Texas to North Dakota, Balmer offers an immensely readable tour of the highways and byways of American evangelicalism. We visit a revival meeting in Florida, an Indian reservation in the Dakotas, a trade show for Christian booksellers, and a fundamentalist Bible camp in the Adirondacks.
For this fourth edition, Balmer adds two chapters, one on the phenomenally popular "Painter of Light," Thomas Kinkade, and one on Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. Through the eyes of these and other people Balmer meets on his journeys, we arrive at a more accurate and balanced understanding of an abiding tradition that, as the author argues, is both rich in theological insights and mired in contradictions. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory offers readers a genuine insight into the appeal that the evangelicals movement holds for thousands of Americans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The variegated forms of popular evangelicalism--fundamentalist, charismatic, Pentecostal--are investigated in this well-researched study. As Balmer, professor of religion at Columbia University, crisscrosses the country visiting a Dallas seminary, an Episcopal Indian settlement, a bible camp in the Adirondacks, an evangelical filmmaker, he explores not only the depth and variety of the appeal of American evangelicalism, but also his own ambivalence springing from his early grounding "in the protective cocoon of this subculture." A personal journal of discovery as well as a substantial social history, the book presents men and women who, in their stories, render a collage of a religious movement.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Balmer here presents a cross section of modern evangelical Christianity in America in 11 chapters, each sketching some aspect of this world from church camps and seminaries to missions and tent meetings. Every chapter is a narrative account of the author's experiences and conversations plus his own interpretations. Balmer (religion, Columbia Univ.) also gives historical and theological background when it is needed. Balmer grew up in the evangelical world, but his presentation is very even-handed; he is neither defending nor vilifying. Rather, he is trying to give his readers a feel for this very American tradition with a look at both the insights and problems that make this subculture so fascinating. Recommended for public libraries.
- C. Robert Nixon, M.L.S., Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 4 edition (April 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195300467
• ISBN-13: 978-0195300468
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Psychology

More About the Author

A prize-winning historian and Emmy Award nominee, Randall Balmer is professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and formerly a visiting professor at Yale Divinity School. He has lectured at the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club of California and the Smithsonian Associates and to audiences around the country. He has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and at Rutgers, Yale, Drew, Northwestern, and Princeton universities. He is adjunct professor of church history at Union Theological Seminary, and he has also been a visiting professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Mr. Balmer, who earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985, has published widely both in academic and scholarly journals and in the popular press. He is an editor for Christianity Today, and his commentaries on religion in America, distributed by the New York Times Syndicate, have appeared in newspapers across the country. He has published opinion pieces in the Des Moines Register, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the San Diego Times-Union, the Dallas Morning News, Slate, the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, the Albany Times-Union, the Nation and the New York Times. His first book, "A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies," won several awards, and his second book, "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America," now in its fourth edition, was made into a three-part documentary for PBS. Mr. Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for his script-writing and for hosting that series.

His second documentary, "Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham," was aired on PBS and also appeared in A&E's Biography series. "'In the Beginning': The Creationist Controversy," a two-part documentary on the creation-evolution debate, was first broadcast over PBS in May 1995 and then recut and broadcast in fall 2001.

The author of a dozen books, Mr. Balmer has co-written a history of American Presbyterians, a book on mainline Protestantism, and another book, "Protestantism in America," with Lauren F. Winner. Other books include "Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism," published by Baylor University Press, and "Religion in Twentieth Century America," part of the Religion in American Life series, published by Oxford University Press. A spiritual memoir, "Growing Pains: Learning to Love My Father's Faith," published by Brazos Press in 2001, was named "book of the year" (spirituality) by Christianity Today. More recently, "God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush," was released by HarperOne in January 2008, and "The Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond" was published by Baylor University Press in 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked Mine Eyes, March 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (Paperback)

This is a great, affirming book. It's really about a spiritual search, and the author does a great job relating the conflicting passions of modern evangelicals (desire for safety, certainty, security, in a rapidly changing and apparently [to them at least] amoral world) and, in the final chapter relates them to the original protestant vision articulated by Luther and others and to his own struggles with the culture. As he points out through interviews "it's really a lover's quarrel," but one with profound implications for day to day religious belief.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Dated Now, May 31, 2006

By 

D. S. Bornus (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (Paperback)

In this book, Balmer chronicles his journey across America encountering various Christian evangelicals. Each chapter describes a specific encounter such as a Billy Graham crusade, a visit to Jimmy Swaggart's ministry, the artwork of Thomas Kinkade, the Christian Booksellers Association convention, etc.

This book gives interesting perspectives on the evangelical movement, and perhaps allows evangelicals themselves to see how the rest of the world perceives their witness. However, much of the book was written in the 80's and early 90's and so now is somewhat dated, more of a historical retrospective than a description of the current evangelical movement.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The History and Diversity of a Major Force in America Today, June 24, 2007

By 

Thomas M. Loarie (Danville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (Paperback)

Randall Balmer's widely recognized (in its fourth printing) "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" lives up to its well-earned reputation. In this excellent book, Balmer takes the reader on a tour of US Evangelism with visits to or with:

* The Calvary Chapel (Santa Ana, CA.), the home of Chuck Smith who revolutionized evangelism by reaching out to the "disillusioned of the 1960s
* The Dallas Theological Seminary, a fortress of evangelical and fundamentalist orthodoxy, and Darby's rapture
* Filmmaker Donald Thompson, maker of Christian Films
* The Capstone Cathedral (Phoenix, AZ.), the home of evangelist and healer Neal Frisby
* The Word of Life Fellowship youth camp, home of Adirondack Fundamentalism
* The Church of the King (North Valdosta, GA), a charismatic church that merged with the Episcopal Church, starting a charismatic renewal
* The Multnomah School of the Bible (Oregon) and its doctrine of the end times
* The Right to Life movement in Iowa
* John Perkins, founder of Mendenhall Ministries, who returned to his native Mississippi to break the cycle of poverty, despair, and oppression of blacks
* The Christian Booksellers Association's annual convention (Bibles are a big business)
* Father Innocent Good House, a Sioux Indian, and pastor of St. Luke's Episcopal Church (Fort Yates, ND) on the resistance of evangelicals to the integration of Christianity with the Indian's native religions
* Camp Freedom, an adult faith camp (St. Petersburg, FL.) and the holiness tradition.
* The Billy Graham Crusade in New York City
* The Oregon Extension of Trinity College (Klamath Falls, OR) and the misuse of the Bible by evangelicals
* Jimmy Swaggart, since his fall, at his Family Life Center (Baton Rouge, LA)
* Thomas Kinkade and his world vision
* The purpose driven megachurches - Willow Creek (Chicago) and Saddleback (Lake Forest, CA)

In "My Eyes Have Seen," Balmer conveys the multiplicity, diversity, and complexity of Evangelicalism in the US today highlighting its folk appeal and grass roots character. Evangelicalism is quintessentially American - a free market religion which has churches competing with one another for popular followings, providing a unmistakable populist cast to religion. "Evangelicals generally galvanize around a personality who articulates - and even defines - the faith of his followers according to his own idiosyncratic reading of the Bible.

Balmer feels that Evangelicalism will persist because of its timeless appeal, promising intimacy with God, a support community, an unambiguous morality, and answers to the riddles of eternity.

"My Eyes Have Seen the Glory" is the perfect reference book for those interested in in the history and many faces of American Evangelicalism. It is a not only a "must" for anyone involved in religious ministry, but also for most Americans as Evangelicalism is major force in our society society. It cannot be easily dismissed.