evangelicalism - ault, spirit and flesh Flashcards
1
Q
general
A
- Obstacles presented by fundamentalism
- Territory consists of boundaries
o Quite distinct from other denominations
o Isolated. But try to bring messages to other Churches.
o Dichotomy of salvation vs. condemnation
o Separation form social relationship. No indifference
2
Q
xi valenti
A
- ‘VP of the Massachusets chapter of the Moral Majority, the new-right organisation.
- He was called on by the media to rep the moral majority POV at a time when popular mobilisation of its pro-family agenda was growing and transforming American politics beyond recognition.
- I had met him a year before while beginning sociological research to better understand popular support for this new-style conservatism marching proudly behind the banner of ‘family values’. As a sixties radical who had embraced the anti-war movement, feminism and other new-left enthusiasms of the day, I saw “pro-family” conservativism as so foreign to my own politics that I was convinced anthropological methods were the best way to understand it.’
3
Q
ault motive
A
- Wanted to conduct documentary film about Valenti church
- Aware that he is not saved and that therefore would be viewed as unable to understand spiritual things/meaning of Bible
4
Q
ault approach to study
A
- story arises from relationships – affected by both backgrounds
- (consider the way a researcher’s background affects their study subjectively – all aspects of socio-cultural world depend on subjective assumptions, beliefs and values of conscious subjects)
- starting points of sociologists affect the way they approach questions
- reflects Weberian idea that all knowledge of social reality is linked to values of knower
- wrong to view sociology as utterly objective and universal
- grew up in home of Methodist minister
5
Q
valentis marriage
A
- marriage changed after conversion to Xianity – became more solid and began to communicate
- common for members of Shawmut River and churches like it
- ‘But there was a startling paradox embedded in Frank and Sharon’s story. Fundamentalists are often seen by outsiders to be rigidly opposed to change, even crippled by their fear of it. Yet in Frank and Sharon’s story the whole point of being saved was the process of change it had unleashed in their lives.’
6
Q
Sunday worship
A
- no one wore a robe, wore street clothes – extreme example of Luther’s reformation of priesthood
- attended as many services as possible
- ‘The question of my (or anyone’s) salvation was, in any case, posed at the end of each service when Pastor Valenti gave ‘the invitation’ over the closing hymn. But in time, the matter of my salvation would be taken up more directly by those in charge.’
7
Q
View of scholarship on fundamentalist conservativism and how Shawmut river might help
A
- people tend to dismiss fundamentalism as archaic – they do not understand how people could still believe in fundamentalist ideas
- ‘I thought better sense might be made of fundamentalist beliefs by seeing them in the context of the key institution accounting for their persistence in modern life: the local church.’
- ‘Recognising how weakness in existing scholarship stemmed from neglect of the local church, I wondered whether Shawmut river might hold some important lessons for understanding the very nature of Protestant fundamentalism in America. What could be learnt about fundamentalist thinking and practice by seeing them in their natural context – in the local congregation w its weekly round of worship services, Sunday school classes and home-based bible studies and prayer groups.’
8
Q
the role of the family in the church
A
- many conservatives relied on relatives/family friends for child care etc.
- Shawmut river – family = building blocks of family life
½ of church membership = 5 family groups
9
Q
relationship between New Right politics and outsiders
A
- sally = ready to give but hostile to public welfare
o seeing conservative politics through the lens of life lived through fam obligations governed by reciprocity helps make sense of conservative statements we might otherwise dismiss as paranoid or irrational.
10
Q
Puzzle posed by relationship between New Right enthusiasms and liberals
A
- conservatives opposes abortion as murder yet support militarism
o ‘Liberals often see this pairing as evidence of hypocrisy or hopeless illogic. However, seeing the right to life and militarism through the lens of a life lived through reciprocities within a family circle shows how extraordinarily consistent they are, for both express family-like obligations of an ultimate kind: for men, to take up arms and even sacrifice their lives to defend women and children; and for women, to risk their lives to bear and care for children and other dependents. In these idealisations, family obligations appear as matters not of choice but of unquestionable duty.’ - We assume that our pattern of family life = ideal
11
Q
Limit to female segregation in the family
A
- ‘A touchstone of the feminist critique of the family in the 1960s and 70s was that bc women were socially isolated in the private sphere of family life, they were removed from the discourses and power structures of public life. But the role of housewife and mother did not isolate the women of the Shawmut river socially. Instead, it bound them in cooperative relations w women relatives – cross-generational groups in which their common identity as women was collectively fashioned.’
12
Q
Minority who had not grown up in circles of cooperating kin
A
- Jean Strong told me that her mother, because of her mental afflictions, had cut off her family’s contacts with relatives nearby.
- ‘I was struck by how many women leaders in birthright and Shawmut river had experienced extended-family life as problematic in one way or another early in life before settling into their husbands’ kin networks and building strong local ties w their own daughters. It was no wonder then that they more readily noticed and could more easily articulate what their followers took for granted: that family life of this kind could not be taken for granted but was under attack.’
13
Q
Ault response to why he hadn’t accepted Christ
A
- ‘I explained that my work involved ‘placing myself as an observer who’s going to explain something to outsiders. You can’t observe worship and worship right at the same time.’
14
Q
Pitching of documentary and use of language
A
- when I recounted to frank and Sharon the genesis of my idea to make a documentary about Shawmut river, my experience among them, I said, had persuaded me that a true-to-life portrait of such a church would help correct some of the misperceptions of fundamentalist xians prevalent in public life: among them, the fixation on the empires of TV evangelists the differences between Christians etc. I told the congregation that my desire had grown from wanting to do research for a book to tell this story to a wider audience to help correct some of the distorted views of fundamentalism at large.
o He sort of lied to them: 142 he said “I have been impressed w how local fundamentalist churches help restore and defend trad family valies…”
o 143 “I have faith that whatever you decide about this project, the Lord will work through this body for the best”. whatever qualms I had about speaking in these terms as an unbeliever were assuaged by my sense that I was merely conveying my sociological understandings about how their community worked in their own theol lang.
15
Q
small groups in converting
A
- ‘I was aware that the more common way new souls were won at Shawmut river was not simply through the invitation but through bible study groups in the homes of relatives or friends. It was above all, in those more intimate conversations, I would see, that people acquired the lang, or discourses, of a new faith. That winter, I experienced such evangelism in a small bible study group.’
- ‘I was invited to request prayer on my own behalf, something I came to genuinely welcome, especially for my film project. It was a comfort to have our group pray for my needs and I had come to reckon, like pascal, that if there were a God who answered prayer, I would not want to pass up the opportunity to avail myself of that prayer.’
