Fundamentalism and American Culture

Quotes

"This view of truth as an externally stable entity placed tremendous weight on the written word. If truth were the same for all ages, and if truth was apparent primarily in objective facts, then the written word was the surest means permanently and precisely to display this truth." 

"With the most influential conservative element in the Presbyterian church holding this view of the utter perspicuity of truth and Scripture, it is hardly surprising that the controversies in that denomination were more protracted and severe than elsewhere."

"Even those who most dislike the Religious Right, and its simpler either-or choices might recognize that it has been responding to a real crisis in a culture that has lost its moral compass—or, more finds itself with too many competing moral compasses. Perhaps most tellingly, the fundamentalistic attacks and their anger itself have pointed to a structural flaw in the attempt to shape society by a liberal pragmatism. "Inclusive pluralism" has been a working principle for pragmatists, one that can bridge the divide between liberals and post-modernists. 

"Yet that principle of inclusion has also served to inhibit the religious expressions in the public domain of many sectarian groups who are not inclusive pluralists. Sometimes such inhibition has not been so ideologically motivated as determined by the practical necessities of diverse peoples working together in public settings. Whatever the sources of these problems, so long as they are not resolved it is not altogether surprising that deeply committed people who claim some of the oldest American Protestant heritages should have responded by reasserting—sometimes with far more success than anyone would have predicted in the mid-1960s—their influence in the public sphere."

Paradigm shift

This book (in conjunction with Anti-intellectualism in American Life and A Summer for the Gods) has served as a cornerstone in my understanding of some of the most pressing and apparent cultural disconnects in America. Why do the "Religious Right" actively distrust academic institutions and intellectual expertise, and why do academics, experts, and the scientific community at large discount, ignore, and underestimate the lives and influence of the "moral majority"?

I'm not sure there will ever be a point where I say "Oh now I get it", but I do appreciate the massive amounts of historical ground covered by this book. The concepts and framing presented in Fundamentalism and American Culture, essential to understanding the America we have today, are almost entirely misunderstood or ignored by many individuals who care deeply about the "American Experiment".