Religious fundamentalism Books

Book SynopsisIn Mainstreaming Fundamentalism: John R. Rice and Fundamentalism's Public Reemergence, Keith Bates embarks on a thematic and chronological exploration of twentieth-century Baptist fundamentalism in postwar America, sharing the story of a man whose career intersected with many other leading fundamentalists of the twentieth century, such as J. Frank Norris, Bob Jones Sr., Bob Jones Jr., and Jerry Falwell.Unique among histories of American fundamentalism, this book explores the theme of Southern fundamentalism's reemergence through a biographical lens. John R. Rice's mission to inspire a broad cultural activism within fundamentalism - particularly by opposing those who fostered an isolationist climate - would give direction and impetus to the movement for the rest of the twentieth century. To support this claim, Bates presents chapters on Rice's background and education, personal and ecclesiastical separatism, and fundamentalism and political action, tracing his rise to leadership during a critical phase of fundamentalism's development until his death in 1980.Bates draws heavily upon primary source texts that include writings from Rice's fundamentalist contemporaries, his own The Sword of the Lord articles, and his private papers - particularly correspondence with many nationally known preachers, local pastors, and laypeople over more than fifty years of Rice's ministry. The incorporation of these writings, combined with Bates's own conversations with Rice's family, facilitate a deeply detailed, engaging examination that fills a significant gap in fundamentalist history studies.Mainstreaming Fundamentalism: John R. Rice and Fundamentalism's Public Reemergence provides a nuanced and insightful study that will serve as a helpful resource to scholars and students of postwar American fundamentalism, Southern fundamentalism, and Rice's contemporaries.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Power of Mammon, Curtis D. Johnson describes how the market economy and market-related forces, such as the media, politics, individualism, and consumerism, radically changed the nature of Baptist congregational life in New York State during three centuries. Collectively, these forces emphasized the importance of material wealth over everything else, and these values penetrated the thinking of Baptist ministers and laypeople alike. Beginning in the 1820s, the pastorate turned into a profession, the laity’s influence diminished, closeknit religious fellowships evolved into voluntary associations, and evangelism became far less effective. Men, being the most engaged in the market, secularized the more quickly and became less involved in church affairs. By the 1870s, male disengagement opened the door to increased female participation in church governance. While scientific advances and religious pluralism also played a role, the market and its related distractions were the primary forces behind the secularization of Baptist life.The Power of Mammon is history from the ground up. Unlike many denominational histories, this book emphasizes congregational life and the importance of the laity. This focus allows the reader to hear the voices of ordinary Baptists who argued over a host of issues. Johnson deftly connects large social trends with exhaustive attention to archival material, including numerous well-chosen records preserved by forty-two New York churches. These records include details related to membership, discipline, finance, and institutional history. Utilizing statistical analysis to achieve even greater clarity, Johnson effectively bridges the gap between the particularity of church records and the broader history of New York’s Baptist churches.Johnson’s narrative of Baptist history in New York will serve as a model for other regional studies and adds to our understanding of secularization and its impact on American religion.Trade Review“Curtis D. Johnson’s sweeping, detailed, and convincing narrative of Baptist history in New York makes an important contribution to Baptist history. Because New York was a major center of Baptist life during the period of Johnson’s study, his book promises to be required reading for anyone interested in Baptist history in the northern United States.”- Amanda Porterfield, author of Corporate Spirit: Religion and the Rise of the Modern Corporation

Read more less

Book SynopsisCarly Gelsinger is an awkward and lonely thirteen-year-old when she stumbles into Pine Canyon Assemblies of God, the cracked stucco church on the outskirts of her remote small town. She assimilates, despite her apprehensions, because she is desperate to belong. Soon, she is on fire for God. She speaks in tongues, slays demons, and follows her abusive pastor’s every word―and it’s not until her life is burnt to the ground that she finds the courage to leave. Raw and illuminating,Once You Go In is a coming-of-age tale about the beauty and danger of absolute faith, and the stories people tell themselves to avoid their deepest fears.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEssay on Islamization is a study of the Islamization of all Muslim societies and their conversion to orthodox Islam which, with its chapels, soldier monks and holy war, leads to fundamentalism as well as to a moral puritanism. Cherkaoui gauges the importance of this global phenomenon by analyzing the empirical data of some sixty Muslim and non-Muslim societies. He also conducts two ethnographic surveys to identify the metamorphoses of Muslim religious practices and their causes.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Disenchantment of the World, Depopulation of the Heavens  1 Persistence of Faith in Islam Countries, Progress of Atheism Elsewhere  2 Orientation toward the Human or toward the Divine: Progressive Secularization or Resilience of the Religious  Conclusion 2 Time for the Sacred  1 Rising Religiosity  2 The Time of the Sacred and Education  3 Variations in Rates of Practice by Social Determinants  4 Cultual, Media and Cultural Practices  5 Integration, Regulation and Trust 3 Twilight of the Gods  1 The Disenchantment of the World  2 Works and Days: Islam Paganized and Chthonian Beliefs  3 The Paradox of Consequences of Colonization  4 The Political Instrumentalization of Salafism and the Enchanted World 4 Is a Rational Explanation of Islamization Possible?  1 Exogenous Causes   1.1 Socio-Economic Changes Lead to a Secular Decline in Religiosity   1.2 The Religious Market Would Account for the Practices of Believers and Their Intensity of Belief   1.3 The Separation of Church and State Would Influence Religious Practice   1.4 The Extension of Islam Could Be Explained by the Policy Pursued by Certain States with Virtually Unlimited Financial Means   1.5 The Media Have Influenced Muslim Public Opinion   1.6 The Muslim Is Searching for His Identity, His Belonging and Reference Groups  2 Endogenous Explanations   2.1 The Relative Deprivation of Young People Is the Cause of This Popular Enthusiasm for Islam and for Their Proselytism   2.2 The Perception that Muslims Have of Themselves and Others Is a Reflection of Both the Spread of Islam and Their Zeal   2.3 The Transformations of the Social Morphology of Muslim Countries, the End of Popular Islam and the Growing Domination of Scriptural Islam, Could Be Causes of This Green Tidal Wave   2.4 The Structures of Interaction and Interdependence Explain the Diffusion of Religious Practices 5 Deprivation and Islamization: Socio- Educational Mobility and Its Consequences  1 Social Mobility and Educational Mobility  2 Generative Mechanisms of Mobility  3 Meritocracy or Dominance Structure? 6 The Mechanisms that Produce Islamic Fundamentalism: an Outline for an Interpretation of Its Genesis  1 Elective Affinities between Popular Islam and Social Morphology  2 Transformations of Morphology and the Decline of Popular Islam: the Resurgence of Salafism  3 The Prophecy of the “Proletaroid” Intellectuals as a Response to the Crisis of Society  4 Rational Choice Theory and Altruistic Suicide 7 From Absolute Monotheism to Ethical Puritanism  1 The Ethical Puritanism of Muslims and Moral Tolerance In the West  2 Muslims and the Magic of Modernity  Conclusion 8 Confidence in Institutions: an International Comparison  1 Trust as the Basis for the Legitimacy of the Social Order  2 Time of Suspicion 9 Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences  1 Morphologies and Democracies   2 The People’s Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism  3 Taxonomy of Democracies  4 Distribution of Countries according to the Three Models. Place of the Muslims in the Democratic Trihedron Bibliography Index Nominum

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Conjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism, W. Paul Williamson takes a critical look at the sociohistorical emergence of fundamentalism and examines how historians constructed popular, though questionable, conceptions of the movement that have dominated decades of empirical research in psychology. He further analyzes the notions of militancy and anti-modernity as valid characterizations of fundamentalism and examines whether fundamentalism, as a Christian Protestant phenomenon, is useful in labelling global forms of religious extremism and violence. In observing the lack of theory-driven research, the publication offers theories that situate fundamentalism as a social psychological phenomenon as opposed to some personal predisposition. Students and scholars of fundamentalism will discover Conjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism to be a provocative study on the topic.Table of ContentsConjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism  W. Paul Williamson  Abstract  Keywords  1 Introduction  2 A Condensed History of Fundamentalism  2.1 Protestant Christian Fundamentalism  2.2 Other Fundamentalisms  2.3 Section Conclusion  3 The Problems of Modernity, Militancy, and Cross-cultural Application  3.1 What Is Modernity?  3.2 Are Fundamentalists Really Militant  3.3 Is the Label “Fundamentalism” Useful across Cultures?  3.4 Section Conclusion  4 Theories of Fundamentalism  4.1 Global Fundamentalism (GF) Theory  4.2 Social Identity Theory (SIT)  4.3 Intratextual Fundamentalism  4.4 Section Conclusion  5 General Conclusion  Acknowledgment  References

Read more less

Book SynopsisEssay on Islamization is a study of the Islamization of all Muslim societies and their conversion to orthodox Islam which, with its chapels, soldier monks and holy war, leads to fundamentalism as well as to a moral puritanism. Cherkaoui gauges the importance of this global phenomenon by analyzing the empirical data of some sixty Muslim and non-Muslim societies. He also conducts two ethnographic surveys to identify the metamorphoses of Muslim religious practices and their causes.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Disenchantment of the World, Depopulation of the Heavens  1 Persistence of Faith in Islam Countries, Progress of Atheism Elsewhere  2 Orientation toward the Human or toward the Divine: Progressive Secularization or Resilience of the Religious  Conclusion 2 Time for the Sacred  1 Rising Religiosity  2 The Time of the Sacred and Education  3 Variations in Rates of Practice by Social Determinants  4 Cultual, Media and Cultural Practices  5 Integration, Regulation and Trust 3 Twilight of the Gods  1 The Disenchantment of the World  2 Works and Days: Islam Paganized and Chthonian Beliefs  3 The Paradox of Consequences of Colonization  4 The Political Instrumentalization of Salafism and the Enchanted World 4 Is a Rational Explanation of Islamization Possible?  1 Exogenous Causes   1.1 Socio-Economic Changes Lead to a Secular Decline in Religiosity   1.2 The Religious Market Would Account for the Practices of Believers and Their Intensity of Belief   1.3 The Separation of Church and State Would Influence Religious Practice   1.4 The Extension of Islam Could Be Explained by the Policy Pursued by Certain States with Virtually Unlimited Financial Means   1.5 The Media Have Influenced Muslim Public Opinion   1.6 The Muslim Is Searching for His Identity, His Belonging and Reference Groups  2 Endogenous Explanations   2.1 The Relative Deprivation of Young People Is the Cause of This Popular Enthusiasm for Islam and for Their Proselytism   2.2 The Perception that Muslims Have of Themselves and Others Is a Reflection of Both the Spread of Islam and Their Zeal   2.3 The Transformations of the Social Morphology of Muslim Countries, the End of Popular Islam and the Growing Domination of Scriptural Islam, Could Be Causes of This Green Tidal Wave   2.4 The Structures of Interaction and Interdependence Explain the Diffusion of Religious Practices 5 Deprivation and Islamization: Socio- Educational Mobility and Its Consequences  1 Social Mobility and Educational Mobility  2 Generative Mechanisms of Mobility  3 Meritocracy or Dominance Structure? 6 The Mechanisms that Produce Islamic Fundamentalism: an Outline for an Interpretation of Its Genesis  1 Elective Affinities between Popular Islam and Social Morphology  2 Transformations of Morphology and the Decline of Popular Islam: the Resurgence of Salafism  3 The Prophecy of the “Proletaroid” Intellectuals as a Response to the Crisis of Society  4 Rational Choice Theory and Altruistic Suicide 7 From Absolute Monotheism to Ethical Puritanism  1 The Ethical Puritanism of Muslims and Moral Tolerance In the West  2 Muslims and the Magic of Modernity  Conclusion 8 Confidence in Institutions: an International Comparison  1 Trust as the Basis for the Legitimacy of the Social Order  2 Time of Suspicion 9 Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences  1 Morphologies and Democracies   2 The People’s Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism  3 Taxonomy of Democracies  4 Distribution of Countries according to the Three Models. Place of the Muslims in the Democratic Trihedron Bibliography Index Nominum

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn International Review of Empirical Research on the Psychology of Fundamentalism is a sequel to Williamson (2020), who examined the sociohistorical emergence of fundamentalism and controversial conceptions of the movement that have dominated decades of empirical research in psychology. He concluded by calling for a critical review of this sizable literature, amassed from the early 20th century. In the present book, W. Paul Williamson and Sarah Demmrich respond by providing summaries and critical observations for 365 empirical studies, collected and organized from peer-reviewed journals. A summary of findings indicated that the largest share of statistical associations between study variables and fundamentalism was moderate in size, followed by those that were weak, and then by strong relationships, which were much less frequent. However, this observed pattern of relationships, particularly those characterized by moderate and especially strong associations, much reflected the findings from sexual bias studies. Finally, the authors offer critical considerations for sample selection, methodology, and theoretical applications in future fundamentalism research.Table of ContentsAbstract Keywords 1. Introduction 1.1. Collection and Categorization of Studies, and Overview of Chapters 1.2. Method of Review and Evaluation 2. Construct Definitions and Measurements of Fundamentalism 2.1. Earlier Measures of Fundamentalism (1951-1990) 2.1.1. An Exceptional Early Measure of Fundamentalism 2.2. More Recent Measures of Fundamentalism (1991-2020) 2.2.1. Measures of Fundamentalism Based on General Concepts 2.2.2. Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RFS) 2.2.3. Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale (IFS) 2.2.4. Multi-Dimensional Fundamentalism Inventory (MDFI) 2.2.5. North American Protestant Fundamentalism Scale (NAPFS) 2.2.6. Moaddel-Karabenick Fundamentalism Scale (MKFS) 2.2.7. Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST) 2.3. Chapter Conclusion 3. Demographics of Fundamentalism 4. Fundamentalism Research on Cognitive Issues 4.1. Fundamentalist Beliefs and Worldview 4.1.1. Moral Beliefs 4.1.2. Worldview 4.2. Cognition Studies 4.2.1. Specific Cognition Areas 4.2.2. General Cognition Issues 4.3. Chapter Conclusion 5. Research on Lifespan and Health 5.1. Lifespan Issues 5.1.1. Development 5.1.2. Family and Marriage 5.1.3. Sexual and Gender Issues 5.1.4. Death 5.2. Health Issues 5.2.1. Mental Health 5.2.2. Physical and Spiritual Health 5.3. Chapter Conclusion 6. Personality, Social, and Reactionary Issues 6.1. Personality and Virtues 6.1.1. Authoritarianism 6.2. Social Issues 6.2.1. Criminal Justice 6.2.2. Politics 6.3. Reactionary Issues 6.3.1. Militancy and Recruitment 6.3.2. Threat 6.4. Chapter Conclusion 7. Research on Social Bias 7.1. Ethnic Bias 7.2. Sexual Bias 7.2.1. Homosexual Prejudice 7.2.2. Gender Prejudice 7.2.3. Transgender and Bisexual Prejudice 7.3. Group Bias 7.3.1. Ethnocentrism 7.3.2. Religious Prejudice 7.3.3. Ingroup/Outgroup Prejudice 7.4. Studies Reporting Composites of Social Bias 7.5. Chapter Conclusion 8. General Conclusion 8.1. Overall Findings 8.2. Sample Issues 8.3. Methodological Issues 8.3.1. Specific Methodology Considerations 8.3.2. SEM and Mediation Methods of Analysis 8.4. Theory—the Missing Link—and Closing Remarks Acknowledgments References

Read more less