Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory

For more than two decades, historians of religion like Randall Balmer, Joel A. Carpenter, and Mark A. Noll had been exploring these dimensions of American Christianity. Balmer's now classic Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (1989), which explored a variety of evangelical movements and communities in a way that both historicized and personalized each, has been especially influential, reaching far beyond the rather narrow audience of American scholars of religion. * The Chronicle of Higher Education *
A professor of American religious history at Barnard and Columbia, Balmer wrote this book because he had a 'suspicion that many Americans, and certainly the media, really did not have much of a clue about who evangelicals were, what they believed, or what motivated their forays into the political arena.' Fifteen years after the book was published, and with the gap between evangelicals and other Americans still yawning, the book offers a tour of evangelical enclaves throughout the country. * The Washington Post *
Randall Balmer takes readers through evangelical America, and it's a surprisingly lively and light ride. Balmer isn't a preacher, but a fine reporter, curious and respectful about the vitality and diversity of evangelicalism. * The New York Daily News *
A sensitive, informed, often moving account of lifestyles and belief systems that coexist with * but are usually set apart fromsecular mainstream America.... Provides a carefully crafted portrait of religious diversity that is both generous and critical but never patronizing.... We can all read this book with profit.Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography *
Fascinating.... This is a wonderful book.... Fair, insightful and respectful.... Balmer understands what he sees, but has enough distance from his subject to be analytical. Outsiders will learn much from his carefully nuanced insights; and insiders will frequently have to nod their heads in agreement: this man knows what he is talking about. * Church History *
This compelling account makes Randall Balmer the William Least Heat Moon of American evangelicalism. Just as Blue Highways opened up an ordinary America beyond the bright city lights, so Balmer goes beyond media stars like Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, and Jimmy Swaggart to illuminate the local realities of evangelical life. The worlds of Protestant conservatives are complex-filled overfull with the eccentric and the authentic, locked tightly in the grip of kitsch as well as the grip of grace. In describing that world from Oregon to New Hampshire, Des Moines to Phoenix, Mississippi to North Dakota - Balmer doesn't miss a nuance or a beat. * Mark A. Noll, Wheaton College *
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory is a book about the sawdust trail that glitters like angel dust. It is witty, lively and richly informative - written with real style and sophistication, and a delight to read. * Frederick Buechner *
Easily the best participant-observer study of the evangelical landscape in contemporary America. He combines the insight of the trained historian with the deft instincts of the birthright insider. The product is at once a critical, painfully funny, warmly sympathetic exploration of the multiple subcultures of a sprawling religious tradition that is all too easily stereotyped- and dismissed- as monolithic fundamentalism. * Grant Wacker, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill *
American evangelicalism is as diverse as the nation's landscape. Balmer's book is an extraordinary religious travelogue through that complicated subculture....After reading [his] book, popular stereotypes of 'evangelicals' and 'fundamentalists' will never again be quite so clearly focused. * David E. Harrell, Jr., University of Alabama, Birmingham *
A powerful examination of those ingredients that constitute the very essence of the phenomenon called American evangelicism. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory is absolutely essential for anyone who wishes to understand the religious landscape of contemporary America. * Lewis V. Baldwin, Vanderbilt University *