Pullum examines the rhetorical genre of 20th-century American faith healing. He first analyzes respectively the rhetoric of Aimee Semple McPherson, William Branham, Oral Roberts, Asa Alonzo Allen, Ernest Angley, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Benny Hinn--the most prominent American faith healers of this century. For each, he discusses their background, the nature of the audiences to whom they preached, and why they were so successful. Pullum concludes by drawing together the major rhetorical features of faith-healing discourse.

Pullum shows that faith-healing discourse follows the...