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57
An American
Life
David Edwin (Bloomington: ISBN 0-253-15844-3
Harrell, Jr.,
Oral Roberts:
Indiana
University Press, 1985).
622
pp., $24.95,
Reviewed
by Joel A. Carpenter*
“Oral
Roberts,”
claims historian
religion.
Harrell’s
almost,
David Edwin
Harrell,
“has been one of the most influential
religious
leaders in the world in the twentieth
century.” (p. vii) Although
Roberts’
ministry
is the most visible
symbol
of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements since World War
II,
it has not received careful attention from those who study
American
splendid biography makes
up for this inexcusable failure. In five hundred pages
of text and over a hundred
pages
of notes, it examines the dramatic career of a man driven
by
the belief that God had called
him,
a
poor Pentecostal
preacher’s son,
to bring
healing
and wholeness to all of mankind.
ministry
understanding
1945.
may
be well-known in
,
The
storey
of Oral Roberts’
Pentecostal
circles,
but even “insiders” will
gain
a
great
deal of
from this book. Few have
studied,
for
example,
the “middle
years”
of the Pentecostal
movement, say from 1920
to
But these are the formative
years
of the Roberts clan in southeastern
Oklahoma,
and the author sketches a
lovingly detailed
background
of the
land,
its
people,
and the Pentecostal Holiness subculture which thrived there. One is reminded here of Robert Caro’s masterful account of Lyndon Johnson’s
upbringing ambitions, good”
evangelist takes
,
Texas “hill
‘
.
preachers
perpetuate
new
prosperity, subculture,
costals,
middle-class
movement
among
country” heritage.
Harrell shows that the
desperate poverty
and the boundless
aspirations
of Roberts’ hard-scrabble Pentecostal
are the sources of his volcanic
energy, high-rise
and
dogged
insistence that God wants
“something
to
happen
to each of His
people.
The
story
of Roberts’
emergence
as a
nationally
famous
is breath-taking in itself, but under Harrell’s
guidance
it
on broader dimensions and
implications.
Oral Roberts was the leader of a new,
post-World
War II
generation
of Pentecostal
and
laymen
who
yearned
for
greater things
than to
the sectarian fiefdoms their elders had built. Experiencing
broader contacts outside of their
and a desire to “be
somebody,”
led
by Roberts,
accommodated their
religious
values,
and
sparked
a
Pentecostalizing,
the older
denominations, including
the Roman Catholic Church. Harrell shows how
Roberts,
and user of this talented Pentecostals,
and ambitious
built an immense
personal empire
these
younger
Pente-
views to
charismatic
as a great
inspirer new cohort of
“open”
of
ministries,
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58
including far-flung radio,
television and
publishing ventures;
Oral Roberts
University,
which now enrolls
nearly
five thousand students in its
undergraduate, graduate,
and
professional schools; and most
recently,
the controversial
“City
of Faith”
hospital
and research
complex,
built at a cost of $250,000,000.
What sort of person was
capable
of achieving this? One does not envy
Harrell’s task of
providing
a “detached assessment” of Oral Roberts. This
passionate,
restless man has elicited intense emotions from those who cross his
path,
from
unquestioning devotion to consummate
disgust.
But thanks to liberal access to Roberts,
his
many present
and former
associates,
and the mountain of
verbiage that
the Roberts
ministry
has
generated, Harrell has constructed an
entirely
believable and
compelling portrait.
Oral
Roberts,
much like
Lyndon Johnson,
has been consumed
by
a drive to reach the
top,
to
reshape
the world. For Johnson,
it seemed
purely
a matter of
personal
ambition. But Roberts’
calls,
he
believes,
have come from
God,
and each one includes a grander elaboration of the
first,
when Oral heard a voice saying, “you
are
going
to take
My healing power
to
your generation.” (p. 5)
Roberts’ life has been
propelled, then, by
what Harrell
says
are “two
primal
drives-a relentless restlessness and a sense of divine calling.” (p. 472)
After each
major stage
of
accomplishment-or tragedy-in
his
life,
Roberts would brood until a new vision arrived;
and then
nothing
would
stop
his
pursuit
of it. He would mercilessly
drive and domineer all near him in order to
accomplish what Oral said “God told me” to do. Some cracked under the strain-including
members of his own
family.
And others eventually
decided that “God’s word” to Oral didn’t match His promptings
in their lives. But most have come
away affirming Roberts’
sincerity,
author Harrell included. And thanks to Roberts’volubility (unlike
most
preachers,
his
public expressions concerning
his
personal life, thoughts,
and
emotions,
have been remarkably unguarded),
Harrell is able to produce a richly detailed and nuanced
profile.
Some readers will not be satisfied with this
portrayal, feeling
that the
garishness, pragmatic manipulation,
and
spiritual presumption of this
important
corner of American
religion
need harsher treatment. Yet Harrell seems to have decided to subsume
many
of his evaluations into the actual structure of the
story, skillfully teasing
out the character of Roberts and his
family, friends, ministry associates,
and “faith
partners” through
their own
words; and
through
the observations of their critics. The reader can then make her own
judgments.
This
may
be a
prudent strategy
for a
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59
biographer
who wishes to contend
honestly
and
charitably
with a living person. Perhaps
Harrell’s restraint will persuade many, who are otherwise
inclined,
to take Roberts
seriously
and
give
him credit for his
positive
contributions. At
any rate, exposes
of Oral Roberts are
plentiful;
but
thoughtful
and balanced assessments of his
life, ministry,
and times? We now have one.
*Administrator, Institute for the Study Evangelicalism, Billy
Graham
Center, Wheaton,
of American Illinois.
3
