Golden Mouths, Ethereal Pulpits: The Remarkable Radio Success of Reverend Walter A. Maier, Ph.D. and Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen, Ph.D.

This study makes two arguments regarding network religious radio during the anxiety-laden period from the Great Depression, through World War II, to the Cold War. The first is that religious broadcasting contributed significantly to American culture during radio’s “Golden Age,” and that the unfortunate tendency to leave its prominent role out of historical analysis renders our understanding of the 1930s and 1940s incomplete or distorted. The second is that the Rev. Walter A. Maier on The Lutheran Hour and Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen on the Catholic Hour, both of whom achieved popularity that rivaled top radio personalities and entertainers, but whose radio ministries largely have been forgotten, were cultural and religious forces with which to be reckoned, in broadcasting careers that spanned these early decades of radio’s contribution to American civilization.

This dissertation examines how Sheen and Maier harnessed fertile minds, exceptional erudition, awareness of the times, powerful communications skills, and unwavering Christian conviction—and all for the purpose of calling the souls of listeners and the soul of a nation to repentance and godliness. It explores how this combination of talents, in turn, brought their respective Christian denominations, Catholicism and Lutheranism, from the periphery of the American religious landscape to much greater levels of recognition and acceptance. This study identifies factors in their success and explains their specific significance. It focuses on the radio careers of Maier and Sheen, though with sufficient context provided for their respective Lutheran and Catholic identities, and for their academic vocations.It describes how they gained national airwave access and the challenges they faced in retaining that access. The study discusses the style and content of their preaching, while relating that preaching to the roles Sheen and Maier filled in the emerging mass culture created by radio. It endeavors to understand the receptivity of radio audiences to the messages of these two purveyors of divine wisdom—in relation to their substantive theology and their social commentary, as well as the pastoral care they invited.Finally, it describes the great impact of their radio ministries on American civil religion and across the broader Christian world.