Claire Hoffman - "Sister, Sinner" - William Schultz

Claire Hoffman will discuss "Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson." She will be joined in conversation by William Schultz. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

At the Co-op.

About the book: On a spring day in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensued. Who was this woman?

America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology—including her own radio station—to bring God’s message to the masses. Her innovations brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream, paved the way for televangelists, and shaped the future of American Christianity. Her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles, can be called the first megachurch. Her Foursquare Church continues, with more than eight million faithful around the world.

But after her disappearance, as crowds gathered at the water’s edge, people asked: Was McPherson everybody’s saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner? The story of what happened next—sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the seemingly unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race to cover it all—runs through the center of Claire Hoffman’s thrilling "Sister, Sinner."

A riveting journey into the rise of popular religion in America and life in early Hollywood, and told with the flavor of the period's noir mysteries, this is an unforgettable story of an iconic woman, largely overlooked, who changed the world.

About the author: Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and more. She was formerly a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, and has an MA in religion from the University of Chicago and an MA in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the boards of the Columbia School of Journalism, ProPublica, and the Brooklyn Public Library. Her new book is "Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson."

About the interlocutor: William Schultz is a historian of American religion with an interest in the intersection of religion, politics, and capitalism. Schultz is currently finishing his first book, "Evangelical Capital: The Spiritual Economy of Colorado Springs." His next project, "The Wages of Sin: Faith, Fraud, and Religious Freedom in Modern America," uses cases of financial fraud between the 1920s and 1990s to explore how Americans have struggled with questions of religious authority and authenticity. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Schultz was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty fellow at Harvard University.

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