Incorporating Space: Protestant Fundamentalism and Astronomical Authorization

The problem of authority is vital for understanding the development of Protestant creationism. Two discursive fields have figured centrally in this religious movement’s claims to authoritative knowledge: The Bible and science. The former has been remarkably stable over a century with a continuing emphasis on inerrancy and literalism, while the latter has been more mutable. Creationism’s rejection of scientific evolution has endured, but its orientation to a range of scientific models, technologies, and disciplines has changed. Astronomy is a prime example; once relatively absent in creationist cultural production, it emerged as yet another arena where creationists seek to corrode scientific authority and bolster biblical fundamentalism. Drawing on archival documents of creationist publications and the ongoing media production of an influential creationist ministry based in Kentucky, this article illustrates how creationism has sought to incorporate astronomy into their orbit of religious authorization. Ultimately, the case of incorporating space helps clarify fundamentalism’s machinations of power.

Conjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism

Although psychology of religion has amassed a significant empirical literature on religious fundamentalism, it largely has ignored the sociohistorical context within which Protestant fundamentalism arose and has relied uncritically upon such popular notions as militancy, anti-modernism, and global fundamentalism in much of its research. This monograph will critically review sociohistorical reconstructions of fundamentalism that have heavily influenced the views of society and psychologists; discuss problematic concepts that emerged from those reconstructions; and highlight theories based on the social dynamics of fundamentalism. Focus on these issues will underscore the need for a critical review of empirical research, which is reserved for a second monograph.

Protestantes fundamentalistas e o Partido Republicano nos EUA: uma trajetória de encontros, engajamentos e transformações mútuas (1948 a 1980)

Em diálogo com o referencial teórico weberiano de afinidades eletivas – a possibilitar o reconhecimento de articulações entre as instâncias religiosa e política, dentre outras, numa sociedade em determinado período da história –, o escopo deste trabalho propõe-se a compreender as relações, o engajamento e as ações políticas estabelecidas por representantes destacados de denominações protestantes de mentalidade fundamentalista nos EUA e suas interações com o Partido Republicano durante o período compreendido entre as eleições presidenciais de 1948 e 1980. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, o objetivo deste artigo é descrever e interpretar como foram conduzidas essas relações e como as interações transformaram os agentes das ações (o fundamentalismo protestante e seus desdobramentos) e a estrutura, os objetivos e as práticas do Partido Republicano.In dialogue with the theoretical Weberian referential of elective affinities – to enable the recognition of articulations between religious and political instances, among others, in a society in a certain period of history –, this work proposes an investigation of the relations, the engagement and the political actions established by prominent representatives of Protestant denominations of fundamentalist mentality in the USA and their interactions with the Republican Party during the period between the presidential elections of 1948 and 1980. Through bibliographical research, the objective of this article is to describe and interpret how these relations were conducted and how the interactions transformed the agents of action (Protestant fundamentalism and its ramifications) and the structure, goals, and practices of the Republican Party.

Introduction

Protestant fundamentalism has had no denominational boards and no higher organizational authority. In their absence, institutions of higher education have often served as the forums in which conservative evangelicals debated the meanings of their faith. They have also become vital centers for political and cultural activism. From the 1920s through the 1980s, colleges, universities, Bible institutes, and seminaries have been the hubs of a loosely connected network of evangelical and fundamentalist churches and organizations. In many ways, the institutional needs of higher education have shaped fundamentalist religion, politics, and culture just as much as fundamentalist religion has shaped a distinctive sort of school.

Antifundamentalism in Modern America

This book provides a pathbreaking account of the role that the fear of fundamentalism has played—and continues to play—in American culture. Fundamentalism has never been a neutral category of analysis, and the book scrutinizes the various political purposes that the concept has been made to serve. In 1920, the conservative Baptist writer Curtis Lee Laws coined the word “fundamentalists.” The book examines the antifundamentalist polemics of Harry Emerson Fosdick, Talcott Parsons, Stanley Kramer, and Richard Hofstadter, which convinced many Americans that religious fundamentalists were almost by definition backward, intolerant, and anti-intellectual and that fundamentalism was a dangerous form of religion that had no legitimate place in the modern world. For almost fifty years, the concept of fundamentalism was linked almost exclusively to Protestant Christians. The overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the establishment of an Islamic republic led to a more elastic understanding of the nature of fundamentalism. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Americans became accustomed to using fundamentalism as a way of talking about Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, as well as Christians. Many Americans came to see Protestant fundamentalism as an expression of a larger phenomenon that was wreaking havoc all over the world. This book provides an overview of the way that the fear of fundamentalism has shaped American culture, and it will lead readers to rethink their understanding of what fundamentalism is and what it does.

12. Religion, politics, and fundamentalism

This chapter examines the nature of religion and fundamentalism and their relationship to politics. It first defines religion before discussing the nature and extent of religiosity worldwide. It then considers whether religion can be regarded as an ideology and goes on to assess its relationship with secular ideologies. It also explores arguments about the role of religion in politics, focusing on the secular state and ‘religious talk’ in the political sphere. Finally, it reviews the concept of fundamentalism as a form of political belief, the nature of religious fundamentalism, and the impact of movements based on religious fundamentalism in the modern world. These issues are illustrated with case studies relating to Christian (Protestant) fundamentalism, religious identity in the United Kingdom, the relationship between politics and religion in the United Kingdom vs. the United States, whether the faithful have a religious duty to get involved in politics, and Islamism.

The Dustbin of History

This chapter explores three different attempts to write a fitting obituary for Protestant fundamentalism. The first, Stanley Kramer's 1960 film Inherit the Wind, portrays fundamentalism as a reactionary movement whose intellectual bankruptcy was dramatically revealed in a famous trial about the teaching of evolution. The other two obituaries—Norman F. Furniss' The Fundamentalist Controversy, (1954) and Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)—were both written by professional historians. Both books present fundamentalism as a form of Christianity that in the past blocked Americans' search for knowledge; both assert that religious fundamentalism's influence peaked in the 1920s and then went into steep decline.