Fundamentalism - a book Review

This is a review of the book shown on the sidebar to this blog called "Fundamentalism." I bought it because I live in Texas and the religious fundamentalists took control of the Republican Party here about 25 years ago.

I didn't understand. I found it very difficult to see how any rational person could accept the idea of Biblical Inerrancy. [Read "Language in Thought and Action" by S. I. Hayakawa and then go look at General Semantics. Words are merely symbols we assign to reality, other words, and even to thoughts or emotions. This makes words very unreliable guides to what they are pointing at. I'll review Hayakawa's book some other time.]

I graduated from High School in the same class as Paige Patterson who is today the President of the Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary here in Fort Worth. He was also one of two conservative leaders who directed the movement that took over the Southern Baptist Convention beginning in the 1970's. [The other was a Judge Paul Pressler from Houston.] They are firm fundamentalists and believers in Biblical Inerrancy, and if you don't agree with them you will not be accepted as a conservative Southern Baptist. You will also be fired from their seminaries or boards.

This superb book explains what fundamentalist religion is all about, what causes it, and why it is so attractive to so many people these days. The author also clearly explains why the Islamic Fundamentalism of the Middle East differs from that here in America.

Steve Bruce also has the belief that philosophies matter, and interact with social forces to explain what is happening. This is very different from the Marxist idea that what matters is the material process of production, and ideas are adapted to explain the requirements of the production process. I have always followed the materialist idea, but professor Bruce has convinced me that the myths and ideas people bring to the party are also important in explaining such social processes as fundamentalism.

This is the publisher's review.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"This new study explores the combination of social strains and religious ideas that have produced such fundamentalist movements as the Islamic revolution in Iran and the new Christian Right in the USA." "Social science has generally focused on the social circumstances that produce extremist movements and regarded their religious ideologies as window-dressing. This study takes the religious elements of fundamentalism seriously. It explains why some religions are more likely than others to produce fundamentalism and why those movements differ in their willingness to use violence to pursue their goals. Rejecting the idea that fundamentalists are suffering from some kind of abnormal psychology, Bruce claims that fundamentalism is a rational response of traditionally religious people to social, political and economic changes that downgrade the role of religion in public life. Despite its importance as a symptom of rapid social change, he concludes that fundamentalism does not pose a serious challenge or sustainable alternative to the secular and liberal democracy of most Western societies. Its force is weakened by its own internal contradictions and blunted by the power of the nation state."

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I found the book to be an easy read, but I have also spent years reading social science in management courses. I really don't think that matters too much, though. You will find something that explains what is going on around us both in America and in the world on just about every page.

Click on the picture, buy it, and read it. This is an outstanding book. You will find the time well spent.