The Shape of Absolutism by James C. Alexander (10 pages)
online excerpt from the book Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist (which I have not read yet)
Well worth the read. His description of the fundamentalist subculture is a good one, and I love the "Bible mania" part. I think he might blur the lines between moral absolutism and fundamentalism, but he gives a lot of food for thought, including this excerpts:
"Fundamentalism/absolutism is a reactionary phenomenon. It finds unique ways to both
engage and avoid the world. Moreover, it constantly uses the subculture to indoctrinate
against the world."
"Among the many varieties of fundamentalists/absolutists, the certainty of being right and fear
of rule breaking provide the common denominators."
"Absolutism betrays Christianity in three ways. It replaces historical doctrines with beliefs
without root in tradition, reason, or scripture. It replaces the central (Protestant) view of the
competency of the individual with a top-down clerical absolutism. Finally, it replaces love with
harsh and exacting laws (Bawer 1997, 11)."
"Love often goes by the wayside as rules and certainty move in."
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Thanks for sharing the Alexander chapter/essay. I have liked reading it. I agree with the entire paragraph that follows "Love often goes by the wayside as rules and certainty move in." It has provided much food for thought for me, someone who has always sat on the fence between the worlds of believers and non-believers, which is one world. :) My mother and I had a conversation once about the different denominations of Christianity because I was realizing they acted as individuals who discriminated against each other: This one is okay with gambling, this one is high and mighty, this one believes once saved, always saved, this one says you have to be re-baptized if you backslide, etc etc etc. She said something like they forget that all denominations should love people for & because of & in-spite of differences. I heard that when I was 11 years old or younger and that has ever since been the foundation of my interactions with people. It is so hard to be a part of a church when you encounter people in the congregation that do not have this same outlook on loving people.
ReplyDeleteI think I would agree with that book...but I probably wouldn't enjoy reading it as I generally prefer less dry material :-D
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks for voting for my little girl :-)
And also, you should enter the KN contest, because even if you cant get lots of votes, there are five runners up who get one diaper and that's worth it. I don't think I'll win. The picture after mine is so darn cute it's way ahead :-)
Just put your pic up and then ask your friends to vote. You just need more votes than most of the pictures, that's all! Your little guy is a cutiepie!
You have so many blogs I have a hard time knowing which one to choose to comment on!
ReplyDeleteI Just want to say CONGRATS on your diaper win from the Cloth Diaper REport! There's nothing like free dipes to feed your obsession ;-P