Abstract
One Sunday Evening in 1896, the Reverend Charles M. Sheldon stood in front of his congregation at the Central Congregational Church of Topeka, Kansas, and read them part of a story he had recently written entitled “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?” Every fall since 1891, his second year at the Central Church, Sheldon had read his serialized stories to the congregation on Sunday nights to improve lagging attendance. Although his five previous stories were quite successful (their eventual publication working toward better church attendance), no one at the Central Church service that night could have known that they were witnessing the birth of one of the best-selling novels in American history. Within one year 16 different publishers would pirate the book,1 selling over two million copies.2 In a matter of years, In His Steps “saturated the reading public of the English-speaking world” 3; it would eventually be translated into at least 25 languages4 and is still purchased in the thousands annually in multiple editions. Often condensing the title to “WWJD,” people across America wear it on such items as bracelets, t-shirts, license plates, and hats to advertise their evangelical Christian identity. From its birth in Topeka, Kansas, in 1896, “WWJD” has developed into the most prominent slogan for evangelical Christians in America today.
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Notes
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Charles Sheldon, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? ( 1896; Uhrichville, OH: Barbour, 2000 ), p. 39.
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Barbara Leslie Epstein, The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth Century America ( Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1981 ), p. 4.
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© 2006 Dana Heller
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Motley, C. (2006). Making over Body and Soul: In His Steps and the Roots of Evangelical Popular Culture. In: Heller, D. (eds) The Great American Makeover. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312376178_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312376178_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-7484-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-312-37617-8
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