Reddit mentions: The best christian fundamentalism books

idk_and_idc did a great job answering your questions. I'm no theologian, but I had many of the same questions before I started coming to church. I know that I am by no means qualified to answer all of your questions, but I may have some great places to direct you. I'm not sure if you're looking for resource recommendations, but I thought I'd suggest a few that seem relevant to your post.

• Across the Spectrum: By far the best "intro to theology" book I've read. It covers the ideas of predestination & free will, evolution and creationism, hell, etc. It's not light reading by any means but if you're seriously interested on getting your mind around the various evangelical thoughts on a wide range of commonly discussed issues, it is the #1 place I suggest looking.
  
  "The authors carefully examine positions taken by evangelical scholars on seventeen seminal issues. They lay out the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for each position in point-counterpoint fashion and discuss possible objections. "
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Across-Spectrum-Understanding-Evangelical-Theology/dp/080103793X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344124761&sr=8-1&keywords=across+the+spectrum
  
  
• http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/07/09/making-sense-of-scriptures-inconsistency/
  
  A blog post. The description is "Here's a short course on the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament."
  
  
• I haven't found C.S. Lewis to be an "easy" read by any means. I love the way one of my friends sums it up: "C.S. Lewis is wonderful to quote because he states things in a unique way. However, it is difficult to read large portions of his words because of the unique way in which he writes." That said, Mere Christianity is a book I recommend to any any person inquiring for more information about the faith.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652888/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344124813&sr=1-1&keywords=mere+christianity
  
  I joined reddit specifically to respond to your inquiry, so I hope I did it right! :) I find your questions to be very insightful & if I can try to be of any further assistance please be sure to let me know.

Juan Cole is a good place to start.

An old one, but VERY useful is Sir John Bagot Glubb's A Short History of the Arab Peoples. He lived among the bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula and became fluent in Arabic. Plus he is a good writer. https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Arab-Peoples/dp/0880292261/ref=sr_1_4?crid=14EK2682K6QSK&keywords=john+glubb&qid=1558423559&s=books&sprefix=john+glubb%2Caps%2C309&sr=1-4

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I would also recommend Karen Armstrong - anything by her. But The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism is fascinating. https://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-History-Fundamentalism-Ballantine-ebook/dp/B005DB6NCA/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=battle+for+god&qid=1558423715&s=books&sr=1-1

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Best of luck! Hope this helps.

Well the metaphor of Water fails to correctly describe the holy spirit because it falls into a mistake called "Modalism"
In which God is one person, but wears three masks, thus denying the individuality, and uniqueness of the triune members. Water is water. But it has three states of exsisting (or modes). Where as God, exists separately but in three persons.

The other two common mistakes are subordinatism and tritheism.

Subordinatism is where one or more members are thought of as only semi divine or less powerful as the other part(s)

Tritheism says that there are three gods.

The best (orthodox) explaination i've herad is the Nicene Creed. which christians have been using for centuries.

I'm no expert, and there are whole books dedicated to this subject. I recomend Across the Spectrum it's an easy read and it covers a whole bunch of issues in Christian theology. it's pretty even handed with respect for different perspectives :)

Check out The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald. It's nearly a decade old now, but it does a great job of showing how after the fall of the Reform Party and the rise of the CPC, the architects of Canada's political right used the exact same strategists and religious leaders as the American Republican Party to cement themselves as the party of religious and moral authority. From there, any other connections to the Republican Party (anti-intellectualism, climate denialism, dire fear of liberal policies, etc.) just slid right into place.

Living in Saskatchewan, it's pretty obvious that there is a significant rural population in Canada who really likes what they see coming out of the American South, especially when it comes to "religious values".

Resources:

Douglas Wilson (The most identifiable of the proponents of Federal Vision, but I'd say actually not so representative of it).

> Reformed is not Enough

> To a Thousand Generations

> Back to Basics

> A Study Guide to Calvin's Institutes

James Jordan

> Primeval Saints

> The Law of the Covenant

> The Glory of Kings (Not Jordan himself, but his Festschrift)

P. Andrew Sandlin

> A Faith that is Never Alone (He edited this volume)

> Backbone of the Bible (He edited this as well, which includes John Frame)

Rich Lusk

> Paedofaith

Tim Gallant

> These are Two Covenants

Peter Leithart

> A House for My Name

> The Baptized Body

> Commentary on 1&2 Kings

> The Kingdom and the Power

> Christology Ancient and Modern (He has an essay in here)

> Priesthood of the Plebs (This is his dissertation. Just read it. It's basically wonderful)

Internet Resources

> http://www.federal-vision.com/

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Vision

> http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/

> http://dougwils.com/

Books on Federal Vision

Pro:

> The Federal Vision

Neutral:

> The Auburn Avenue Theology

Against:

> The Federal Vision and Covenant Theology

> Federal Vision

> Calvin and the Federal Vision

At the core of the whole controversy is a man named Norman Shepherd. He is not typically thrown in with the Federal Vision proper, but they all use his insights. Here are his two books:

> The Call of Grace

> The Way of Righteousness

Norman Shepherd was a tenured professor at Westminster Theological Seminary (in Philadelphia) and they fired him for "doctrinal reasons." Or at least, that's what those who slander him would like to believe. The Justification controversy has been awash in haziness and misinformation. There are two main accounts, taking opposite perspectives.

> The Current Justification Controversy

> Trust and Obey

I would also suggest the Festschrift for Norman Shepherd.

> Obedient Faith (Difficult to find)

The basic gist is this:

John Murray, Norman Shepherd, and Meredith Kline are on a continuum.

Meredith Kline----------John Murray-----------Norman Shepherd.

Most people tend to side with Kline, but they insist on calling Shepherd a heretic.

I used to take a perspective much like your church mostly because I had never really attended a church that was not dispensationalist. But I started looking at both sides. The thing is, I never found a Covenant argument that could convince me of their views of Israel and the Church but Dispensational arguments seemed to be rather lacking in explaining how the church benefits from the Covenants in the Old Testament, not to mention the whole church is just a parenthesis in God's program for Israel just does not have any Biblical backing.

Lately, I have been leaning more towards Progressive Dispensationalism. It still views Israel and the church as separate and God still having future plans for Israel, but sees a lot more continuity and unity of purpose in God's plan throughout history, allowing the church to benefit from covenants made solely with Israel.

It should be noted that some people claim that this system of theology is only rooted in a desire for evangelical ecumenism. Although many in Covenant Theology will say that this system is a little more acceptable than traditional Dispensationalism, a lot of traditional Dispys will be angrier with you than they are with traditional Covenant Theology if you take this view. And you will still see a little too much future fulfillment of prophecies going on for Amills to fully embrace you, so for the moment it sort of puts you on an island, but between PDism and New Covenant Theology (tends to be a little more accepting of PDism) that island is rapidly growing.

I would recommend reading up on all of the positions if you can, because I find that all of them tend to misrepresent the others, but I just wanted to point out that there is a middle ground which is not necessarily just a compromiser position.

I think what we are seeing is increasing polarization. Whether we're talking about abortion, same-sex marriage or end of life choice, the arguments tend to come from the same base of religious fundamentalism.

Yet in Vermont, the successful governor campaigned on the promise of introducing death with dignity legislation.

The rise of Christian Nationalism is also becoming an increasing problem in Canada. Marci McDonald's outstanding book on the subject is I think a must read for all Canadians who are concerned about freedom from religious coercion.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Armageddon-Factor-Christian-Nationalism/dp/0307356469

One very interesting fact though, is that at least in Canada, there is support for legalizing physician assisted dying legislation across all political parties. In the run up to the last Federal election, there was a Vote Compass Poll which asked people their views on a variety of subjects. The one and only statement which people from every political party agreed with was that physician assisted dying should be legalized.

Fair enough, but denying the complexity in declaring certain groups "extremists" doesn't make the complexity go away. The truth is much too complex to be summarized by pithy statements.

I think you completely ignored the case of guns because for better or worse it clearly illustrates that denying others their "right to freedom" is not a good way to categorize extremism.

If you're actually interested in learning about extremism, especially religiously motivated extremism and the manifestations it takes, I recommend a couple of books:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Taliban-Power-Jihadists-Radical/dp/1936227029

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-Karen-Armstrong/dp/0345391691

I'd love to see someone-- you? --blow the cover off these "schools" with serious, scholarly expose. It's always fun to read books like that and they can really some good by shining some sun on what can be very dark places. When I was an undergrad Nancy Ammerman's Bible Believers was first published and we all wanted to write books like hers.

Are you doing this in an education program? Or something like sociology, public policy, etc?

If you’re interested in learning more about Radical Orthodoxy, I’d recommend Jamie Smith’s book Introducing Radical Orthodoxy. Smith is Reformed, and is not part of the RO movement but Milbank wrote the foreword.

I like a lot of the stuff the RO folks say, as well as the postliberals at Yale and Duke more broadly. Evangelicals would benefit greatly from reading them more.

Here is a well-researched book that explains the evangelical adoption subculture:

https://www.amazon.com/Child-Catchers-Rescue-Trafficking-Adoption/dp/1586489429/

Unfortunately, that subculture contributes to babies being stolen from poor villagers. I am sure they are well-intentioned, but foreign adoptions are expensive for a reason. It causes babies to become very valuable. There are plenty of wealthy, childless Chinese couples who are competing with American evangelicals for a baby.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/china/china-child-trafficking-bust/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/health/uganda-adoptions-investigation-ac360/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/opinions/adoption-uganda-opinion-davis/index.html

edit: Let me clarify that disabled children are the truly unwanted and abandoned in these foreign countries. So my kudos to those who adopt the truly abandoned.

Luther was not a fundamentalist; he was the founder of Protestantism. Fundamentalism arose later from Protestantism and Catholicism, in the 1900s. There's an excellent history of the movement if you'd like to take the time to read it: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-History-Fundamentalism-Ballantine-ebook/dp/B005DB6NCA The first Fundamentalist was Sister Aimee Semple who had a storefront church in LA in the early twentieth century.

Fundamentalists look down on both mainstream Protestants and Catholics alike, as well as Jews, Muslims, Bahais, etc.., etc.. They believe that they communicate directly with God and that God acts in their lives and they have "the gifts of the Spirit" and can create miracles in their every day life. God talks to them directly (and I mean this quite literally for many of them; some of them, including my father, will tell you that God speaks out loud to them).

IBLP is a special, weird little sect/cult based on one man, Bill Gothard, but a lot of their beliefs (woman submits to man, women must dress ultra modestly, remove yourself from the world and only concern yourself with Godly things, etc.) are common in fundamentalism.

Why, Southen Ontario. Not Alberta or some rural area, but a prominent city with multiple universities. I think people who are surprised by this should talk to their family, relatives and friends more often about religion and what they believe. You would be shocked.

This book might be an eye opener as well to see what is really going on in Canadian public life in recent years

http://www.amazon.ca/Armageddon-Factor-Christian-Nationalism-Canada/dp/0307356469

I don't really "get" Radical Orthodoxy, but it sounds nice enough. If you want a good Reformed overview, check out Jamie Smith's book Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-secular Theology.

There's tons of these stories, like when our great "conservative" Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn was negotiating serial philanderer Senator Ensign's monetary exit from a cheating scandal with his staff (his "best friend's" wife).

https://youtu.be/KVIDCSswc6E?t=548

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/coburn-i-acted-as-ensign-hampton-go-between

https://www.politico.com/story/2009/07/c-st-where-scandal-meets-spirituality-025139

https://www.amazon.com/Street-Fundamentalist-American-Democracy-Readers/dp/0316091065/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Tom Coburn is about as "Christian" as Osama Bin Laden. But the illiterate electorate of Oklahoma will buy it if you're selling it. Just like Epic Schools' LIES (which KWTV9 and other Oklahoma based TV media are keeping hush hush right now, because all their friends and political allies are neck deep in it) and on and on and on. Then dumb Okies sit around wondering why politicians lie to them all the time. Gee, it's a "real mystery", isn't it...... ???

You'll like "Welcome to Jesusland" then

One of my favorite parts is excerpts from a supposed children's book "Mommy, Why Is Grandma Burning In Hell?"

Across the Spectrum by Boyd and Eddy covers this topic in great detail. I scanned chapter 11 "The Destiny of the Unevangelized Debate" for you so you could read it (if you wish). its only 17 pages so its not a humongous read. I put it up for download on my dropbox here. Hope this helps!

A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance

Nope, that's evolution as a tool. Strict creationism sticks to a young Earth and dinosaurs frolicking with humans (~6000-ish years) theory. You might be interested in a related book, Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. It has a chapter about creationism vs less crazy theories.

>They are calling them the family even though I have been deep in this shit for years and never heard that stupid name

Thats funny, because it has been known about for years. Jeff Sharlet even wrote a couple of books about them C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy was published in 2010, and The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power was published in 2009. He wrote a famous piece in Salon about this issue in 2009 as well.

https://www.salon.com/2009/07/21/c_street/

The nexus of right wing Christianity and fascism in American politics has been a running theme for decades.

And helps fuel the child adoption trafficking industry under the guise of "save the brown kids and bring them to white Christian homes"...

Based off of your response to /u/2Cor517, it sounds like you're struggling with trusting the Bible. Here's some books about Biblical Inerrancy/trusting the Bible.

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Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung - This book is short and sweet.

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Fundamentalism and the Word of God by J.I. Packer - Written back in the 50s, but still incredibly relevant. Also not very long.

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Inspiration and the Authority of the Bible by B.B. Warfield - Also an older book, and quite a bit longer than the last two. I haven't read this one, but I'd like to.

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What else are you struggling with? Do you have any questions I can try to answer?

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there was an amazing book written about this a few years back that basically outlines this child-stealing strategy among the especially crazy rind of evangelicals known as the "Quiverfull" movement:

The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption

NPR interview with author Kathyn Joyce: How Evangelical Christians Are Preaching The New Gospel Of Adoption

it's an offshoot of dominionism, the theology that tells Christians they have the right to take anything (or anyone) they want, because God

I promise you will not go wrong with Moody's Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity

Or JJ Altizer. Or any of the critiques of Altizer.

If you haven't heard of it you can easily click
https://watershedsentinel.ca/about/

Here's another one:

https://thewalrus.ca/stephen-harper-and-the-theo-cons/

Same author who wrote this book:

The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0307356469/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ekMDDb8J5BEK1

It doesn't really matter if you've heard of it or not. Either the contents are true or they're not.

You haven't addressed anything I wrote so I'm not going to waste my time beyond this.

Read the book. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060560053/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

It's much easier to believe. The author stumbled on this connection as a reporter in the late 80s and the experience changed his entire worldview.

Here's another book he wrote at the time. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316091065/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

You can probably find these in your local library. They are absolutely worth reading.

That said--I'm really glad that the release of the Netflix documentary has given some new and badly-needed attention to Jeff Sharlet's research. (Sharlet was a former member of the Family, as you likely know, until he walked away--and was still able to get unprecedented access to the archives and history of the group until this was eventually shut down, with even the publically available archives being yeeted off the Internet after Sharlet's first article on The Family came out in 2003.) I will say that the documentary is, very much, the Cliff's Notes version of Sharlet's research; those interested should seriously check out the original book on which the documentary was based (written almost ten years ago to the day!) and the followup C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat To American Democracy. He's been trying to warn about the threat even longer than I have, and it's good to go to the source material (or even some of his interviews re the book).

Seriously, I just wish people were paying this kind of attention some thirteen years ago...

Traditional Dispensationalism:

http://www.amazon.com/Dispensationalism-Charles-C-Ryrie/dp/080242189X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344919159&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=DiSoensationalism

http://www.amazon.com/There-Really-Difference-Comparison-Dispensational/dp/0915540509/ref=pd_sim_b_1

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Come-Study-Biblical-Eschatology/dp/0310308909/ref=pd_sim_b_9

Progressive Dispensationalism:
http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Dispensationalism-BridgePoint-Books-Darrell/dp/0801022436/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344919422&sr=1-1&keywords=progressive+dispensationalism

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Central-Issues-Contemporary-Dispensationalism/dp/0825420628/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Covenant (sorry, my seminary was staunchly dispensational so I am less knowledgeable here):
http://www.amazon.com/Christ-Covenants-O-Palmer-Robertson/dp/0875524184/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344919539&sr=1-1&keywords=christ+and+the+covenants

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Dispensationalists-Vern-Sheridan-Poythress/dp/0875523749/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

Hope this helps.

The real reason the right is so anti-choice is the fact that many fundamentalist churches make huge sums of money on adoptions.

They shame young mothers into giving up their babies and can sometimes make as much as $100,000 per child brokered.

Many babies are exported because the US is the only country where wealthy Caucasian couples from the EU, UK, Australia, South Africa, etc. can find adoptable children without tons of red tape.

Now with their only competition blocked in the US, the brokers can demand top dollar. (Perhaps the religious rightists paid off the notoriously corrupt Duma?)

EDIT: added more links:

"Adoption And The Role of the Religious Right" by Mirah Riben

http://works.bepress.com/mirah_riben/7/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Child-Catchers-Trafficking-Adoption/dp/1586489429

http://www.care2.com/causes/abortion-is-killing-adoption-says-the-religious-right.html

There's literally a whole book on the subject:

https://www.amazon.ca/Armageddon-Factor-Christian-Nationalism-Canada/product-reviews/0307356477/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1

I haven't read it myself, I admit. But it seems disingenuous to dismiss his ties to the religious right in an offhand manner given that books like this (and a number of other expositions on the matter) exist.

have you read armageddon factor by marci mcdonald? might be worth looking at as well before the election.

That is unfortunate. I think there are lessons to be learned from that comparison.

Karen Armstrong wrote a great book about fundamentalist movements in all three Abrahamic religions that is very helpful in understanding the similarities and causes. The title is "The Battle for God".

I may not have been clear enough. I certainly wasn't trying to claim it's all hunky-dory here. The chosen example was to highlight the absurdity of something like that.

Having said that, your example of Mrs. Reagan is not quite relevant since she was certainly not an elected official and (at least from what I know and what your wiki link says), the astrologer was used by her in a personal capacity, for personal reasons. So, yeah, not the same thing at all. Of course, I will freely grant that such nonsense is not that uncommon even in the US. Just saying that the Reagan thing doesn't seem like a valid example. The thing with India is that astrology is so widely accepted there, that using an astrologer for high-level economic policy decisions doesn't raise much ire there. Fuck astrology and its prevalence there - it's holding India back in so many ways that it's heart-breaking. Its penetration in all areas of life, from the personal (marriage decisions) to the political is disgusting and tragic.

For a detailed look at actual examples in the US, I would recommend C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, or this wiki for much of the same info.

It's satire

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446697583/landoverbaptist

I haven't read it but this book by James K.A. Smith seems just what you're looking for.

Stephen Harper's Canada

I would recommend Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God.

>Is there anyone on here who would genuinely identify as an Independent Fundamental Baptist, or Christian Fundamentalist that would be willing to talk about their perspective on how they view certain things?

I read Karen Armstrong's history of fundamentalism in various religions *The Battle for God where the origin of the phrase "fundamentalist" was first used to describe what we would today be called "Bible believing." So in that sense I am a fundamentalist. I would use the flair "fundamentalist" to slightly troll people and try to reappropriate the word which largely only exists as a slur today. But I thought it would mostly just get in the way. Even going by Evangelical has sometimes lead to people only seeing the title.

Wow, pretty scathing article. I once read in The Armageddon Factor that Manning gets his political morality from William Wilberforce(the British parliamentarian who finally curbed slavery in the British Empire). Basically, Wilberforce tricked the House of Lords into passing a law that would in effect make transporting slaves illegal thus slavery was greatly diminished. So Manning sees it as okay to trick people or parliament as long as one is pursuing a higher moral goal. Which for him is a free market and a Christian state. This is how we can explain his and Harper's incremental approach to the transformation of Canada. Because they know that if they came out and told people they wanted to privatize health care and criminalize abortion most people wouldn't vote for them.

I cannot recommend this book enough - check out The Lost World of Genesis One. This book will help you to understand that a literal interpretation of Genesis chapter one as if it were a scientific textbook completely misses the whole point this passage is trying to make.

Additionally, it seems to me that you don't have an understanding of the variety of theological viewpoints out there in the vast world of Christendom. Another book you might want to check out is Across the Spectrum.

Stephen Harper belongs to a school of though/church that posits that the end times are here and that environmentalism is the enemy of the nation's souls.

I am all for moderate, right-of-centre conservatives, but these guys are something else entirely.

There is kind of an adoption industrial complex associated with the Evangelicals and the "Pro-Life" movement. It has it's own set of problems. Kathryn Joyce wrote a book about it.

Child trafficking is big business, especially among religious types. This book about the subject made me sick to my stomach:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Child-Catchers-Trafficking-Adoption/dp/1586489429

Many countries are implementing international adoption bans because of this and rightly so.

I'm pessimistic about how likely you are to read this, but I would highly recommend The Battle For God, by Karen Armstrong. She very skillfully traces the origins of modern day fundamentalist (and aggressive and violent) movements in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Her argument is, obviously, complex and nuanced. But one of the themes she mentions is that the fundamentalism we see today is a very modern approach to religion, and is a direct reaction to modernity. Ideas such as bringing about the end times rather than waiting for it, participating in earthly politics rather than separation and new interpretations of old ideas are all modern ideas, and came from modern sources.

Even if you disagree with her argument (tough to do, since that book is sourced like crazy), her book provides a valuable and informative look at the history of all those movements. In the end, she would probably say that the the vast majority of Islam is not what you are talking about, but the fundamentalist minority. And that fundamentalist minority IS the reform in the face of the modern world.

There is no such thing as Dark Ages, you know. That terms is been used to describe an era after fall of Western Rome Empire where there is so little written recorded history of Europe, hence "Dark Ages".

And to show you how completely wrong you are, just read [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-Karen-Armstrong/dp/0345391691) book. It is not as simply as you think. I've read two Karen Armstrong book to reach this conclusion. Go on. Read the book.