The Nature of Fundamentalist Theologies

There are three churches within walking distance of my home with over 2000 members.  The picture is one of them.  They spring up in my area because there are a lot of vacant industrial units.  According to Madison Shockley, they are the sign of things to come.  The spread of right wing fundamentalist Christianity to Britain from America. 

Whether this particular church represents precisely that theological viewpoint I don't know.  However, the new evangelical or charismatic churches are immensely successful and have doubtless been influenced by fundamentalism.  I will at some stage look at the evidence for changes in some of the churches in the fundamentalist diaspora but for now we need to note that the influence of this theology in the UK is definitely on the increase.

What I want to try to clarify is what exactly fundamentalism is.  Clearly this is a complex subject and I will return to it from time to time.  The aim in what follows is to identify some of the themes of fundamentalist history and theology. 

1. It seems likely one of the sources of fundamentalism was slavery.  To support slavery puts the Christian in tension with the Biblical text.  It will push them away from social action (sanctification) towards piety and reaction.  The focus will inevitably move towards a supernaturalist interpretation of scripture in an effort to avoid a focus on injustice.  The ethical agenda is focused on matters usually of sex or sexuality rather than the marginalised.
2. It is premised on marginalising or rejecting sections of society that don't fit with their worldview. 
3. A mark of fundamentalism is a rejection of fellow religionists.  Fundamentalist Christians therefore reject other Christians with different theologies.
4. All of this boils down to fear of the stranger.  This fear leads to exploitation by and dependency upon unscrupulous leaders.
5. The reading of scripture is profoundly dishonest.  So, for example, if the Bible disagrees with science about the age of the world, then each day in the genealogies can be interpreted as 1000 years.  The texts are distorted to fit science.
6. And science is distorted to fit a partial reading of scripture.  The obvious example is creationism and I will have a lot to say about this in later posts.
7. Fantastic interpretations of scripture, where a supernaturalist view is taken, such as rapture.  The idea of rapture of course reinforces the idea that the elect are to be saved and those at the margins are damned.

There are of course many fundamentalisms.  These are some examples of common characteristics.  It is important too to understand that not all the new churches are fundamentalist.  Fundamentalism influences many churches which are not themselves fundamentalist.  Some churches are finding fundamentalist theology unhelpful and are exploring new approaches. 

For ecumenists the inadequacy of fundamentalist theologies means that there are new opportunities  for collaboration with the new churches.  I've mentioned before the view that the historical churches can offer the new churches their wisdom.  These shifts may open up a renewal of ecumenical vision in the future.