Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism [Paperback]

Roger A. Bruns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2002

In this fast-paced, captivating account of Billy Sunday's life, Roger A. Bruns masterfully unfolds the story of modern evangelism. Born in Iowa during the Civil War, Sunday rose to fame as the "fastest man in baseball" during his career with the Chicago White Stockings in the 1880s. But he turned his back on the game when he heard the call of God, first spreading his old-fashioned, fundamentalist message in Chicago's gritty saloons. By 1896, Sunday's swashbuckling campaign was on the road. He riled and rallied audiences across the country, firing off a slew of railing diatribes in his quest to expurgate the moral rot of society, board up bars and brothels, rid the world of cigarettes and dime novels, and save faithless, sinful, and rum-soaked souls from eternal damnation. In the tabernacles and tents of his traveling revival, Sunday served up a spectacle of rambunctious antics and quick-tongued invectives all grounded in his own moral and religious authority. He beseeched the "fal-da-rol" and "tommyrot" displayed by intellectuals, evolutionists, Unitarians, and left-wing radicals to build a massive religious dynasty that foreshadowed the successful careers of Jimmy Swaggart and Billy Graham. A stirring orator and consummate showman, Sunday's evangelical message reached millions of Americans, even before the advent of radio and television broadcasting. With unerring verve, Bruns chronicles how Sunday bridged the gap between the tent revivals of the nineteenth century and the evangelical empires of today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this detailed, diverting study of the life and work of evangelist Sunday (1862-1935), Bruns ( Knights of the Road: A Hobo History ) tells how the son of a poor Iowa family bettered himself by becoming a successful professional baseball player until turning to revivalist preaching after a religious conversion. With his wife Nell as business manager, Sunday then crisscrossed the U.S. for 40 years, energetically preaching a fire-and-brimstone message that promised damnation to anyone who did not accept Jesus Christ and reject sin, alcohol and Communism. A creationist, he also publicly denounced Clarence Darrow and H. L. Mencken from the pulpit. As the author points out, Sunday, though sincere and not personally corrupt, found the business of saving souls to be financially rewarding and so served as inspiration for today's televangelists. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Enthusiastic biography of wildly successful evangelist Sunday (1863-1935), by Bruns (The Damndest Radical, 1986; Knights of the Road, 1980). This is a pre-Freudian version of what must have been at least a fairly complex life, including severe poverty, loss of a father, an alcoholic stepfather, a mother-fixation, and several kinds of salvation. The combative Sunday (``Billy'' to Bruns) was saved from poverty by athletic talent and became a good-field, no-hit outfielder for the Chicago White Stockings; socially, he saved himself by marrying into the upper middle class. When his soul was saved, he became the most remarkable preacher of his day--a ``frothing, howling huckster'' in Emma Goldman's words--tireless, violent, and charismatic, ranting, leaping about, breaking chairs, staging imaginary fistfights with the devil. Bruns's Sunday is a Horatio Alger character who frequented bars apparently without drinking to excess, and red-light districts without doing much of anything. A kid who ran around with the notorious King Kelly (style-setter for Babe Ruth) had to experience something, but what it was is not revealed here--and so missing from the core of this whitewashed account is a classic ingredient of conversion: the ascent from evil ways. Not that research is stinted in other areas; there is a great deal on the White Stockings and Sunday's subsequent athletic career, including his reaction to a player's strike: he was a scab. The tone is saccharine (``at prayer meetings he always positioned himself so he could keep one eye on [fianc‚e] Nell and one on the preacher''), and the reader's believability suffers. Interesting turn-of-the-century Americana, though offering no glimpse of the real Sunday--his life, marriage, relationships--but only uncritical images of a frontier-style poor-boy who preached and made money until called out by the Great Umpire by way of a heart attack. (Photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (February 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252070755
• ISBN-13: 978-0252070754
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,175,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Bughouse peddler of a second-hand gospel...", November 28, 2008

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Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism (Paperback)

So a young Carl Sandburg described Billy Sunday, who biographer Bruns credits as the great grandfather of contemporary evangelicals such as Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, and the Bakkers (Sandburg quoted on p. 193; Sunday as forerunner, pp. 301-306). Sunday's bodily contortions, his fire-and-brimstone sermon style, and his out-of-control tongue--he advocated shooting all liberals, referred to nonfundamentalist Christians as hellhounds, was an enthusiastic supporter of WWI, proclaiming that he wished he could go to Europe and kill Germans, and waved the American flag (literally) while perched on his pulpit--earned him the "bughouse peddler" label.

Sunday's story, in many ways, underscores that Christian fundamentalism today is very much like the fundamentalism Sunday preached. The same culture wars involving biblical literalism, evolution, liberal democracy, sexual mores, and country right-or-wrong conservatism were fought by Sunday--indeed, if Bruns is correct, some of them were practically invented by Sunday. Moreover, his organizational skills in his across-the-nation revival meetings set the stage for the incredibly sophisticated fundamentalist radio and television ministries today. In this regard, Sunday was a prophet.

Unfortunately, however, as Bruns abundantly documents, Sunday was also a prophet for a close-minded, intolerant, and sometimes hate-mongering fundamentalism. He was a barely literate man who hated too widely and too fiercely, and he didn't hesitate to use the revivalist stage as a bully pulpit for thundering his dislikes. In many ways, according to Bruns, the slightly toxic legacy of Sunday is still with us.

An excellent book, well-documented, well-written, and well-argued. Especially fascinating are Bruns' chapters (7 and 11, respectively) dealing with Sunday's obsessive war against alcohol (a war all the more poignant given that two of his sons because adult alcoholics) and his intense and vehement militarism. Bruns' depiction of Sunday is sure to raise the hackles of true believers. But it's an eminently accurate one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacks depth, March 21, 2005

By 

John Rush (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism (Paperback)

The author's favorable bias toward his subject makes his account incomplete. Bruns' token attempts at fairness were neutralized by his ad hominem descriptions of Sunday's detractors.

The first four chapters summarize Sunday's life from birth to his 55th year. Suddenly, perhaps realizing that he's just about run out of information, Bruns switches to a background of American evangelism dating to colonial days, the state and national campaigns to ban alcoholic beverages, the "Reds" who opposed Sunday, and descriptions of revivals he held in New York and Atlanta. Confident that he now has enough material to honor his contract, the author finishes Sunday's life in the last three chapters.

Bruns contends that Sunday had a major influence on televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, without mentioning the scandals that brought them down. Since the book was originally published in 1992, this omission is quite glaring.

In its defense, the book contains information that I'd not previously known about Sunday, along with this quote about race relations among Christians: "Sabbath day in the United States was the most segregated day of the week." It probably still is.

But by presenting an overview rather than getting up close and personal, Bruns fails to let the reader know the real Billy Sunday. The book reads like a favorable news account, not a detailed biography. I'll keep it in my rogue's gallery of infamous Christians, but if I find a better book about Sunday, I'll dispose of this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Short annonation of Roger Bruns' biography on Billy Sunday, September 24, 2008

By 

Eric M. Bradley "Bucky the Librarian" (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism (Paperback)

A critical treatment of Sunday`s life, examining the evangelist in the light of late twentieth century evangelicalism. The first two chapters cover Sunday`s childhood and baseball career, while the following ten chapters focus on the rise and peak of Sunday`s evangelist career, and the last chapter covers his decline and death.