At this time of Billy Graham’s passing, American evangelical Christianity looks to be in steep decline, at least judging by numbers. The proportion of white Americans who identify as evangelical has fallen from 23 percent of the population in 2006 to 17 percent in 2016. Furthermore, a recent survey shows that evangelicalism is aging: Only 8 percent of whites ages 18 to 29, versus 26 percent over 65, identify as evangelicals.
Current trends, then, suggest that the evangelicalism of the future will be smaller, grayer, more closely identified with the Republican Party and more out of step with the views of younger Americans than it is at present. It might seem that Billy Graham is the last nonpartisan evangelical. But as one who teaches the history of evangelicalism, I can imagine different possibilities.
In 1935 the premier magazine of liberal Protestantism, the Christian Century, called the famous early 20th-century revivalist Billy Sunday “the last of his line.” But less than 20 years later, Billy Graham would lead evangelicalism to revival.
In a way, evangelicalism has been here before.
What facilitated Graham’s rise?