Extract

Currently serving as the Church of Scotland campus minister at the University of Edinburgh, Liam Jerrold Fraser offers an academically rigorous and fascinating tour of the origins of Protestant fundamentalism and the New Atheism (e.g. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens). Although the Reformers were not directly responsible for the emergence of modern atheism (which served as inspiration for the New Atheism), Protestant doctrines such as sola scriptura and sola fide served as the theological foundations for the emergence of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British fundamentalism.

Originating in disputes against the authority of the Church of England, fundamentalists (i.e. Protestants who approach the biblical texts in a strictly literal way) ignited a sharp reaction from intellectuals who were influenced by new discoveries in biology, geology, and physics. This created a false dichotomy in British culture by forcing many citizens to choose either fundamentalist Christianity or a scientific depiction of the world. Any embrace of the scientific world-view had to be seen as synonymous with unbelief. Fraser demonstrates that this dialectic in Britain went on to influence the religious and socio-cultural milieu in the United States.

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