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The life of a nation is told by the lives of its people
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What's new: November 2020
This update features four new biographies of American religious figures. It includes Catholic theologian and public intellectual Michael Novak; Howard Hunter, a president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Stanislaus Petit Lalumiere, a Jesuit priest and cofounder of Marquette College; and Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known as Reverend Ike, an African American evangelist and popular preacher.
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Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II
Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II (1939–2005) evangelist and popular television preacher more commonly known as Reverend Ike, was the first African American televangelist to transcend the racial boundaries of African American Protestantism and cross over into the ranks of leading American evangelical revivalists like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Kathryn Kuhlman. Though often mocked and spurned by traditional religious leaders, he combined Afro-Pentecostalism with the positive psychology of New Thought metaphysics to provide an upbeat message of spiritual transformation that resonated with a cross-section of American society. Rev. Ike preached a message that acknowledged black aspiration and sanctioned economic uplift and accumulation.
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