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Marching to Glory: The History of the Salvation Army in the United States, 1880-1992.
By EDwARD H. McKINLEY. Second edition. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995. xix + 451 pp. $25.00.
This labor of love and scholarship minimally revises and thoroughly updates the author's 1980 centennial history. Edward McKinley was nurtured and serves as an officer in the movement he chronicles, and he writes with an insider's rich and empathetic understanding. He is also a careful, critical historian who avoids special pleading and deals candidly with delicate issues. Thoroughly documented and brightly written, full of human interest and divine inspiration, this is superb denominational history.
The Salvation Army is a denomination with distinctives, particularly in its unique mission blending fervent evangelism with varied social ministries, and in its dramatic flair, matched by no other Protestant group. Eye-catching uniforms and marching bands, high-volume and high-quality streetcorner concerts, vivid preaching that carries impact in every resonant sentence-it all amounts to Christendom's most successful invasion...