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Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Ebook Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
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Review
"One of the best books on American religion from the last 25 years...Neither a straightforward account of conversion nor a detached observer's report, the book is wildly personal, compassionate but unsentimental, at times outrageously funny, and ambivalent at its core."―Chicago Tribune
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About the Author
Dennis Covington is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Lizard and Lasso the Moon. He teaches creative writing at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
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Product details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press; 15th Anniversary ed. edition (August 11, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306818361
ISBN-13: 978-0306818363
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
151 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#119,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Salvation on Sand Mountain, written by journalist Dennis Covington in a masterly, artistic style, is a cultural expose about religious fundamentalists from southern Appalachia who had come down from the mountains to put their religious stamp on a wider societal milieu, including Covington himself, who inadvertently becomes a parishioner and takes up serpents. I have always held a deep curiosity about these religious snake handlers who test their faith by reaching into a box of coiling, writhing rattlesnakes. Covington's book helped satiate that curiosity.These were the same fringe religionists from the backwoods who, with unshakable faith, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, and drink strychnine. Mostly descendants of Scots Irish backwoodsmen, their ancient ancestors believed in tree spirits and captured their evil spirits in colored glass bottles hung on trees. They worshiped swift and cunning animals like the elk or boar.The hog was an icon or sacred spirit for these ancient tribal people.Covington makes it clear that handling serpents is an exhilarating experience. He should know. Serpent handling is more than a test of faith; it is also about having power over those snakes. The practice must be addictive in some way. Upon the alter of the church, many practice the art for years before finally being bitten that last time that leads to a painful death.This is a fascinating account of a peculiar backwoods religious practice and all the eccentric cultural foibles that accompany it. Covington has created a first class piece of journalism.The author, as a journalist, makes first contact with the snake handling congregation after having been assigned to cover a story about an Appalachian preacher on trial for attempted murder of his wife with the use of snakes. As Covington peers deeper into the church practices and grasps the ethnicity and cultural patterns of these people, he realizes he is one of them. A stark revelation dawns on him: he discovers that he has the same ethnic, geographical, religious, and cultural roots as these primal mountain folk. His ancestors also stemmed from borderland Scotland and eventually, after crossing the ocean and arriving to America in coffin ships, made their way into the Appalachian highlands and ultimately the foothills of that great mountain chain. For Covington, it was not just a search for a news story, not even about redemption and salvation, but also a search for identity, for roots, for a lost past.This book is highly recommended for both religious and non-religious people who may have had even the slightest "wondering" about snake handling holiness and the cultural backdrop that sustains it.Russell Ferrell is the author of The Bone War of McCurtain County
Mr. Covington presents a unique insight to this religious subculture's lifestyle. Although the reader may think this is a story about snake handlers, it is Moreton journey of the writer's self-discovery. Through this literary approach the reader understands in greater depth the inner spirituality of these champions of their religious faith. At first I couldn't understand why the story turned inward toward authors own upbringing. But as the book continued, I was riveted as the author finds himself as one of them. I also enjoyed the author's writing style which made the book less a documentary and more of a story of a people committed to their cause.
Covington's writing is fluid, lyrical, and in honest synch with the subject, surroundings, and people in this often gripping, braided enthnographic and interrogative work. He is self-reflective in necessary moments and unflinching in his own process of examination and reckoning.Pacing and shifts from tight to wide angle are deft and adept. First rate writing and fascinating subject done with humility and respect for his subject(s).
I read this amazing book several years ago, and highly recommend it - bringing to mind a quote: "If a man today followed the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he followed the teachings of the New, he would be insane." -- Robert G. Ingersoll
Rarely do I find a book quite as meaningful and deeply touching as _Salvation on Sand Mountain_. Even rarer, is the book that my wife and I read back to back and agree on its import and depth. This book is a masterful detail of one man's spiritual journey, and it is a journey that we all must take, though perhaps not the same route! Human beings were created to worship.As a Christian minister from the pentecostal/charismatic tradition, I get (and give) a lot of jokes about snake-handling. Of course the practice is far removed from my world (and shall remain so!),and in my book the only good snake is a dead snake (sorry nature-lovers!). The jokes were good, but I had always pretty much dismissed those who practice such as cultic whackos.What I found in this book was a deeply touching and riveting experience of an academician, a learned man who reached out to a group of people from a different world in an attempt to understand them, and their ways. In the process this man probed his own roots and his own spirituality, and was able to make a statement about worship.Covington caused me to let these people into my heart. They are real people, with real lives, who love Jesus Christ with all their hearts. Among them are the sincere, the hypocrite, the wise and the foolish, the charlatan and the genuing article, just like in any "respectable" church congregation in America. The copy I read was a library copy with no dust jacket, and I was surprised to see that my favorite picture from the book graces the cover of the paperback version. That picture absolutely tells the story of the book to me. My wife and I were both captivated by the dear sister who is holding a large rattlesnake. I don't believe I've ever seen pure worship captured in a moment in time like I see in this picture. The raptuous and sincere worship in her countenance is juxtaposed against the sheer terror of the snake in her hands, and it absolutely captures the pure message of the book.I'll still enjoy a good natured teasing from my more refined brethren regarding my "snake handling" ways as a pentecostal, but each time I consider this sect of people, I will remember that cover picture, and this most profound little book._Salvation on Sand Mountain_is a keeper!
I found this book fascinating since Sand Mountain is not a long distance from my hometown in Tennessee yet I eons in time from my life in the South and my personal experience. It answered many questions I've had about this particular religion and gave me new insight into the faith of these people.
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