Slaves to faith
Subtitle: a therapist looks inside the fundamentalist mind
By: Calvin Mercer ; foreword by Martin E. Marty.
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Westport, Conn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
ISBN-13: 9780313364969
Subjects: Fundamentalism -- Psychology; Psychology, Religious
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.         ) and index.