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The cultural contradictions of Christian fundamentalism: many have been caught unawares by the re-assertion of Christian fundamentalism. Guy Rundle looks at the rise of a religious form uniquely suited to contemporary cultural mores.

Article Excerpt
Writing in the months before he was executed by the Nazis for his part in the plot to kill Hitler, the priest and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that he was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with ostentatiously religious people, and that he was finding an increasing sense of connection and spirituality among those of no religious disposition at all. He looked forward to a 'post-religious' Christianity--thoroughly demythologised, questioning, not a fixed dogma nor a concrete idea of the form of God. At any time between the end of the War and the middle of the last decade it could have been supposed that this was the direction that religion was going to take, if it was not going to wither away entirely. The spread of Christian fundamentalism in the United States could be seen as a particular function of a Puritan cultural tradition, with the predicament of a poor lacking hope in secular traditions. Its popularity in areas of Africa and Latin America could be seen as a function of uncompleted modernisation--in the case of Africa, it could be regarded as a bridge to secular modernity out of animist traditions. It was assumed that the future of modern societies was that seen in northern European ones: a steady decline in active church participation even among those who defined themselves as believers, and the rise to unquestioned centrality of a humanist model of society and a mechanical model of the universe.

It is obvious that nothing like this has occurred. First in the United States, and more recently in other parts of the world, religion has re-entered major areas of social and political life in a manner that few imagined possible, even during the conservative social revival of the 1980s. The fundamentalist Christian revival has spread beyond its particular social and cultural bounds in the US to become a major force within every area of social life. Not only has 'intelligent design'--the refashioned notion of creationism--made a major assault on the US educational system, but large, fundamentalist-style churches, with a charismatic and ecstatic form of worship involving stadium-style Christian rock concerts and assemblies, have gathered large numbers of young followers.

Increasingly in the US, whole firms have established themselves as specifically Christian, trading with other Christian firms, just as Christians have constituted themselves as huge audience bases for films such as The Passion Of The Christ and the series of Left Behind novels--blockbusters about the coming of 'the rapture' and the struggle between good and evil prior to the day of judgment. Through the subcontracting of US social services, many welfare programs are now administered by Christian agencies, as are many counselling services. As Barbara Ehrenreich observes in Bait and Switch, her undercover account of job-seeking in the white collar jungles, Christian uplift has become a default setting for encouraging people to having a positive attitude to social redundancy.

All this is the pyramid upon which the apex sits--the explicit fundamentalist obeisance of the President and other officers of the US government to not only a religious commitment, but one which suggests that the hand of God is moving in their policy decisions and choices. Recently, UK PM Tony Blair got into the act, suggesting that God--rather than the world or the voters--would judge him over his actions in Iraq: a sign of the degree to which the US-style prophetic voice is moving into other societies. In Australia, it is visible in the success of the Hillsong and other churches, which are able to draw not only thousands of people to their events and conferences, but also to make it prudent for politicians such as Bob Carr to appear on their stages. When former Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson was presented with the power and organisational ability of those pushing 'intelligent design' he rapidly caved in, saying that...

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