Fifty years after her death, Aimee Semple McPherson continues to fascinate. Readers may recall Ma... more Fifty years after her death, Aimee Semple McPherson continues to fascinate. Readers may recall Matthew Sutton’s Church History article “‘Between the Refrigerator and the Wildfire’: Aimee Semple McPherson, Pentecostalism, and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy” (72:1 [March 2003]: 159–88). His book focuses more on McPherson’s relationships with popular culture and politics. He details McPherson’s very early use of radio, her flirtation with film, and her mastery of public relations. Sutton offers a skillfully balanced picture of McPherson’s complex persona. For example, in politics McPherson opposed the teaching of evolution but avidly backed Franklin Roosevelt. She supported the Equal Rights Amendment and women’s ordination yet upheld Victorian ideals of women’s behavior. She welcomed Klan members but also reached out to African Americans and Latinos. Sutton’s treatment of religion, however, is problematic. McPherson was pentecostal. Yet Sutton describes speaking in tongues as “babbling” and “jabbering” (38, 40). Sutton also calls her a fundamentalist. Certainly pentecostals and fundamentalists shared many theological perspectives as well as social and cultural stances, but “Fighting” Bob Shuler’s opposition to McPherson, well-documented by Sutton, should have given the author pause. He attributes McPherson’s substantial social service work to a Social Gospel theology. It more likely represents McPherson’s background with the Salvation Army. Sutton’s references to McPherson as “evangelical” are anachronistic. Readers would do well to also read Edith Blumhofer’s Aimee Semple McPherson (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994) and Daniel Mark Epstein’s Sister Aimee (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993).
of what makes a community. Community schools, for example, which were already important, now take... more of what makes a community. Community schools, for example, which were already important, now take center stage. Loeb's writing can be a bit wooden and repetitive. Not included in her study is a consideration of who purchased the houses and how the homes fit residents' needs, but of course that would have been a far larger study, and a different one. Also the question should be asked, how representative are Loeb's three subdivisions? Are there differences from subdivisions on the East Coast or the South? But, overall, Loeb has created an important study that is a real contribution to the history of American subdivisions, housing, and real estate.
Using the pop song title, I look at how parents and children teach each other and how to react fr... more Using the pop song title, I look at how parents and children teach each other and how to react from both perspectives.
This carefully researched monograph examines Franciscan-Chiriguano interactions in southeastern B... more This carefully researched monograph examines Franciscan-Chiriguano interactions in southeastern Bolivia from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Langer writes, "Although missions were not tied as closely to the state as during the colonial period, they were key to the penetration of national societies into the regions and indigenous lands that the nascent republics claimed as their jurisdictions." This is important. For the most part, scholars have neglected to study the Catholic missions of the emerging nation-states of the republican era, focusing instead on the colonial period. As such, Latin Americanists have an incomplete picture of the development of the frontier in South America. The author is particularly interested in the missionary efforts of the Italian Franciscans in the region. This further complicates some common assumptions held by many concerning the spread of Catholicism in Latin America. Even though the Franciscans and their missions are the focus of the book, specialists of colonial Spanish America with an interest in Catholic mission history will find it useful. The monograph consists of an introduction and nine chapters. It can be used in upperdivision undergraduate courses and graduate seminars. College and university libraries looking to add to its Latin America and Indigenous Studies collections should purchase a copy.
Fifty years after her death, Aimee Semple McPherson continues to fascinate. Readers may recall Ma... more Fifty years after her death, Aimee Semple McPherson continues to fascinate. Readers may recall Matthew Sutton’s Church History article “‘Between the Refrigerator and the Wildfire’: Aimee Semple McPherson, Pentecostalism, and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy” (72:1 [March 2003]: 159–88). His book focuses more on McPherson’s relationships with popular culture and politics. He details McPherson’s very early use of radio, her flirtation with film, and her mastery of public relations. Sutton offers a skillfully balanced picture of McPherson’s complex persona. For example, in politics McPherson opposed the teaching of evolution but avidly backed Franklin Roosevelt. She supported the Equal Rights Amendment and women’s ordination yet upheld Victorian ideals of women’s behavior. She welcomed Klan members but also reached out to African Americans and Latinos. Sutton’s treatment of religion, however, is problematic. McPherson was pentecostal. Yet Sutton describes speaking in tongues as “babbling” and “jabbering” (38, 40). Sutton also calls her a fundamentalist. Certainly pentecostals and fundamentalists shared many theological perspectives as well as social and cultural stances, but “Fighting” Bob Shuler’s opposition to McPherson, well-documented by Sutton, should have given the author pause. He attributes McPherson’s substantial social service work to a Social Gospel theology. It more likely represents McPherson’s background with the Salvation Army. Sutton’s references to McPherson as “evangelical” are anachronistic. Readers would do well to also read Edith Blumhofer’s Aimee Semple McPherson (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994) and Daniel Mark Epstein’s Sister Aimee (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993).
of what makes a community. Community schools, for example, which were already important, now take... more of what makes a community. Community schools, for example, which were already important, now take center stage. Loeb's writing can be a bit wooden and repetitive. Not included in her study is a consideration of who purchased the houses and how the homes fit residents' needs, but of course that would have been a far larger study, and a different one. Also the question should be asked, how representative are Loeb's three subdivisions? Are there differences from subdivisions on the East Coast or the South? But, overall, Loeb has created an important study that is a real contribution to the history of American subdivisions, housing, and real estate.
Using the pop song title, I look at how parents and children teach each other and how to react fr... more Using the pop song title, I look at how parents and children teach each other and how to react from both perspectives.
This carefully researched monograph examines Franciscan-Chiriguano interactions in southeastern B... more This carefully researched monograph examines Franciscan-Chiriguano interactions in southeastern Bolivia from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Langer writes, "Although missions were not tied as closely to the state as during the colonial period, they were key to the penetration of national societies into the regions and indigenous lands that the nascent republics claimed as their jurisdictions." This is important. For the most part, scholars have neglected to study the Catholic missions of the emerging nation-states of the republican era, focusing instead on the colonial period. As such, Latin Americanists have an incomplete picture of the development of the frontier in South America. The author is particularly interested in the missionary efforts of the Italian Franciscans in the region. This further complicates some common assumptions held by many concerning the spread of Catholicism in Latin America. Even though the Franciscans and their missions are the focus of the book, specialists of colonial Spanish America with an interest in Catholic mission history will find it useful. The monograph consists of an introduction and nine chapters. It can be used in upperdivision undergraduate courses and graduate seminars. College and university libraries looking to add to its Latin America and Indigenous Studies collections should purchase a copy.
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