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Book Reviews / CHRC .– () – Garth M. Rosell, The Surprising Work of God: Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, and the Rebirth of Evangelicalism. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI , pp. ISBN . US.. Harold John Ockenga was a famous name in Christian America between and . He served for years on the pulpit of Boston’s Park Street Church. Though technically congregational, this church was one of the most important (and wealthy) evangelical churches in the country. Its beautiful edifice matched the respectability of its pastor. From this place Ockenga helped build an evangelical empire, consisting of a ceaseless series of revivals, the founding of new seminaries, magazines, conferences, and network organizations. His most prominent post was as the first president of the National Association of Evangelicals in . By putting the spotlight on this authoritative leader of American evangeli- calism, Garth M. Rosell fulfils a promise to Ockenga’s widow to write this biog- raphy. As professor of church history at Gordon-Conwell Theological Semi- nary, which Ockenga served as its first president, Rosell knew his subject per- sonally. This contact began in his childhood. Rosell’s father was a close friend to Ockenga and a revival preacher. This sets the tone of admiration for this “Mr. Evangelical.” Rosell used the voluminous collection of letters and , sermons that Ockenga left to this seminary. Though Rosell quotes extensively from these sources, this book mainly shows the public side of Ockenga. In a swirl of lectures, conferences, meetings, and appearances, we see here the activism of America’s traditional Christians, who joined hands in reclaiming their place in the culture. This research does not lead to a new interpretation of the wave of religious excitement in the s. It brings, however, a valuable insight in the formative process of the rise of post-war evangelicalism, namely the eagerness with which these traditional Protestants waited on this revival to break out. This becomes peculiarly clear on page . In the preceding pages Rosell has summarized the revivals of the mid-eighteenth century under Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley. And then the story jumps two centuries to the figure of Ockenga overseeing a crowd in Boston in and concluding that it has happened again. This jump in time is both the strength and the weakness of the book. Its strength is that it makes abundantly clear how deeply rooted revivalism was in the American religious psyche. The first half of the book revisits the growing anticipation of a revival. It was almost inevitable that a new outburst of this religious energy had to happen if the supporters of this event only would get together. The book shows how widespread and strong this expectation was. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, DOI: 10.1163/187124111X610043 Book Reviews / CHRC .– () – Also mainline denominations wanted to participate. Cooperation and “united evangelical action” was the buzzword and Ockenga was instrumental in putting the support network of people and churches in place. But, regrettably, the author does not confront this interpretation with other readings of the origin of revivals, or compare them with its precedents, nor evaluate its effect. Was it really a repetition of the past or did it have new elements? Was the revival only a good thing or did it have negative effects, for instance by making churches too dependent on organizational skills? Was it perhaps a worldly effort of middle- class believers to reclaim their lost status and return to the centers of power? This book offers the explanation of the key players, but does not go beyond that. A second problem in the narrative concerns Ockenga’s position in this devel- opment. It is clear he is fully active, but how were the functions distributed and how did his method of organization differ from other ecclesiastical and parachurch models? The subtitle of the book mentions Billy Graham with whom Ockenga enjoyed years of friendship. But we do not learn more about him, than the awe for someone who stood so close to this religious giant. There is one allusion to their complementary roles on page : Graham is the heart (coming from the South) and Ockenga the mind (the Northern contribution) of the evangelical movement. Though it is helpful to read once again how the evangelicals shed the restrictions of the isolated and separatist fundamentalist, while staying close to the fundamentals of the historic Christian faith, they had little intellectual innovation to offer. Ockenga readily accepted the slogan of the French Revolution, liberty, equality, and fraternity, as long as the latter providedtheglueforthefirsttwoideals. Here a third weakness is revealed. Though the leap in history is functional, it passes the discussions and confrontations with the modernists of the first half of the twentieth century. Ockenga, born in and raised in a pietist Methodist environment in Chicago, seems to have lived completely outside this contro- versy. I am not pleading for inclusion of a complete religious overview of the US in the nineteenth century, but to add a characterization of Ockenga’s posi- tion in the battle for the Bible of his formative period. Is it feasible that this confrontation with modernism was completely absent from his life? Had he not had a moment of doubt about the reliability of the Bible as Billy Gra- ham had? How could a leader labelled as “Mr. Evangelical” be so silent in dealing with the intellectual challenges of his day and age? His many sermons were actually confirmations of the classical position of conservative Christians, though Rosell correctly reminds his readers that conservatives continued to be active in charities and social work. Ockenga was more important for leaving.

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