‘Billy Graham’s Cold War Crusades’

This chapter explores the Billy Graham revival campaigns in Washington, London, New York, and Berlin in the 1950s as expressions of a transnational religious revival that took place simultaneously in the USA, Germany, and the UK. During this short-lived revival, discourses around Christianity, anti-Communism, democracy, and the Free World blended, produced new forms of civil religious identities, and seemed to briefly challenge secularization processes. The chapter explores the mindset of political and religious leaders who supported the Billy Graham Crusades as well as the staging of events as important performances in the transnational culture of the Cold War. It argues that despite obvious differences in the religious landscapes on both sides of the Atlantic regarding church attendance and the role of religion in political discourse, there still existed significant similarities. These can only be explained when taking transnational phenomena such as Cold War culture or secularization processes into consideration.