President`s Author Series with Dr. Grant Wacker

President’s Author Series:
Grant Wacker
America’s Pastor:
Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Globe Theatre, 7:00 p.m.
Dr. Grant Wacker, the guest author for IWU’s spring semester President’s Author
Series, will discuss his book, America’s Pastor: Billy Braham and the Shaping of a
Nation, in an interview moderated by John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture. All are
welcome to attend the conversation, which will commence at 7:00 p.m.
Dr. Wacker is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian
History at Duke Divinity School and a specialist in the
history of evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, world
missions and American Protestant thought. Wacker
taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the
University of North Carolina for 15 years before
accepting his position at Duke and has authored and
edited numerous books throughout his career.
America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a
Nation, published by Harvard University Press,
examines the life of Reverend Billy Graham by
extending beyond biographical information to address
why Graham’s life and ministry had such a profound impact on the twentieth century
church.
From Graham’s tent revivals in the 1940’s to his enduring legacy in the evangelical
church today, Dr. Wacker takes an interpretive approach to Graham’s life,
uncovering why his ministry endured and affected not only the evangelical
movement but so many lives as well. In his book, Dr. Wacker identifies Graham as a
dynamic individual invested in both his private life as a servant of God and the public
sector as a figure-head for the spiritual life for millions.
Dr. Richard J. Mouw, Professor of Faith and Public Life and former President, Fuller
Theological Seminary, described Dr. Wacker’s text as “a superb—and richly
detailed—portrait of Billy Graham, presented in the context of a solid cultural and
historical analysis of the era in which Graham served as the kind of religious leader
we are not likely to see again. And all of this from a marvelous storyteller. Wacker's
deeply moving epilogue can stand alone as a model of inspiring prose!”
For more information concerning the event, please contact
[email protected].