Background

Aimee Semple McPherson (October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as "Sister Aimee," was a Canadian-born evangelist; she was also the founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927. Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 9.

Relationship to Biola

While Biola's official position towards the "divine healing" services and the general type of pentecostalism that McPherson practiced was carefully neutral, it was mainly due to the mitigating influence of Lyman Stewart and T.C. Horton. When Stewart died in 1923, "fundamentalist criticism of McPherson increased dramatically," assisted by Robert Schuler's book McPhersonism, published in 1924. Draney, D. 1996. When Streams Diverge, p. 101. The question of Biola's position on McPherson was further complicated by the resignation of R.A. Torrey in 1924.
Robert Harkness' biography of R.A. Torrey refers to a controversy involving McPherson's ministry which may have caused the resignation of Torrey. Harkness, R. Reuben Archer Torrey, pp. 48-49.

References