Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind

by Calvin Mercer

Overview

As Dr. Mercer posits, the fundamentalist is fundamentally driven by anxiety layered over a fragile sense of self-identity constructed upon a system of beliefs that is both logically inconsistent and highly suspect in light of modern science. As a result, the fundamentalist completely rejects modernity while battling mightily in the arena of national politics and culture to bring about a world that aligns more closely with the fundamentalist worldview.

Focusing on Christian fundamentalists, the author puts Christian fundamentalism in its historical and theological contexts. At the same time, Mercer calls upon cognitive theory to explain that the fundamentalist's life story is not particular to Christianity or any other religious belief system but that fundamentalist Catholics, Muslims, Jews, and those of all other faiths share a common psychological profile. Indeed, Mercer insists that if the Christian terminology were eliminated from contemporary fundamentalist Christian rhetoric, what would remain would be a framework that fundamentalists from other religions would find quite familiar and even comforting. In other words, the structure of the fundamentalist worldview, and the psychology beneath it, is pretty much the same across religions. It is a controversial thing to say about Christian fundamentalism, a thesis that has already proved contentious in the author's public appearances, and one that is sure to generate considerable attention and passionate debate as the U.S. populace continues to divide into opposing camps.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313364969
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Calvin Mercer is professor and codirector of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University. For twenty years, Dr. Mercer has worked with fundamentalist Christians in the classroom as a professor of biblical studies and in the consulting room as the go-to therapist for fundamentalist Christians in his city. He is coauthor of The Writings of Swami Sivananda (Edwin Mellen, 2007) and co-editor of Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension (Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming). He has published numerous articles in both religion and psychology jourbanals and has presented a number of papers at the American Academy of Religion and other scholarly societies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface: My Longest Email
Introduction
One: Who Are the Christians?
Two: The Fighting Fundamentalists
Three: Fundamentalists Retreat and Advance
Part Two: Core Fundamentalist Beliefs
Four: Fundamentalists and the Bible
Five: Problems with Fundamentalisms View of the Bible
Six: The Jesus Question
Seven: The Rapture
Eight: Left Behind Theology
Nine: Two Unofficial Fundamentalist Doctrines
Part Three: A Psychological Profile
Ten: The Psychological Model
Eleven: Profile of the Typical Fundamentalist
Twelve: The Threat from Rapid Cultural Change
Part Four: Strategies for Dialogue
Thirteen: Talking Theology
Fourteen: Talking About the Bible
Concluding Reflections
Appendix 1: Letters from Former Fundamentalist Students
Appendix 2: An Elementary Guide to Exegeting the Bible
Bibliography
About the Author
Notes

What People are Saying About This

William H. Willimon Bishop

"The contemporary religious landscape seems to be a fertile breeding ground for various fundamentalisms of all sorts. The religious community needs to understand all we can about this worldwide phenomenon. Calvin Mercer has given us an engaging, insightful analysis that helps to penetrate the fundamentalist way of thinking. I found his work most helpful."

William H. WillimonBishop

"The contemporary religious landscape seems to be a fertile breeding ground for various fundamentalisms of all sorts. The religious community needs to understand all we can about this worldwide phenomenon. Calvin Mercer has given us an engaging, insightful analysis that helps to penetrate the fundamentalist way of thinking. I found his work most helpful."

E. Thomas Dowd

"Have you ever wondered how Fundamentalists think or make sense of the world? This book will tell you all you want to know and more. Dr. Calvin Mercer has written an absolutely excellent book providing information into the world view of Fundamentalists, their thinking processes, and strategies for dialogue with them. Dr. Mercer is well-qualified to provide such a comprehensive examination and does so in a very thorough and readable book. He first discusses the birth of Fundamentalism, then the core Fundamentalist beliefs, then (and especially interesting to me) presents a psychological profile of them. He concludes with several strategies for dialogue because their very certainty and cognitive literalism make it difficult for them to engage in discussions of theological issues."

Editorial Reviews

Mercer (religion and biblical studies, East Carolina U.) is also a clinical psychologist, and draws on both fields to offer advice to colleagues on how to understand and deal with the particular ways of thinking that fundamentalist Christians exhibit. He covers the birth of fundamentalism, core fundamentalist beliefs, a psychological profile, and strategies for dialogue. Particular topics include the fundamentalist view of the Bible and problems with it, the Rapture, left-behind theology, the threat from rapid cultural change, and talking theology.” —Reference & Research Book News

“Slaves to Faith will be of greatest interest to readers who are intrigued about the history of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States, who want to know the foundational beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity, and who want to step into this world and empathically experience the depression and anxiety that can arise as a result of these beliefs. This book will be more useful to those in a teaching rather than a clinical context for several reasons. . . . Returbaning to the humorous portrayal of fundamentalist Christians sequestered in the soundproof room in heaven, I can imagine teachers and clinicians wanting to follow St. Peter's injunction and tiptoe past this room, leaving such believers to make sense of the world and deal with their anxieties in their own ways. Mercer invites us into this room in ways that are engaging and intriguing. We want to stay, find out more, and enter in dialogue.” —PsycCRITIQUES

From the Publisher