Billy Graham Center

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Archives

2012 Billy Graham Center Archival Research Lecture
Thursday, September 27, 7pm

The Lost Continent?
The Discovery of Europe by American Evangelicals,1940-1980

Dr. Hans Krabbendam

“Youth for Christ Jeugd-Rally.” 1947. English version of the Dutch text: Youth for Christ Youth-Rally / America brings Invasion 1947 / Wednesday 21 May / Thursday 22 May / Friday 23 May / The Zoo - the Hague / Starts at the 8 o’clock / Admission free! This poster, aimed at a Dutch audience, advertised one of many YFC meetings for teenagers and young adults, led by young American evangelists and held throughout northern and western Europe in the years after World War II. Click on poster for more information. From the BGC Museum: Accession 85.357.	Dr. Hans Krabbendam	Another YFC poster, probably dating to late summer 1946, for an American audience. Its purpose was to raise support for Billy Graham's second evangelistic tour in western Europe. J. Stratton Shufelt was supposed to be his song leader but could not go. Cliff Barrows filled it, beginning an association that has lasted, as of 2012, 66 years. George Wilson served as business manager for the tour, a position he later held in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for several decades. On this trip Graham helped to organize the British YFC organization, as well as speaking in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and France. Click on poster for more information. From BGC Archives Collection 285, Photo Album V

The Lost Continent? The Discovery of Europe as a Mission Field by American Evangelicals, 1940-1980 This will be the theme of the 2012 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.