Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business, and the Making Ofmodern Evangelicalism

by Timothy Gloege, Jim Manchester (Reading)

[Read by Jim Manchester]

In the history of the Moody Bible Institute, founded in 1886 by shoe salesman turned revivalist Dwight Lyman Moody, Timothy Gloege finds an answer to why Christian ethics seem to go hand in hand with free-market capitalism. Taking the story back to the origins of modern fundamentalism as it arose within the social and cultural context of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, Gloege reveals longstanding connections between Chicago evangelicals and business and shows that the marriage between modern business and the so-called ''old-time religion'' developed symbiotically, forever altering the American religious landscape.

Genres: History, Church History, Politics, Religion, Audiobook, Christian, Nonfiction

1 pages, MP3 CD

First published April 10, 2015

About the author

Timothy Gloege is an independent scholar living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in conservative fundamentalism. I graduated from Moody Bible Institute. And I have generally tried to stay informed about my place in the world. That said, I was surprised at how much I learned from this book.

- While I knew MBI was well-regarded among evangelicals, I had no idea the extent to which MBI helped create both the fundamentalist movement, as well as the more mainstream forms of conservative evangelical Christianity that are still common today.

- While I knew the concept of "old-time religion" was a disingenuous appeal to sentimentality and to a time that never actually existed, I never realized it was sold straight out of the box as an "old-fashioned" product - by the Quaker Oats guy, no less (Honestly, I didn't know the Quaker Oats guy was a Moody person at all).

- I never knew that two of D.L. Moody's children disowned MBI and even attempted to get the school to stop using his name because they felt the school had become too divisive.

There are lots of other insightful nuggets here for those interested in the history of American fundamentalist Christianity and how those early fundamentalists used modern marketing to expand their reach.

Be warned: this is not a polemic. Gloege writes in an objective, academic style. Also, the first section deals primarily with D.L. Moody, who, and let's be honest here, appears by all accounts to have been a thoroughly uninteresting person. Most of the meat comes later, when you meet MBI's subsequent leaders. But it's well worth your time, if you stick with it.

[Jackson Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you, like me, are an MBI alumni, this book is a must read. This is a critical history of life the development and impact of MBI’s business centered theoretical model for ministry as created and by Henry C. Crowell. This helps make a lot of sense out of my time in evangelicalism and at the school!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a complete surprise to me – I found it by chance at my library and borrowed because I didn't feel like continuing with the current audiobook(s) I had started. And I'm really glad I did.

Guaranteed Pure tells two interconnected stories: first, the story of D.L. Moody and the founding of the Moody Bible Insititute, and second, the story of The Fundamentals, the 90-essay series widely considered to be the foundation of modern Christian fundamentalism, which the Moody Bible Institute played a role in publishing. Throughout both stories, Timothy Gloege traces the influence of business techniques on ministry and theology – an approach I found revelatory.

Gloege describes Moody as deeply informed by the pragmatism of business practices, which led to a twisty theological journey so convoluted I won't even attempt to summarize it here. (Some highlights include a long controversy over faith-healings, the rise of pentecostalism, and the theological innovations of a realist reading of scripture and dispensationalism.)

One particular detail of the story I found astonishing: the Chicago Evangelization Society (renamed to the Moody Bible Institute after D.L. Moody's death) was founded in the context of the labor strikes and riots in the 1880's and that it was funded by wealthy Chicagoans in the hopes that Moody would be able to train evangelists who would reach the urban masses, who, once converted, would cease agitating for more equitable treatment, including the 8-hour workday.

Though Gloege's depiction of Moody is hardly heroic, it's also no hatchet job. Moody comes across as a complex figure navigating, and in turn shaping, a particularly conflicted phase in American religious history.

It's only after Moody's death, though, and the arrival of Henry Parsons Crowell on the scene that the story really kicks into high gear. Crowell was the founder of the Quaker Oats Company, an extraordinarily successful businessman, and one of the originators of modern corporate branding. He was invited by then-President James M. Gray to financial restructure the Moody Bible Institute, and from his position as Chairman of the Board, Crowell had an enormous impact on the future of evangelicalism.

Though Crowell's insight into branding and focus on productivity/performance was widely influential, the most remarkable and historically important was in the publishing of the The Fundamentals. Quoting from Jonathan Baer's review of Guaranteed Pure at 9Marks:

Crowell built his company by reshaping the oats market from an undifferentiated commodity business to a branded, packaged, and advertised product market. Instead of scooping oats from unmarked bins in general stores filled by wholesalers, consumers reached for the discretely packaged and aggressively promoted brand whose smiling Quaker guaranteed purity. Crowell effectively cut out the wholesaler and diminished the quality oversight role of the retailer, while using modern methods of advertising to enhance consumer demand and build bonds of trust.

Gloege writes that Crowell applied that same branding approach to the publishing of The Fundamentals, consciously (!) working to subvert denominational authority. Quoting Baer again: "[i]f retailers were ministers and other religious workers, if wholesalers were denominations, and if the laity were consumers, then the nondenominational MBI sought to bypass denominations by going straight to ministers and especially laity with their religious product, trademarked by the Moody name and promoted as the safe and sound faith once delivered to the saints."

In other words, Crowell sought to create a new nondenominational form of Christianity, branded as "ol' time religion" but fundamentally shaped by consumer capitalism, as a response against theological modernism (and pentecostalism, and some radical conservatives) that conveniently left the Moody Bible Institute perceived as a purveyor of "pure and undefiled religion."

After that staggering charge, Gloege continues to follow the Moody Bible Institute through the present day (and with it, a history of fundamentalism more broadly, including the founding of Biola University), all while Moody slowly loses relevance in the market-driven evangelicalism it inaugurated. As University of Dayton Professor of History William Vance Trollinger, Jr. neatly summarizes in his review, "Gloege notes, 'having pioneered the idea that religion was something to be consumed rather than practiced, MBI became lost in the shuffle of competing brands,' which now include (to mention a few examples) the '"praise-and-worship"' industrial complex,' the 'evangelical hipsters in the emergent church movement,' and – in a wonderfully apt description – 'the mash-up of Jonathan Edwards and Ayn Rand in Minneapolis Baptist minister John Piper’s neo-Puritanism'."

In conclusion – Gloege has written a highly readable, well-researched, incisive history of a complex and important chapter in American religious history, and his exploration of the impact of business thinking on D.L. Moody, the Moody Bible Institute, and evangelicalism offers a valuable new perspective for understanding their influence. Trollinger credits Gloege with explaining The Fundamentals better than anyone else he's read, which I would certainly agree with, and Gloege is so clear a writer I almost feel like I understand dispensationalism, no small feat.

Jim Manchester did an excellent job as reader.

Would highly recommend.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed history of Moody Bible Institute and the key figures in its development. Uses the development of the institute as a focal point for telling a story about the rise of American Fundamentalism and also the relationship between business and evangelicalism in this period. Especially illuminating on the influential figure of RA Torrey. All well researched and told compellingly.

The downside is that the author struggles to veil his contempt for the movement he is chronicling and this comes through quite explicitly at times. Cutting lines like his description of evangelistic preaching as "cajoling sinners to choose salvation" are accompanied by a more subtle undercurrent of incredulity, and the author seems almost to be spitting out his words in the last page or so of the book.

Neither does the author seem very willing to ascribe religious motivations to his subjects. Economic and social concerns are usually emphasised. I'm neither American nor fundamentalist, but a bit of empathy for your subjects goes a long way, and the book could have been improved by a better understanding that thoughtful religious convictions (mistaken or not) were driving much of the action.

Finally, Gloege often describes aspects of nineteenth-century American fundamentalism as novel when they are nothing of the sort. One such example is that he suggests a focus on direct personal experience of the Holy Spirit is a nineteenth-century innovation, when (to cite just two examples) it was pretty key to the thought and practice of eighteenth-century Methodists and seventeenth-century Quakers.

All in all, essential reading if you're interested in American church history or nineteenth-century America, but could have been improved with a broader sense of theological/church history and a more sympathetic attitude to its subjects.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried really hard to finish this book, but couldn't do it, for several reasons.

One, Gloege is an uninteresting and confusing writer. Especially in the first third of the book, his description of labor disputes in Chicago in the late 1800s really bogged me down.

Two, the book has far more to do with Moody than it does with the Quaker Oats guy's influence on Moody Bible Institute, which is what I was really interested in; it's implied that Gloege's book traces the influence of oat-selling on Bible education, but the book really doesn't do that.

Three, and most importantly, the book reads religious leaders as essentially driven by secular motivations: prominence, financial gain, power. Religious leaders are, of course, driven by these things all the time, but they are occasionally actually driven by religion, whether good or bad (see Graeme Wood's excellent essay on ISIS over at "The Atlantic"); Gloege, by assuming that orthodoxy is largely of political or personal manufacture and that politics, under the guise of faith, is what really grips these religious leaders, lost my credibility. I am a woman of faith myself, and while I am not naive enough to believe that anyone of faith is pure-hearted and trustworthy (certainly not!), I get what it means to be motivated, for good or ill, by faith. I'm not sure Gloege does.

[Phillip Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an eye opening treatment about the history surrounding DL Moody and the institute he started. Living in the Chicago area and being connected with some Moody ministries though the years made this all the more interesting. I have heard bits and pieces about Moody here and there, but I have certainly never heard or read a perspective like this one. I have told a few people that this book gave me the impressing that Moody was kind of like a sleazy business man for Jesus. Maybe a weakness of the book is that there are not to enough commendable moments or evidences of grace observed.

However, my biggest takeaway was the way this book helped me better understand some of the movements that have lead Protestant American Christianity to where we are today. I think most of these trends that are discussed in here are not the most endearing qualities of the church today.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely generative read for my research re: Willow Creek and it’s Global Leadership Summit. Gloege’s work features the lives and work of Dwight L. Moody and his immediate successors (folks including RA Torrey, James M. Gray, and Henry P. Crowell—the dude who founded Quaker Oats and who had an outsized influence on the development of corporate branding for consumer goods). His argument is roughly that this concentrated group of evangelical administrators, educators, revivalists, and businessmen created a new kind of evangelicalism that still sits at the head of the table in the movement today. That sort of American Christianity Gloege terms “corporate evangelicalism.”

Essentially, what Gloege argues (well) is that in the Gilded Age and immediately after, these folks forged an evangelicalism heavily influenced by the structures, practices, organizational patterns, promotional methods, and linguistic timber of the corporate business world. They created a harmony between evangelical “old time religion” and increasingly mature practices of corporate business management. Gloege argues these points effectively in Moody’s relatively cosmopolitan pursuit of “Christian work” amidst the crises of the urban landscape in the 1870s-1890s. He and his partners—who were often business magnates, e.g., Cyrus McCormick—carved out a “respectable” path for American evangelicals against the alternatives of staid, denominationally based and often theologically narrow traditionalism and the extremes of more radical evangelicalism. Theirs was an evangelicalism safe for Gilded Age middle class engagement. I’d note that Gloege isn’t out to get Moody; he acknowledges Moody’s ingenuity, relative open-mindedness, and genuine desire to reach the struggling lower classes in Gilded Age Chicago (and elsewhere on his revival tours).

Gloege is able to make similar arguments about the creation and early development of Moody Bible Institute (MBI) after Moody’s death in 1899. This part of the narrative largely focuses on RA Torrey’s increasingly idiosyncratic theology, radical in its experimentation with Baptism in the Holy Spirit and even faith healing. Post-Moody the human, MBI took on an increasingly premillennial dispensationalist worldview, though it still made a concerted effort not to encroach on denominational or seminary-based authority. Still, the mechanical precision of premillennialism (see CI Scofield and his famous study bible published in 1909) is one clear reflection of the language and thinking of business, forming and pervading evangelical theology. Torrey and others often used the metaphors of business efficiency in their theology.

The third section concerns the manner in which the famous Fundamentals publications (~1910-1915) were shaped by business thinking, business funding, and a desire to forge a respectable evangelicalism. Here Biola and Union Oil tycoon Lyman Stewart (Rockefeller’s west coast rival) feature heavily.

The last major chunk of the book concerns the production of evangelical education and spirituality as a consumer good, which was largely accomplished by Henry P. Crowell, the oatmeal baron. Crowell created a lasting brand at Moody Bible through its curricula, its publications, and its affiliations. Gloege is able to fairly effectively argue that Crowell & co. created this brand with the same logic through which Crowell forged the Quaker brand, and Gloege ends the book by suggesting this consumeristic shift has had lasting and fragmenting effects on American evangelicalism. That point requires another book.

Overall a fantastic foundation for examining the connections between big business and evangelicalism, a connection strongly formulated at Moody and alive and well in the mega church scene.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deals with conservative Protestants in the late 19th and early 20th century, focusing particularly on the evangelists D.L. Moody and R.A. Torrey and the businessmen and patrons Henry Crowell and Lyman Stewart. These figures sought to propagate the Gospel and they did so through founding, administering or funding two key institutions, the Moody Bible Institute and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Stewart would provide the financial resources to widely circulate the famous "Fundamentals" in an effort to counter theological modernism. One of the recurring themes is the desire of these figures to inculcate a sense of middle-class respectability for conservative Protestants and how evangelism began to take on elements of a "contract." Timothy Gloege pays careful attention to how Crowell, the founder of Quaker Oats, used his savvy business acumen to expand the scope and influence of MBI. There were times when it seemed as if some of the narrative Gloege was examining was disconnected, but this is an important book that helps readers understand how the alliance between business and conservative Protestantism.

[Joy Matteson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly eye opening book that deserves a wide readership, but probably won't get one, considering its academic content. Frankly, it answers many questions about why so many religious politicians speak of the Bible the way they do--frankly, according to scholar Gloege, it was the way those at the Moody Bible Institute used it over a hundred years ago, combining capitalism and the Bible to profit practically on this earth and in the next. Through painstaking research, Gloege revealed it went beyond just D.L. Moody's brash Bible shoe selling salesmanship, but even Crowell's branding of Quaker Oats and its connection to the Protestant work ethic set the stage for a new form of American evangelicalism: one that God blesses with wealth, commerce, and prestige.

It is my sincere wish for my fellow former Moody students to read this book, but more importantly, for its current professors. We must wrestle with our past if we are to take the call to serve the Kingdom without the trappings of consumerism and popular Protestant/Calvinist American pragmaticism.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this read, among many other things it gave me a grip on understanding how dispensationalism became so dominant in North America. I found it also interesting how the doctrine and experience of the Holy Spirit took such a shift. Great history, well worth the read.

[Jon Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author has a serious axe to grind with Moody et al. There’s some interesting material, but overall, not well written (not a page turner), repetitive, and many assertions without primary sources to back them up.

[F.E. Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the modern age, with the use of phone apps, web pages, and social media, when folks are either pleased or displeased with a product or service, they can go and leave a review of said service on a multitude of platforms.
But what if the product or service was religion, or what if it was a religious movement that was ignited long before you were born, and yet, you were caught up in its power? What if this product even had the power to influence Presidents and Presidential Administrations and affect not only domestic policy (Project 2025) but also foreign policy even now?
Timothy Gloge paints a portrait of early 20th-century Evangelicalism and the branding of certain themes you may be familiar with.
From another reviewer, "...Following notions invented between 1880-1920: "Personal relationship with God", "The Rapture", dispensationalism, and the generic "Fundamentals" of modern evangelicalism
"The Old Time Religion" we were sold as kids is not old at all. It was new. Brand new in the historical context of Christianity itself.
D.L. Moody (the founder of The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which was built to union bust and divert men's attention away from social justice issues of the day) and Henry Parsons Crowell (the name behind the "pure" branding of Quaker Oats Brand of Oatmeal) came together in an almost perfect storm of circumstances to create a "pure" brand of Christianity that was, in fact, sold to American consumers.
From the text itself, "....(Moody Bible Institute) was founded in the context of the labor strikes and riots in the 1880's and that it was funded by wealthy Chicagoans in the hopes that Moody would be able to train evangelists who would reach the urban masses, who, once converted, would cease agitating for more equitable treatment, including the 8-hour workday."
and of Parson's who would influence the 1919 Niagara Falls Convention, which was famous for the publication of the Fundamentals of the Faith.
"Crowell built his company by reshaping the oats market from an undifferentiated commodity business to a branded, packaged, and advertised product market. Instead of scooping oats from unmarked bins in general stores filled by wholesalers, consumers reached for the discreetly packaged and aggressively promoted brand whose smiling Quaker guaranteed purity. Crowell effectively cut out the wholesaler and diminished the quality oversight role of the retailer, while using modern methods of advertising to enhance consumer demand and build bonds of trust.
Gloege writes that Crowell applied that same branding approach to the publishing of The Fundamentals, consciously (!) working to subvert denominational authority. Quoting Baer again: "[i]f retailers were ministers and other religious workers, if wholesalers were denominations, and if the laity were consumers, then the nondenominational MBI sought to bypass denominations by going straight to ministers and especially laity with their religious product, trademarked by the Moody name and promoted as the safe and sound faith once delivered to the saints."
From a recipient of Evangelical Fundamentalism, my Yelp review would read thusly, "This product is garbage. Do Not Buy Into It."

[Derek Kreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book fills in some gaps for me. There is so much about my group (Evangelicals) which make sense now. This book pairs very well with "One Nation Under God" and "The Evangelicals." That will give you a good, deep look at Evangelicalism in different eras. "The Immoral Majority" provides a good look at a more modern era of Evangelical developments, and that one is by an Evangelical himself. "The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb" is also a good, more modern pairing.

For a more existential look, Kierkegaard's "Attack on Christendom" will help you see that Evangelicalism struggles with the exact same problems that state churches and institutionalized churches (i.e. the Catholic Church) have struggled with, and which Protestants often criticize. It's amazing to read Kierkegaard who is writing about the state church and thinking, "that's us...yep, that's us too..." Finally, pairing this with

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating history that really filled in some gaps for me in the sociological history of my own religious and educational heritage.

Tidbits I found fascinating: (1) Reuben Torrey lost his faith as a student at YDS before coming back to Christianity in a fundamentalist cast. (2) D.L. Moody wasn't enough of a theologian to be strongly committed to premillennial dispensationalism. His early educational programs were far more ecumenical in their doctrinal identity than the legacy of the institute that now bears his name. Within the first generation after his death, his sons were waging battle in the pages of the Christian Century with representatives of the Bible Institute over the proper interpretation of Moody's theological legacy.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways this is two books. It offers a good history of MBI much of which was new and interesting to me. But it also argues a thesis about Moody and MBI. Most of modern American Christianity has been influenced to some degree or another by "prosperity" theology. Thankfully only a tiny minority has bought "hook, line and sinker" into a total, heretical gospel of prosperity. But nevertheless most Americans confuse godliness to some degree with material success. And Gloege shows how this influenced Moody and MBI.

(Note: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book. 3 = Very good; 4 = Outstanding {only about 5% of the books I read merit this}; 5 = All time favorites {one of these may come along every 400-500 books})

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful and unique look at the influence of Dwight L. Moody and the Moody Bible Institute on the rise of Evangelicalism. I learned quite a bit about R. A. Torrey that I had not known before and gained some perspective on the relation of business and some of the development of Evangelicalism. I think I'm becoming more convinced that a consumer culture type of definition probably best fits a popular definition of Evangelicalism, even while still urging a theological definition that would be quite a bit narrower.

[Churchbob · Rating 5 out of 5]

guaranteed Pure weaves a series of complicated characters with clear, but varying motives and personalities into a unique story outlining the history of not only the Moody empire, but also of the birth of fundamentalism and the Americanization of evangelicalism, laying the groundwork for our modern far right Christian Nationalism.

This book is for anyone who wants to understand how uniquely American values shaped Evangelicalism and how two men's lives intertwined with the ideas of burgeoning marketplace ideology to shape the Christian Church into something neither would now recognize.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sobering, sobering read. It is possible the author didn't intend that, but, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, this is one of the most important books I've read in years. I'd like to nominate it as the first part of a trilogy, the second is "American Apocalypse: The making of modern Evangelicalism" by Matt Sutton, the third is "One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America" by Kevin Kruse.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good treatment of the transformation of Evangelicalism into a consumer entity from its roots in working class, holiness, and radical movements. Well-written and well-paced, it isn't a hit piece on any of the figures, but a careful study of the origins of Evangelicalism as we know it today. It helps to have some knowledge of the history going in.

[Nate Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Gloege does a fine job of tracing the precipitous rise of the Moody Bible Institute through a combination of hard preaching and soft advertising schemes to appeal, not only to people's hearts, but also to their sensibilities as consumers. Four stars for a great read with superb points about modern Christianity.

[David Pulliam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it’s because I am sleep deprived but I found it to be a bit simplistic - business men were involved in MBI so therefore it was formed using business principles. I appreciate the angle of thinking how broader political and social issues effect religious organizations, he does a good job of that. I also appreciated how he goes through the fundamentalist hermeneutic.

[Mills College Library]

230.07117 G5628 2015

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuanced and thoughtful in its analysis. Well worth reading.