Tolle Lege!.

Through the lens of Moody and his bible institute the author describes the growth of the 'evangelical and the 'fundamental' movement from the post civil war period to about 1925. The Institute consciously used modern business practices in selling its products to individuals and the book will give an extensive metaphor on how Quaker Oats used the same methods in selling their product to its consumers. (The founder of Quaker Oats also happens to be one of the key players within the MBI).

It's clear from the book how modern evangelicalism does owe its foundations to Moody and his methods. The book will also talk about how the original evangelicals associated with Moody wanted to bring all individuals together as socially independent consumers of religion but under a general umbrella while using a 'personal relationship to god' and a 'plain reading of the bible' in order to form a non-sectarian set of beliefs. I have no idea what those terms mean but the practitioners seemed to have understood. From time to time, I hear politicians speak like that, but it just goes right past me. I don't know what it means to have a personal relationship with an imaginary friend and somebody if he does not talk back to you. The "plain reading of the bible" doesn't make sense to me either. I wish the author had explained what that meant. Also, the evangelical movement seemed to have morphed into something called dispensationalism. Apparently it means something about there are different biblical ages that must be considered before one can properly understand the plain reading of the bible. Also, the final morphing into fundamentalism involves a premillennialism belief of some kind, the imminent return of a King of some kind to rule over the earth.

Overall, the book is an interesting read and by looking through the narrow focus of one person and institution to explain a modern day phenomena for which I often have no understanding of whatsoever is an effective approach. I still don't understand republican political presidential candidates when they talk about their 'personal relationships' with some one named God (or Jesus) but that 'person' doesn't talk to them in any conventional sense whatsoever, but now I know that they talk like that because of the modern business methods which the Moody Institute employed over 100 years ago.