"In [this book], the authors use extensive interviews with [snake handlers] to tell the stories of three of the most prominent snake-handling families."--Back cover

Jimmy Morrow, a pastor and serpent handler for over a quarter of a century explores the history of serpent handling from a variety of sources, including his extensive familiarity with families whose roots are deep in Appalachia. As a native Appalachian Jimmy has access to histories unavailable to outsiders. While not formally trained as a historian, Jimmy's own narrative of the Jesus Name tradition is a unique contribution to not only Appalachian studies, but to the history of what many have prematurely thought to be a tradition whose obituary is soon to be written. Jimmy's astounding photographs and his keen insight to the power of this tradition that he proudly upholds suggests that while unlikely ever to be a dominant form of religious expression, it will continue as perhaps Americas most unique form of religion that persists in Appalachia despite laws against the practice of handling serpents. This is an extraordinary personal account of a unique form of religious devotion and dedication. It will be of interest to anyone interested in Appalachian culture or religion in the South.

For Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic assignment - covering the trial of an Alabama preacher convicted of attempting to murder his wife with poisonous snakes - would evolve into a headlong plunge into a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith: the world of holiness snake handling, where people drink strychnine, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, and, some claim, raise the dead. Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington's unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith - an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes. University.

In Test of Faith Lauren Pond, Winner of the Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, documents a Signs Following preacher and his family in rural West Virginia, offering a deeply nuanced, personal look at serpent handling that invites a greater understanding of a religious practice that has long faced derision and criticism.

Burton seeks to present a balanced view of the remote churches of East Tennessee where believers take literally the words of Saint Mark: "and they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."

Brown and McDonald profiles three familiesQone in Middlesboro, Kentucky, one in Newport, Tennessee, and one in Jolo, West VirginiaQinvolved in religious practices which showcase the handling of snakes.

Explores the religious practice of serpent handling in churches of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia. This book provides an analysis of this phenomenon from historical, social, religious, and psychological perspectives. It deals with the near-death experiences of individuals who were bitten but survived.

"This book presents an innovative psychological framework for understanding religious fundamentalism. Blending extensive research and incisive analysis, the highly regarded authors distinguish fundamentalist traditions from other faith-based groups and illuminate the thinking and behavior of believers. Offering respectful, historically informed examinations of several major fundamentalist groups, the volume challenges many commonly held stereotypes. In the process, it stakes out important new terrain for the psychological study of religion" -- BOOK JACKET.

The Church of God Reformation Movement (founded in 1881) has the distinction of having been founded on the two core principles of holiness and visible unity. Standard histories of the group proudly argue that the founder and pioneers exhibited a zeal for interracial unity that began to wane only in the early years of the twentieth century. This book rejects that claim and argues instead that little to no extant hard evidence supports that view. Moreover, Making Good the Claim argues that while blacks eagerly joined the group, they did so not because whites expended much energy evangelizing among them but because they heard something deeper in the message of holiness and visible unity than God's expectation that members achieve spiritual and church unity. Unlike most whites, blacks interpreted the message to call for unity along racial lines as well. This book challenges members of the Church of God to begin forthwith to make good their historic claim about holiness and visible unity, particularly as it applies to interracial unity.