Book excerpt: Contesting previous historical scholarship, Calvin Hollett argues that the growth in Methodism was not the result of clergy-dominated missionary work intended to rescue a degenerated populace. Instead, the author shows how Methodism flourished as a people's movement in which believers in coastal locations were free to experience individual and communal rapture and welcomed at lay revivals in more populous areas. An insightful look at the growth of a religion, Shouting, Embracing, and Dancing with Ecstasy reasserts the importance of laypeople in religious matters, while detailing successful ways to bring the religious experience into daily life.