In 1978 a seventy-year-old black farm worker in rural Glascock County, Georgia, received a call from God. Though he could neither read nor write, J. B. Murray, under what he believed to be the inspiration of Holy Spirit, began to draw and paint flowing yet erratic abstractions. Over the next ten years, Murray created paintings of ghostly figures and elongated shapes which represented "the people what is living like God don't exist". By the time of his death in 1988, Murray's art had been shown in art galleries all over the world, from Atlanta, Washington, DC, New York, and Los Angeles to London and Tokyo.

How an illiterate farmer in rural Georgia rose to become an artist of international acclaim is the story of Mary G. Padgelek's In the Hand of the Holy Spirit: The Visionary Art of J. B. Murray. Padgelek tells Murray's fascinating story and analyzes his art and spiritual message. Throughout history the visionary artist has sought to offer a glimpse of the eternal in the midst of a temporal world. This book unveils the symbols, impetus, and meaning of the work of J. B. Murray, who treated his work through the inspiration of his perceptions of eternity. Padgelek shows how this fascinating folk artist offered a redemptive metaphor for spiritual heaing, regeneration, and ultimate salvation.