Working Miracles: The Drama and Passion of Aimee Semple McPherson

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review, an instructor of
Liturgy in the Anglican Studies Program at Regent College, Vancouver,
and pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Hope, B.C.

Aimee Semple McPherson was a celebrity Pentecostal preacher in North
America during the 1920s and 1930s. Born and raised in Ontario, as a
young bride she went with her first husband, Robert Semple, as a
missionary to Hong Kong, where he soon died. Returning to Canada, Aimee
discovered that she had a spiritual gift of healing and decided to use
it, setting out on a career as a travelling evangelist that took her
from New England to Florida. She ended up in Los Angeles, where she
founded Angelus Temple and the Commissary, a Salvation Army–style
social agency that carried an immense load of people through the
Depression. Along the way she had two more marriages, both disastrous,
and unstable relationships with her two children and her mother, Minnie,
who for much of Aimee’s career was also her business manager.

Robinson races through Aimee’s life, and much of what she chooses to
write about is from its most sensational parts. The material is
presented in episodic form that, at times, confuses the chronology of
events in the reader’s mind. Yet the author accomplishes what she aims
to do: introduce readers to a fascinating Canadian religious leader of a
different era. And for readers whose interest is piqued, Robinson ends
by providing a brief bibliography, which includes two of Aimee’s own
books.

This latest volume in the True Canadian Amazing Stories series is a
fast-paced, entertaining read.