Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America

In the 1920s and ’30s Aimee Semple McPherson was the most famous preacher in America.

In many respects, she was an odd mix. Theologically conservative, her dramatic style of presentation was anything but. Her Angelus Temple in Los Angeles was a 5,000-seat megachurch that looked more like a plush theater than a church. This was the woman who brought Hollywood to religion and put the fun into fundamentalism.

Then there are other contradictions. Like a liberal, she worked for racial unity, but like a right-winger she promulgated the fear that communists lurked everywhere. Her physical presence was said to have been womanly, yet some of the photos in this book show her with a distinctly mannish face.

Her multiple divorces were topped by a bizarre incident in which she claimed to have been kidnapped for a month, though the evidence points to her having been shacked up with a secret lover the whole time. To date, the real facts remain a mystery.

So buzzed would she be after preaching to crowds that she started taking prescription sleeping pills. Finally, like a ’60s rockstar, she died of a drug overdose.

After reading this book I had the impression that I knew the public persona but not the woman inside. If I ever come across her autobiography, I’d like to get her story in her own words.

Matthew Avery Sutton. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. Harvard University Press, 2009. Paperback. 361 pages. ISBN 0674032535. $18.95.