For millions, Billy Graham provided a comforting image of evangelical Protestantism. A confidant of both Republican and Democtratic presidents, Graham was described as “America’s pastor” and once as “the most powerful evangelist since Jesus.” Although his “crusades” attracted millions around the world, and Graham avoided the wild theatrics of other Protestant revivalists, he could not escape the evangelical preoccupation with the end times. Graham’s writings—including The Jesus Generation and Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—show that he firmly belongs in the continuum of doomsday believers from John Nelson Darby to Tim Lahaye. This presentation will address whether Graham’s mainstream appeal affected his apocalyptic outlook and how his global ministry helped shape evangelical Protestantism’s apocalyptic outlook.
About the presenterTimothy P Cross
I am an independent scholar as well as director of operations and external relations at the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Previously, I was executive director of the National Institute of Social Sciences and held administrative appointments at Columbia University, where I earned my doctorate.
My research interests include late medieval and early modern Catholicism; early modern Europe; European social and cultural history; and apocalyptic and millenarian movements.