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Slaves to Faith A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind
Calvin Mercer
ISBN: 0-313-36496-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-36496-9
229 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 4/30/2009
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: 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     August 2009
Description: Based upon the author's twenty years of classroom and clinical study, Slaves of Faith explores and explains the emotionally laden dynamic at work in the fundamentalist mind. 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.
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
About the Author: Calvin Mercer is Professor and Co-Director 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 co-author 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 journals and has presented a number of papers at the American Academy of Religion and other scholarly societies.
LCC Class: 270.8'2-dc22
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Public Library Spring 2009.pdf
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