Them That Believe: The Power and Meaning of the Christian Serpent-Handling Tradition
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"There is no competing work that matches Them That Believe; it is both original and stimulating. The scholarship is superior, and reflects well the 15 years the authors have worked on this project. This is an outstanding work."—Margaret Poloma, author of Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism"This book provides one of the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched reports on serpent handling Christians ever written. The use of multiple methodological lenses (e.g., sociology, ethnographic participant-observation, phenomenological psychology) adds a depth and richness not seen in other works. The book is very well written and arranged, and the scholarship is excellent."—Stephen Parker, author of Led by the Spirit: Toward a Practical Theology of Pentecostal Discernment and Decision Making
1 "They shall take up serpents" 12 The history of Pentecostalism absent the serpent 133 The media and the man : George Went Hensley 374 Serpent handling endorsed by the Church of God 525 The serpent : sign and symbol 796 Trance states : tongues speaking and the anointing 1027 Extemporaneous sermons in the serpent-handling tradition 1178 The experience of handling serpents 1329 The experience of the anointing 15710 Near-death experience from serpent bites in religious settings 17011 Music among serpent-handling churches 18512 Serpent handling and the law : history and empirical studies 208Epilogue 227App. 1 Deaths by serpent bite 239App. 2 Deaths by poison 246App. 3 The phenomenological interview and hermeneutic techniques of interpretation 247Notes 267References 267Acknowledgments 285Index 289
