EVANGELIST, Rev Billy Graham, died last week at his home in North Carolina, aged 99 years. A legend in his own time, Graham was one of the most successful preachers to emerge over the last century and his calling powered a 60-year crusade to bring the word of God to more than 220 million lost souls across 185 countries. Many US presidents asked for, and received, pastoral counselling from him (Graham himself never offered it or approached presidents but waited to be called and he frequently was).

He will be one of only four private citizens since 1852 to lie in honour in the State Capitol Rotunda in Washington next week (the last person to be credited in this way was Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer who died in 2005). Graham will be buried in a simple, plywood coffin made by inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. In death, as in life, there are relatively few who would speak ill of the Rev Billy Graham. He appears to have tried to live his life according to the core principles of the gospel and was usually more than willing to admit to his mistakes and failings. As preachers go, he was highly influential and his gift for the harvesting of sinners, ripe for redemption, is unrivalled in the last 100 years.

Theologically, Graham was not exactly highbrow. His rationale and beliefs were simple: God sent his only son, Jesus, down to earth to save us from eternal damnation. Why? Because the bible says so, the gospel tells us so. But why? Just because it’s true, that’s why. You’ve got to have robust faith to be swept up in the current of that kind of reasoning.

Given that the theological basis for Graham’s conviction is bible-thumping plain and simple, we have to wonder what exactly made him so special when it came to turning non-believers into believers. His conversion rates to Christianity were outstanding, far outstripping the talents of recent leaders in the established churches of Rome and England. Compared to the charisma and humility (or lack of it) of someone like Pope Benedict (former Cardinal Ratzinger), the Rev Billy Graham knocks spots off his papal cap.

It was Graham’s ability to engage with his audience on an emotional level that made him so influential. More than anything, he understood our very human need to be loved and to belong. He promised certainty in an uncertain and unknowable universe. He didn’t care much about the small print when it came to theological argument and nuance. Since humans evolved, we have created rituals, magic, myths and religions to wrap meaning and order around the chaotic nature of our existence. Evangelists like Billy Graham told us not to worry, that everything would be OK if we would just believe and put our faith in Jesus. Let God worry about the rest. Graham was a masterful communicator when it came to sharing the intensity of his own conviction and he used this to persuade others to submit to Christ and achieve redemption. Of course, in order to do this, you’d have to buy into the notion of original sin and that in the absence of God, there is evil. Philosophically, this is a very tall order. I suppose that is why faith plays such a leading role in this complex equation.

One of the most deeply funny and yet profoundly serious novels about redemption and belief that I’ve read is Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood (first published in the US in 1952). Coming from the Deep South, O’Connor understood better than anyone the complex psyche of the street preacher. The story’s anti-hero, Hazel Motes, makes it his life’s mission to prove that there is no Christ, no such thing as sin and no such thing as redemption. To this end, he starts up his own church called The Holy Church Of Christ Without Christ. Motes's philosophy is much more radical and existential than Billy Graham’s but his kind of preaching doesn’t exactly appeal to a wide audience. Unlike Graham, the fictional Hazel Motes offers no guarantee of eternal salvation: “I preach there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else’s, but behind all of them, there’s only one truth and that is that there is no truth.”

Now, that’s what I call truth.