An Expression of Gratitude and Hearty Congratulations

Thanks to Jon for the congratulations on the successful completion of my viva!  It was a long time coming, especially after having not touched the thesis for nearly a year.  It feels good to be done and now able to concentrate on teaching and doing research on a few projects that have been on the backburner for some time. 

I also wanted to congratulate Larry Eskridge on receiving CT’s book of the year award.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading drafts of Larry's chapters over the years.  A great writer and storyteller.  We want to know when the book tour begins, Larry!  

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, an interview with Larry is forthcoming in the New Year.  Stay tuned!

God's Forever Family: Book of the Year

David Bebbington's star pupil, Tim Larsen, emailed me recently with the news that God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America by Larry Eskridge (another former Bebbington student) has been named Christianity Today's "Book of the Year." Congratulations Larry!

For a list of the publications by Bebbington students, see my earlier post.

Larry Eskridge Interviewed at Religion in American History

Over at the Religion in American History blog, Randall Stephens interviews Larry Eskridge on his new book, God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America.

Larry explains his personal interest in the Jesus People, evangelicalism's interaction with popular culture, and the importance of his study. Eskridge comments, "I think it’s fair to say that if the Jesus People hadn’t come along when they did the evangelical church would have been nowhere near as formidable a force throughout American culture come the 1980s and beyond."

While reading the book, I found the connection of the Jesus People with Calvary Chapel and Vineyard churches fascinating. In one of my past courses at UTC, I showed a documentary on Lonnie Frisbee, who was instrumental in the Jesus Movement and the success of Calvary Chapel and Vineyard churches, but whose connection was suppressed later because of his sexuality and death from AIDS in 1993.

For anyone interested in religion and 1960s and 1970s hippie culture, I highly recommend Eskridge's book and the documentary, Frisbee.

Larry Eskridge's Account of the Jesus People

As part of my summer reading, I am making my way through Larry Eskridge's God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America.

Eskridge, a staff member at Wheaton College's Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, was a PhD student under David Bebbington at the University of Stirling. Eskridge's book is a revised version of his dissertation, which took approximately a decade to complete.

I see that there is a review of Eskridge's book in Christianity Today by John Turner, who calls the book, "a rich, tender history of one of the more surprising developments of the late 1960s." Take a look at the rest of the review here.

Frisbee

Today was the first day of the fall semester at UTC. For my course on "Contemporary Religious Issues," I told the class about some of the movies that I am planning on showing, one of which is the Emmy-nominated documentary, Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher. I learned about Frisbee in a course on Fundamentalism taught by George Marsden and Bill Svelmoe at a summer school session at Regent College.

Lonnie Frisbee was an incredibly interesting person. He experienced spiritual visions while tripping on acid outside of Palm Springs. Around the time that he became interested in Christianity, he met Chuck Smith and became a lightning rod for Smith's Calvary Chapel congregation at Costa Mesa, CA. Serving on the church's staff, Frisbee drew a multitude of California's hippie youth to Calvary Chapel. Later parting with Smith over theological differences, Frisbee joined forces with John Wimber to help found the Vineyard Movement. Frisbee's ministry was called into question, however, when he admitted to being a homosexual. Frisbee felt obliged to leave the Vineyard Movement and he eventually died of AIDS. This is a story not often told by the founders of Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard Movement.

The video chronicles Frisbee's life, charismatic preaching style, and contribution to the Jesus Movement. I have no doubt that the video will spark some interesting class discussions.