This richly detailed biography examines the colorful life and preaching of evangelist John Lakin Brasher (1868-1971), effectively destroying old stereotypes that portrayed holiness folk as fanatical and uneducated. Relying primarily on Brasher's 25,000 manuscripts and on extensive sound recordings of his preaching and storytelling, J. Lawrence Brasher analyzes the dynamics of holiness religious experience and explores the beliefs, rituals, politics, cultural context, and folklore of the southern holiness movement.