Laughter in the Amen Corner: The Life of Evangelist Sam Jones

In this first academic biography of alcoholic-turned-Methodist-evangelist Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906), Kathleen Minnix has transformed an earlier dissertation into a fine first book that is both readable and academically rigorous. Although many assume that the typical turn-of-the century evangelist must have spoken with a southern accent, Sam Jones (along with his unrelated younger contemporary Bob Jones) is one of only two southern evangelists who enjoyed a reputation outside the South between 1880 and 1940. After a first chapter devoted to the Nashville campaign of 1885 that "catapulted Jones to national prominence," Minnix spends two chapters dealing with Jones's youth and pre-evangelistic career before launching into a largely topical examination of Jones's witty (if sometimes crude and clownish) preaching style and his occasionally unorthodox Methodist theology. Later chapters treat his effusions on race, politics, and social change and note his influence in paving the way for national prohibition. Minnix understands the historical context in which Jones moved, and readers attuned to theological nuance will appreciate her discussion of contemporary Methodist conflicts over biblical criticism, the holiness movement, and the "star system" of evangelism. Minnix's final chapter discusses the reasons for Jones's popular decline and treats the lives of his spectacularly wayward children. On occasion Minnix reaches for conclusions beyond evidence, but on the whole, this a fine biography of an important and now largely forgotten American religious figure.

The story of a unique genius who learned to preach by reading Spurgeon, but whose style and content were light-years removed from the Brit. It could be said that Jones invented Will Rogers and Bob Jones University; Rogers perpetuated his wit and Bob Jones, Sr. consciously emulated his philosophy of religion and life. This is a full and intriging biography, very important to anyone wishing to grasp backgrounds and currents in modern American religion.