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The Fundamentalist Mindset : Psychological Perspectives on Religion

The Fundamentalist Mindset is the culmination of a project that began as an online discussion and then grew to include a conference and monthly seminar. The current text is a compilation of papers collected on the various topics. The first two sections of the book focus on definitional issues and the underlying psychological characteristics of the mindset. These include the developmental antecedents of fundamentalism and associated characteristics such as the “paranoid gestalt,” dualistic thought, and apocalypticism. The third and fourth sections of the book focus on Christian and American contexts, and global and historical contexts, respectively. For example, James Jones draws connections between the Left Behind series of books and video games and the extremist themes of dichotomization, purity, and violence. Similarly, Charles Strozier analyzes the book of Revelation and its themes of revenge and paranoia. David Redles describes the quasi-religious nature of “conversions” in Germany to the Nazi ethos, with an emphasis on racial purity rather than religiosity. The global and historical section provides chapters on global jihadism and Hindu nationalism. The term fundamentalism has clearly evolved (no pun intended) since its origin in the early 20th century as a reaction to encroaching secularism and liberalism (e.g., the Scopes Monkey Trial). Originally, a series of pamphlets called “The Fundamentals” referred to a set of bedrock doctrines for Protestant Christians, but currently the term is used in common parlance to refer to denominations or religions stressing orthodox beliefs or textual literalism. In the present collection, Strozier and Boyd define the fundamentalist mindset as involving dualistic thinking, paranoia and rage in a group context, an apocalyptic orientation with distinct perspectives (on time, death, purity, and violence), reliance on charismatic leadership, and a totalized conversion experience. A similar conceptualization in the social sciences by Bob Altemeyer has had success using empirical methods of validation and questionnaire development. Like Altemeyer, Strozier et al.’s focus is less on belief content and more on the way in which beliefs are held. However, Altemeyer’s conceptualization does include some emphasis on textual literalism and inerrancy and would probably include a wider segment of the U.S. population or even the majority of