Fundamentalism = Intellectual Shut-down

[Matt_Guitar_Man]

Well put Gary, I was raised that way as well. And my Catholic educators always quated Thomas Aquines when we were confronted by our Bible only brethren " Go and preach the Gospel to all of creation and every so often you may even have to use words".

 

[Gary_Sheldrake]

" Go and preach the Gospel to all of creation and every so often you may even have to use words".

I like that Matt! I’ll have to remember it!

 

[CatholicofAgora]

Wow. This has been a very good thread. Many thoughtful and passionate responses, many good stories as well. Thank you all

 

[JustaServant]

Wow. This has been a very good thread. Many thoughtful and passionate responses, many good stories as well. Thank you all

A couple of good web resources for you:
Jeri Massi’s blogL
jeriwho.net/lillypad2/
Jeri is a survivor of fundamentalism. She’s a little odd and no great friend to Catholics. Nevertheless her documentation of the abuses of fundamentalism is the best I have seen on the internet.
Another site is Stuff Fundies Like:
stufffundieslike.com/forum/
There’s a hodgepodge there of survivors of fundamentalism from all religious and non-religious POV.

 

[mackbrislawn]

Fundamentalism arose in the early 1900’s in response to liberal modernist theologians who started questioning some fundamental Christian beliefs such as the inerrancy of the bible, miracles, etc. Their effort is a rear-guard action since within Protestantism there is no machinery to uphold the fundamentals, unlike in the Catholic Church. The very purpose of Protestantism is to question, protest, and reform. Therefore, by its nature, Protestantism is reductive, eventually questioning everything, even scripture. So we would expect that the fruits of the Reformation would be eventual reduction of Christianity to nothing. “By their fruits you shall know them.”

So fundamentalism came to be. Too bad that these people who wanted to preserve Christianity did not realize that the Catholic Church is the God-given custodian of the basic fundamentals of Christianity.