The Musician and Philosopher

This chapter explores Harry Dean Stanton's music and philosophy of life, both very important in understanding him. Music had always been important, an inheritance from his family. His role as the guitar-playing Tramp in Cool Hand Luke (1967) introduced him to many moviegoers both as an actor and a musician. After decades on screen, he confessed to musician and close friend Jamie James that he had a dream of leading a band. He realized that dream in bands that performed everything from old standards to Mexican ballads at venues such as The Mint and The Troubadour. Sometimes both musician and philosopher were on stage, as when Harry Dean asked an incredulous James to stop playing and allow silence to work its magic. Harry Dean had early on rejected the Christian fundamentalism of rural Kentucky and turned toward the teachings of Zen Buddhism, ancient philosophers like Lao Tzu, and modern-day thinkers like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, and Eckhart Tolle. Alex Cox saw "utter mishmash" in Harry Dean's frequent philosophical musings, but others like Ed Begley Jr. said Harry Dean changed their lives by helping them focus more on the present than on the past or the future.

Civil Society and Art/Theory Producers as Parallel Polis? Reflections on the Challenges of Dissident Culture from 1968 to 1989 and Beyond

The article deals with Czechoslovak dissident culture after 1968, in particular with the movement Charter 77 and its legacy after 1989, focusing on the concept of paralelní polis (parallel polis) introduced by Václav Benda and widely discussed among dissidents: the idea of creating new and independent cultural, economic, and media structures parallel to the official structures. The study considers the paralelní polis as an instrument through which the (post-)‘68-movements led by intellectuals, artists, and theorists sought the emancipation and diversification of civil society in both capitalist and socialist countries. With the collapse of the socialist world after 1989, the history of the paralelní polis reveals that the ‘68 idea of civil society was ambivalent, while Charter 77 proved to be a heterogeneous movement. Many ex-Chartists came to believe that capitalism could better enable the existence of a civil society than socialism, while others did not accept this view. Moreover, even among the supporters of capitalism there was no unity (some were close to neoliberalism, others were critical of it). In contrast to the 1960s and 1970s, there was no dialogue between these different positions within civil society, but rather radicalization and exclusivity. The radical left, anarcho-capitalism, and Christian fundamentalism developed their particular and mutually exclusive narratives about the legacy of paralelní polis.

The Sensitivity of the Bible Verse Selection Task to the Relationship between Christian Fundamentalism and Religious Outgroup Prejudice

Four different studies provide evidence to support the validity of the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST) as a measure of the strength of Christian fundamentalist beliefs by showing correlations between BVST scores and measures of negativity toward people who often represent “outgroups” for Christians. That is, respondents who obtained high scores on the BVST (representing a greater tendency to select biblical passages associated with fundamentalism as most central to their faith or belief system) also showed a tendency to obtain high scores on measures of negative feelings, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes toward atheists, gay men, lesbian women, and Muslims. These relationships were generally consistent across both Christian-only samples and general samples, with statistically significant coefficients obtained for 30 of 32 predicted correlations. These results support the utility of this scale for research purposes.

Rewriting Politics, or the Emerging Fourth Wave of Feminism in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) has recently returned to the spotlight with the success of its TV adaptation and with her decision to deliver a sequel. Speculative fiction invites speculative criticism; in this spirit, this paper investigates The Testaments (2019), tracing the rewriting of politics embedded in the narrative. Whilst the inspiration for The Handmaid’s Tale came from the rise of Christian fundamentalism, it is obvious from Atwood’s more recent statements that she considers the Trump era “a rollback of women’s rights” (2018). The slogan of second-wave feminists, ‘the personal is political,’ is now as topical as it was in the 1960s, and The Testaments may well become a literary manifesto of a new (fourth) wave as part of the storm surge of feminism. Therefore, before turning to Atwood, an outline of the chronological clashes of feminism(s) and a discussion on women and language is presented. This is followed by an examination of the three main characters and representatives of ideas.

Book Review: Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity

New York, NY: Routledge, 2017, 264 pages. Australian Josie McSkimming, a former member of a Christian fundamentalist (CF) church for 30 years, provides readers with great insight into why a person might leave CF, the process of leaving, and how each person participates in his/her journey to reconstruct his/her identity. This monograph is a well-written contribution to the Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies series.

Reading History with the Essenes of Elmira

This article studies a modern Essene movement based in the United States for its unusual merging of New Age practice with Christian fundamentalism with ancient history. By harkening back to the mystical religions of the ancient Mediterranean, these modern Essenes are able to engage in syncretistic practices while claiming to preserve the traditions of the ancient Essenes.

Terrorism and Religion: Christian Fundamentalism

Terrorism is a multifaceted phenomenon. It is by no means the sole province of religious fundamentalism although it can be (and sometimes is) the end result of an ideological trajectory identified as “fundamentalist.” Following a “higher dictate” or a “divine command” may obviate otherwise normal attributions of culpability. Thus, Christian extremism can issue in terrorism, where an otherwise negatively valued destructive act can be transformed and rendered acceptable, even laudable. Such acts may qualify as terrorist, at least in some respects. An analysis of the ideology of religious fundamentalism reveals that an extreme perspective can originate as simply a passive viewpoint, manifest as an assertive identity orientation, and emerge to be a fanatically imposed program of aggressive behaviors and actions. Christian fundamentalism is a specific variant of religious fundamentalism and, indeed, it is from within modern Christian history that the term “fundamentalism” arose. Its use today is much broader, denoting a generic phenomenon with wide application, even beyond religion. The motif of exclusivism, which is inherent to fundamentalist ideologies and values, is an important dimension to be taken account of. It is critical to understanding the specifics of Christian extremism and terrorism. Similarly, the issue of theological justification for Christian extremism and violence, together with biblical motifs and references for violence and extremism, are important dimensions for critical study. Christian extremism rests on select biblical models and references, such as that of Phineas (Num. 25) and proffers self-justifying theological support. In short, Christian fundamentalism manifests an ideological sequence of factors whose cumulative impact once (or if) the final factor of enacting violence is reached, can be devastating. There is historical evidence for this as well as contemporary examples. The ideological and behavioral trajectory of 21st-century fundamentalist Christians can—and in some situations does—result in deadly terrorist behavior. And as with any religion, such ideology leading to terrorism is necessarily extreme: a deviance from the norm of religious values and behaviors.

Same Book, Different Bookmarks: The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Bible Verse Selection Task as a Measure of Christian Fundamentalism

The development and preliminary validation of a new measure of Christian fundamentalism required a multi-stage process. In an initial exploratory study, participants indicated which of a set of Bible verses were most central to their faith, and factor analysis was used to identify verses that appeared to tap a latent dimension of religious fundamentalism (Study 1). These relationships were retested with a new method in a new sample (Study 2), and the items that predicted fundamentalism in both samples were incorporated into a new measure of Christian fundamentalism, the Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST). The forced-choice format of the BVST may be less impacted by social desirability response styles that may affect scores on existing fundamentalism scales (Studies 3 and 4) while preserving useful levels of criterion-related validity (Study 5) and convergent evidence of construct validity (Study 6). These studies provide initial psychometric evidence for the BVST as an internally consistent measure of Christian fundamentalism that predicts scores on other fundamentalism scales and related constructs including traditionalism, authoritarianism, and political conservativism.