‘Strangely Un-warmed’: The absence of emotion in the experience of conversion during the All Scotland Crusade of 1955

Abstract

Billy Graham was one of the world’s most famous Christian evangelists in the twentieth century. He visited Scotland in 1955 and led a six-week Crusade at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Hundreds of thousands of people attended these rallies, listened to Graham preach and many were converted. Revivalist conversions are important moments in people’s lives that have often provoked powerful emotional responses and found an expression in bodily manifestations. The anguish and subsequent relief, created by revival sermons have frequently induced children, young people, men and women to demonstrate their new birth with physical expressions. This paper will discuss the manner in which Billy Graham discouraged displays of emotion during the All Scotland Crusade. It will examine his book Peace with God and the sermons he preached at the Kelvin Hall in order to determine how he presented conversion as an experience devoid of strong affections. It will further explore why he actively dissuaded people, who attended his Glasgow campaign in 1955, from demonstrative behaviour when they responded to his altar calls.