Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements by Richard T.AntounReview by: Sally K. GallagherSociology of Religion, Vol. 64, No. 3, Special Issue (Autumn, 2003), pp. 411-412Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3712493 .

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Book Reviews

Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements, by RICHARD T. ANTOUN. New York: AltaMira, 2001, 181 pp.; $69.00 (Cloth), $19.95 (paper).

Richard T. Antoun's Understanding Fundamentalism is a readable overview and introduction to how conservative elites and communities in three monotheistic religious traditions orient themselves to modernity. He identifies individuals and groups within each tradition who react against, reject and to various degrees seek to transform modernity as "fundamentalist"(regardless of whether or not they adopt this identification for them- selves). In doing so, Antoun dismisses argu- ments that fundamentalism should be used in a more historically and culturally specific way to describe that strand of theologically con- servative and culturally separatist Protestant- ism that emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century. Rather, he uses the term as a broad umbrella to indicate an orientation toward the modem world - specifically the ideological and affective rejection and protest of secularization.

Throughout the book, Antoun traces five themes: traditioning (making ancient beliefs relevant in contemporary society), totalism (integrating faith into all areas of life, not just periodic worship), activism (pro- testing and opposing modernity), the struggle of good and evil, and selective accommo- dation to modernity. His chapter on scrip- turalism is particularly useful as a review of the complexities with which each tradition approaches, interprets and finds meaning in their sacred texts. For a small book to give so central a place to the nuances of sacred scrip- tures is welcome given the tendency, still, for researchers to identify theological conserva- tives as holding to,a doctrine of "inerrancy" or as simply taking the texts "literally." In addi- tion to providing meaning for the religious community, Antoun argues that funda

mentalists use their sacred texts to disturb taken for granted secular understandings of modernity, as well as reinforce themes of nationalism within each tradition.

For Antoun, the centrality of sacred texts undergirds another aspect of funda- mentalist identity - the maintenance of subcultural religious boundaries both between good and evil, and between those inside and outside the community. These boundaries are maintained through the use of proof-texts, dress and behavioral patterns that set funda- mentalists apart. Maintaining religious boun- daries reinforces various degrees of separation from the broader culture - a subject Antoun takes up in a chapter on "Three strategies in the quest for purity." The quest for purity may involve externals (such as dress or associa- tion), or symbolic identifiers (moral and ethical discourse distinguishing the "saved" from the "unsaved"), or confrontational tactics (such as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition in the United States).

One of the ironies of findamentalism for Antoun, is that the desire for purity extends beyond private and individual expressions into a drive to transform the broader culture. While the Protestant fundamentalism of the early twentieth century was isolationist and separatist - content to essentially abandon secular modernity - Antoun sees contemp- orary fundamentalism as actively engaged in trying to engage and transform secular cul- tures. Using examples from Iran, Israel, Palestine and the United States, Antoun argues that fundamentalists across faiths share a bent toward legal and political activism that challenges dominant culture ideals (particu- larly those regarding gender and family).

The same things that give Antoun's book its appeal (its assessable examples and breadth) are the same things that are likely to frustrate readers hoping for a deeper analysis of Islamist, Christian fundamentalist, and Orthodox Jewish religious/social movements. Apart from my own concerns about the appropriateness of identifying Islamist,

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412 SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

conservative Protestant, and nationalistic Jewish movements all as fundamentalist, I found Antoun's range of examples (from institutions and organizations, to personal observations made during fieldwork in a parti- cular Jordanian village) somewhat problem- atic. While such wide ranging examples may make the book appealing to undergraduate readers, it glosses over important questions about the degree to which the themes Antoun identifies as characteristic of funda- mentalism are really characteristic of activist elites or of individuals within particular com- munities of believers. His use of multiple examples from conservative Protestant organ- izations that thrived primarily in the 1980s (the Moral Majority and Concemed Women for America), raise more questions about institutional change than support his case for an underlying fundamentalist activist ethos. Moreover, the varying degree to which believers in each tradition embrace or embody these themes of traditioning, total- ism, activism, etc., begins to undermine the argument that there is a cohesive trans- tradition fundamentalism that shares these themes in common.

In the end, Understanding Fundament- alism, is about culture wars - and the ideas that transform personal belief into public resistance to the forces of secularization. Given renewed interest in religion, parti- cularly Islam, over the past few years, the book is timely, indeed. It is likely to be a discussion-provoking addition to many under- graduate courses in sociology of religion, cultural anthropology or social movements.

Sally K. Gallagher Oregon State University

Bridging Divided Worlds: Generational Culures in Congregations by JACKSON W. CARROLL and WADE CLARK ROOE San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002, xi + 268pp. $23.95 (cloth).

Only a relatively modest fraction of the sociology of religion books published each year is likely to appeal to practitioners and scholars alike. Marshalling their considerable expertise in, respectively, congregations (par- ticularly congregational leadership) and gen- erations (particularly baby boomers), Jackson Carroll and Wade Clark Roof have colla- borated seamlessly to produce such a book.

Based on participant observation and interviews with members of twenty congre- gations and two campus ministries in North Carolina and southern California - as well as a telephone survey of a random sample drawn from those two regions - Bridging Dividing Worlds has basically two parts. The first (chapters 1-4) addresses the myriad social, religious and generational changes that have marked American society since the middle of the past century. Among social changes, the authors point to shifting family and educational patterns as well as certain technological developments as being espe- cially salient. Religious pluralism, privatized religion and a shift in the dominant style of spirituality from what Robert Wuthnow has elsewhere dubbed a spirituality of "dwelling" to one of "seeking" are highlighted as key religious trends. Particularly interesting is their analysis of how these changes have in turn shaped the worldviews and shared expectations of religious involvement for the three generations that are the focus of scrutiny: pre-boomers, boomers and genera- tion Xers. Some of this material will not be new to many readers. However, because the authors present even the more familiar socio- religious changes with such lucidity and freshness and so convincingly support their discussion of generational differences with original survey data, this part of the book will prove worthwhile reading.

The same is true of the book's second part (chapters 5-7, Epilogue), which traverses new ground in delineating three ideal types of congregations based on their level of adap- tation to the generations participating within

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