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Features of fundamentalism
Characteristics of religious fundamentalism
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Recommended: Features of fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is an espresso shot of Christianity—strong, bitter, and undiluted.
Fundamentalists believe the Bible should be interpreted as literal fact, not metaphorically.
To them, it is God’s direct word to humanity and the ultimate earthly authority. And so
fundamentalists follow the Bible with unwavering certainty, as if it were God himself, and
press their interpretation of the book upon society. But the certainty at fundamentalism’s core is
unwarranted, leading them to wrongfully ignore their oppositions’ own valid opinions and the
potential gains that come with them.
In the eyes of Christian fundamentalists, their actions are protecting God’s will;
they are upholding the laws of the Supreme Being, thus keeping society on the right path.
Fundamentalists’ core beliefs “[are] encapsulated under the rubric of ‘the inerrancy of
Scripture,” the idea that the Bible is God’s perfect word, the clearest expression of God’s plan
for humanity (Marsden). With this comes the concept of Biblical literalism, that “the historical
events recorded in the Bible…are accurate,” not parables or allegories—they believe God spoke
plainly and clearly, not in confusing metaphors (Creationism Has). By corollary, if the Bible
is the literal and inerrant record of God’s plan for humanity, and if God is humanity’s ultimate
authority, then humans ought to obey the laws of the Bible. By this reasoning, the Biblical norm
should be enforced over human laws, and society’s deviations from this norm, such as “the
assaults on traditional standards of family and sexuality…[posed by] changes in standards for
public decency, aggressive second-wave feminism, gay activism, and challenges to conventional
family structures,” shou...
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.... For argument is not about who is right, but what is learned as a
result and how these new truths can benefit society.
Works Cited
"Creationism Has the Greater Basis in Science." Roanoke Times [VA] 6 Mar. 2005: 3. Infotrac
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Hebrews. Holy Bible, New International Version. N.p.: Biblia, 2011. BibleGateway.org. Web. 22
"How evolution can save lives; Junk medicine." Times [London, England] 11 Feb. 2006: 4.
Academic OneFile. Web. 19 May 2014.
Marsden, George. "The sword of the Lord: how 'otherwordly' fundamentalism became a political
power." Books & Culture Mar.-Apr. 2006: 10+. General OneFile. Web. 22 May 2014.
"MIT Finds Key To Avian Flu In Humans." Space Daily 7 Jan. 2008. General OneFile. Web. 18
Riascos, Norma Enriquez. "Fundamentalisms: a real threat." Women in Action Apr.
2007: 30+. General OneFile. Web. 18 May 2014.
Congdon, D. W. (2010). 12 the Word as Event: Barth and Bultmann on Scripture. Retrieved from www.academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/658913/The_Word_as_Event_Barth_and_Bultmann_on_Scripture
The meaning of the word ‘fundamentalism’ has been redefined so often that the meaning became ‘obscured’ (Carpenter, 1997: 4). Definitions became relative to changing contexts and have almost been denatured as a descriptive term. It became evaluative and pejorative with the aim to stigmatize. Juergensmeyer says the term is “less descriptive than it is accusatory.” (De Sousa, 2007:86).
Marsden’s analysis denotes the development of fundamentalism to particular intellectual progressions, particularly within the evangelical revivalism which took place within the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century (Marsden pg 11-12). After the civil war, Marsden elaborates on the consanguinity between evangelicals faith, morality, society, scripture, and science. However due to the introduction of Darwinian evolution, which was a major determinant within the fundamentalist movement, brought significant breaks within the evangelical body. Marsden points to two major theologians, Charles Hodge and James McCosh as representatives of these divisions. Charles Hodge, which represents the conservative position, could not reconcile the naturalism that was present within Darwinism (Marsden pg 19). As for McCosh, science and scripture correlate and verify one another, “Both reveal order in the world, the one appointed by God; the other discovered by man” (Marsden pg 19). The latter along with the cultural developm...
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The Hebrew Bible, better known as the Old Testament, is a collection of tomes that form part of the Biblical canon. Many scholars around the world do not think that a single author wrote the books contained in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that it represents centuries of stories frequently compiled after the events they describe . The stories were created with visions for the future, in order to allow audiences insight into communities and beliefs that were common thought during their era. The stories responded to the issues and problems of their time, but also addressed contemporary climates. While the stories themselves may not be true, they convey truth without needing literal readings. For example, the creation stories in Genesis, portray God as creating the universe, and while this is considered as not ‘literally true’; the stories communicate theological truths about mankind’s relationship with God through the eyes of Hebrew writers .
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Graham first introduces when and how the concept of a scriptural book came into existence. Quite often, the development of the idea of a scriptural book is accompanied with the concept of a heavenly book (8195). A heavenly book is understood to contain divine knowledge or divine decrees, an idea accepted primarily in the ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds and later appears in the developed concepts of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic scripture (8195). A heavenly book can come to pass in one of many forms, commonly that of a book of wisdom, in which an expression of divine omniscience is kept; book of destinies, in which the set days of the apocalypse is written down; book of works, in which the deeds of humankind is recorded; or book of life, in which the names of whom God has predestined to salvation is
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
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