Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity

by Josie McSkimming

There is an increasing interest in the influence of religious fundamentalism upon people’s motivation, identity and decision-making. Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Re-construction of Identity details the stories of those who have left Christian fundamentalist churches and how they change after they have left. It considers how the previous fundamentalist identity is shaped by aspects of church teaching and discipline that are less authoritarian and coercive, and more subtle and widely spread throughout the church body. That is, individuals are understood as not only subject to a form of judgment, but also exercise it, with everyone seemingly complicit in maintaining the stability of the church organisation. This book provocatively illustrates that the reasons for leaving an evangelical Christian church may be less about what happens outside the church in terms of the lures and attractions of the secular world, and more about the experience within the community itself.

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make no mistake, this book comes out of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, and it reads like a dissertation for the most part. With that said, it won me over. I appreciated the author's self-reflection throughout the process, considering how she might be influencing her subjects, the unavoidability of this co-construction, and how this effect can be ethical or less than ethical. This strikes me as something that she was uniquely suited to do, both as a counselor and, even more, as a former Christian fundamentalist herself with years of training in self-suspicion (a connection she surprisingly doesn't make, as far as I can remember). She applies a few types of analyses to her interview subjects' stories, mainly working from Foucault, so you'll want a bit of background in Foucault ideally going into this book. Though that said, I had almost no background in his thought and she does a pretty good job of walking us through it. But some background reading is definitely necessary, ideally in postmodern philosophy and psychology and religious and ritual studies. If you see that list and you're like, "Umm I've read things LIKE that but I don't know" then you're probably okay. This shouldn't be the first book you read in this area, though.

This book is very academic, which is kind of at odds with how personal this book is to the author, to the people she interviewed, and to me. I think she mostly manages this tension well, though sometimes it feels like the two tones are competing with each other. Since this isn't my academic background, I mostly enjoyed the more personal parts, and reading the interview excerpts was by far my favorite part. I would love to see a more personal work on this topic from this author; she is an excellent writer, and her unique blend of academic and counseling chops I think would result in a very meaningful and accessible book if she ever decided to write one like that.

4.5/5 - Personally meaningful and validating, challenging but rewarding, and it made me feel bad for not reading more philosophy which honestly is probably a good thing. Minus points for the tension between personal and academic tones, which I feel could have been integrated better.

Drive safe,
Sam