Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America (review)

J U L Y 2 0 0 9 235 the 1920s would other Civil War battlefields, many of which were molded after the “Antietam Plan” of piecemeal land acquisition, receive federal recognition and protection. In turning our attention from the tactics and leaders of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Antietam, Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, Smith offers a valuable analysis of the establishment and management of the war’s most famous and visited battlefields. The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation complements Smith’s earlier works on the establishment of the Shiloh National Military Park and adds to an increasingly popular literature on battlefield preservation. JENNIFER M. MURRAY Auburn University Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America. By John G. Turner. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. x, 288 pp. $59.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8078-3185-4. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8078-5873-8. This carefully researched and well-written study is an important addition to the growing body of literature on the growth of evangelical Christianity in America in the last half of the twentieth century. John G. Turner uses the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), chartered in 1951 by Bill Bright, as a “window into the world of American evangelicalism since 1945” (p. 2). The author skillfully traces the movement of Bright and the CCC through the fractious splintering of the evangelical community during these decades. His chapter describing the tensions between the moderate evangelicals who supported Billy Graham and the fundamentalists led by Bob Jones Sr. and John R. Rice is a fine introduction to the complexity of postwar American Protestantism and to the pragmatic skills of Bill Bright as he repeatedly positioned CCC on the winning side. The CCC is one of the most important of the scores of “parachurch” organizations founded by American evangelicals in the wake of World War II. More than traditional denominations, these independent organizations helped conservative Protestants adapt to new cultural conditions by using innovative techniques. They often competed with one another , and the internal squabbles over clienteles are an interesting part of Turner’s narrative. Young Bill Bright moved from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in 1944 in search of fortune and soon fell under the influence of Henrietta Mears T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 236 at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, as did many other evangelical leaders during these years. Never successful as a businessman or as a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, Bright in 1951 set out to organize Christian groups among university students. He won attention with a successful campaign at UCLA and, aided by a handful of skillful evangelists including Hal Lindsay and Josh McDowell, saw the organization reach the peak of its evangelizing success in the early 1970s. Using the small booklet Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws, the CCC claimed hundreds of thousands of Christian converts on the campuses of state universities during the years most famously known for revolt of youth in the counterculture movement. During its early years the CCC was a relatively small organization with a modest budget. In 1962 Bright bought the Arrowhead Springs mountain resort in California, a huge complex set on more than 1,700 acres where the CCC sponsored training classes and retreats for thousands of workers. After that date, the organization became more complex in its operations and more sophisticated in fund raising. In its later years the CCC continued to emphasize evangelism, expanding its reach to many foreign nations. In the United States, it increasingly focused on staging large campaigns and expositions. Bright also became more vocal about the political need to reclaim the nation for God. Of course, the postwar evangelical revival had from its beginnings coupled opposition to Godless communism with its call to embrace Christ. Bright’s patriotic fervor was highly visible during the bicentennial celebration, the election of Jimmy Carter, and the Washington for Jesus rally in 1980 (which he cochaired with Pat Robertson). Some insiders saw these interests as distractions from the CCC’s early emphasis on evangelism. This book is a balanced account...