Dr. Hans Krabbendam, Roosevelt Study Center of the Netherlands
Archival Research Lecture, delivered by Dr. Hans Krabbendam of the Roosevelt Study Center of the Netherlands.
The lecture will be on Thursday, September 27, at 7pm in the Wilson Suite on the 4th floor of the Billy Graham Center, 500 E. College Avenue at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, USA.
How do you do historical research in an archives? What is it like to work with actual fragments from the past, to reconstruct a picture of past from documents such as newspaper clippings, letters, diaries, photos, and film? These are some of the general themes of the Archival Research Lectures. Every year a scholar who has worked in the BGC Archives talks about his/her own experiences doing research (at the BGC Archives and other places) and describe some of the fruits of that research.
Dr. Krabbendam in this year’s presentation will look at the different responses in Europe and North-America to the changing position of religion in society. Could the Europeans have adopted the strategies of Americans to prevent their religious decline? In particular he examines the confrontation between American Evangelicals and Europe in the post-World War II period. It shows when, why, and how, Americans took to Europe to spread the Gospel. This effort was more than exporting Billy Graham, it involved a great variety of groups and served multiple ends. Did they have a clear grasp of religion in Europe or were they a bit naïve? What was the result? Despite the fact that these missionaries did not reconvert Europe, their campaigns had significant consequences for themselves, and for Europeans.
Hans Krabbendam is assistant director of the Roosevelt Study Center and the author of Freedom on the Horizon: Dutch Immigrants to America, 1840-1920 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009) He was a Fulbright Junior Scholar in 1991, a Salzburg Seminar Fellow in 2001, and a Honorary research Fellow at Hope College in 2009. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Leiden in 1995.
The lecture will be followed by a reception, sponsored by the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE). The Archives will also have an exhibit accompanying the lecture. This exhibit will include photos, posters, documents, films and other materials from the Archives holdings on American missions and evangelism in Europe in second half of the 20th century.
Click here for information on past BGC Archival Lectures.