Table of Contents
- Leaving Fundamentalism: Personal Stories, edited by G. Elijah
Dann
- Foreword Thomas Moore
- Acknowledgements
- An Introduction to Christian Fundamentalism G. Elijah Dann
- Rapture, Community, and Individualist Hope Joseph Simons
- From There to Here L.A. Livingston
- Fantastic Voyage: Surviving Charismatic Fundamentalism David L.
Rattigan
- My Mother, My Church Margaret Steel Farrell
- The Ministry Revisited Keith Dixon
- Looking Back at Sodom: My Evangelical and Lesbian Testimonies
Julie Rak
- The Slippery Slope of Theology Jeffrey W. Robbins
- Life Stages Jacob Shelley
- ""More Catholic Than Thou"": One Man's Journey Through Roman
Catholic Fundamentalism Andrea Lorenzo Molinari
- Inching Along Beverley Bryant
- From Fear to Faith: My Journey into Evangelical Humanism Glenn
A. Robitaille
- The Jesus Lizard James Fieser
- ""Are You a 'Real' Christian""? Leia Minaker
- The Naked Empress, Queen of Fundamentalism Anonymous
- Confessions of an Ex-Fundamentalist G. Elijah Dann
- Contributors
- Beverley Bryant has a lifetime of experience both within and
without the evangelical community. A registered nurse by
profession, she spent two years doing part-time work toward her
master's degree in divinity before completing her master of
education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
of the University of Toronto. She is working on a novel that's
still in its early stages and spends time reading, critiquing, and
enjoying the work of fellow writers in her writing group. With her
partner she lives in Mississauga, Ontario, where she works,
practises karate, and enjoys the challenges of raising
teenagers.
- G. Elijah Dann received the PhD in Philosophy from the
University of Waterloo, and the doctorat en théologie from the
Université de Strasbourg, France. He is co-author of Philosophy: A
New Introduction (Wadsworth Press, 2005), and author of After
Rorty: The Possibilities for Ethics and Religious Belief (Continuum
Press, 2006). He has taught in departments of religion, philosophy,
and health sciences for universities in southern Ontario, most
recently as lecturer for the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Toronto. He is currently Visiting Research Fellow for
the Centre for Studies in Religion and Culture at the University of
Victoria.
- Overwhelmed by a mystical experience at the age of twenty,
Keith Dixon took it to be a call to the ministry. Theological
training gave him skills as a clergyman, but the primal experience
remained a mystery. He lasted five years before abandoning his
congregation and his ordination. Doubting basic Christian
teachings, he declared himself agnostic. Denial eventually melted
into the exploration of psychic phenomena, gurus, shamanism, and
meditation. Buddhism's world view most closely matched his
experience. He took Refuge but chafed at some of the rigidity in
Buddhist practice. The mystery of fifty years ago remains unsolved
for him, but the subsequent journey has taught him an openness that
permits a new respect for what he cast aside.
- James Fieser is a professor of philosophy at the University of
Tennessee at Martin. He received his BA from Berea College (1980)
and his MA and PhD from Purdue University's Department of
Philosophy (1983, 1986). After teaching briefly at the University
of Rio Grand and Christopher Newport University, he arrived at UT
Martin in 1993. He is author, co-author, and editor of seven
textbooks, including Moral Philosophy through the Ages
(McGraw-Hill, 2001) and Philosophical Questions (Oxford University
Press, 2005). He edited the ten-volume Early Responses to Hume
(Thoemmes Press, 1999-2003) and has published articles on various
ethical topics. He is founder and general editor of the Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy website, at http://www.iep.utm.edu.
- Lori-Ann Livingston wanted to be two things when she was
eleven: a jockey and a writer. The first was achieved by riding her
arthritic pony, the second is still her passion. She currently
works as a communications and marketing associate for the City of
Kitchener. Previously a journalist in Canada and the UK, she wrote
for a national Irish weekly newspaper and British music and
religious publications. She is also the executive director of
Latitudes Storytelling Festival, a festival of diversity and
stories. She lives in Kitchener with her Irish husband, preschooler
son, baby daughter, and a dog named Sally.
- Leia Minaker grew up in southern Ontario, the second child and
eldest of four girls in a family of seven. She recently moved to
Edmonton with her husband to pursue her master's degree in health
promotion at the University of Alberta. She enjoys her program and
hopes to follow her master's with a PhD in health studies. Leia is
particularly passionate about social equality, economic and
environmental justice, and policies that promote population health.
In her limited free time, Leia enjoys camping, running, discussion
with friends, reading, and spending time with her husband.
- Andrea Lorenzo Molinari is the president of Blessed Edmund Rice
School for Pastoral Ministry, a satellite of Barry University, in
Miami, Florida.He received his PhD from Marquette University (New
Testament and Early Christianity, 1996). He is author of three
books: The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles (NHC 6.1)
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2000); 'I never knew the man': The Coptic
Act of Peter (Papyrus Berolinensis 8502.4) (Paris: Éditions
Peeters, 2000); and Climbing the Dragon's Ladder: The Martyrdom of
Perpetua and Felicitas (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2006). In
addition, he has published numerous articles related to early
Christianity.
- Julie Rak is an associate professor in the Department of
English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. She is the
author of Negotiated Memory: Doukhobor Autobiographical Discourse
(UBC Press, 2004) and the editor of Auto/biography in Canada:
Critical Directions (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005). With
Jeremy Popkin, she edited a collection of essays by Philippe
LeJeune, On Diary (University of Hawaii Press, 2008), and with
Andrew Gow she edited Mountain Masculinity: The Life and Writing of
Nello ""Tex"" Vernon-Wood, 1911-1938 (University of Athabasca
Press, 2008). She is writing a book about popular autobiography in
North America.
- David L. Rattigan was born in Vancouver, BC, and grew up in
Liverpool, England, where he now lives and works as a freelance
writer. He has a degree in theology from the University of
Manchester and is a qualified teacher of secondary religious
education. Dave is passionately involved in local arts and music,
and has been an active member of his local Anglican parish since
returning to Liverpool in 2003. In 2005 he founded
LeavingFundamentalism.org, an online resource ""for surviving the
journey out of conservative Christianity."" Another major interest
is film, particularly British horror of the 1950s and '60s, and he
enjoys an occasional foray into linguistics.
- Jeffrey W. Robbins teaches religion and philosophy at Lebanon
Valley College in central Pennsylvania, where he lives with his
wife and two children. He received his BA from Baylor University, a
M.Div. from Texas Christian University, and a PhD in religion from
Syracuse University.He is the author of two books in philosophical
theology, Between Faith and Thought: An Essay on the
Ontotheological Condition (2003) and In Search of a Non-Dogmatic
Theology (2004). He is the editor of After the Death of God (2007)
and The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken (2008).
- Glenn A. Robitaille was raised Roman Catholic and ordained
through the Brethren in Christ Church. Early on he abandoned
dogmatic theology and moved to a more inclusive, multifaith
perspective. He received his master of divinity and doctor of
ministry degrees from Ashland Theological Seminary and Vision
International University, respectively. He is a pioneer in the
field of Internet-based counselling and a successful church
planter. Glenn is a contributing author in the book A Peace Reader
(Evangel Press, 2002), and has published regularly in various
magazines and journals. A father of five, he resides in Midland,
Ontario, with his wife, Debra.
- Jacob J. Shelley was born a fourth-generation Pentecostal into
a family of pastors past and present. His father was a pastor, and
several of his brothers will likely pursue a life in the ministry.
For many years he thought that he too would be a pastor, but
instead he entered the world of academia. He has completed a BA in
religious studies and a master's in theological studies. Although
currently in law school, he aspires to complete a PhD. He currently
resides in Edmonton with his wife.
- Joseph Simons became an evangelical Christian as an adult,
abandoning the Roman Catholic practice of his parents. After a long
recovery from a nearly fatal accident, he went to bible college.
Upon graduation he did not become a pastor but worked at various
jobs—including truck driver and group-home counsellor—before moving
into writing fiction. He is the author of the novel Under a Living
Sky. He works with special-needs children in a Catholic junior high
school and attends an Anglican cathedral—the pipe organ being the
main draw. He believes in generous-hearted communities, whatever
the creed, and values beauty found and goodness lived in a
precarious world.
- After obtaining a degree in English from the University of
Waterloo, Margaret Steel Farrell began her career in corporate
writing, where she focused primarily on employee communications and
marketing in the financial services industry. She is a freelance
writer in addition to her 9-to-5, belongs to a local writing group,
and recently edited her aunts memoir of life in southwestern
Ontario in the 1930s. With her son, Margaret lives in Kitchener,
Ontario, where, in addition to writing, she enjoys creative
pursuits such as dance and voice-over work for local radio
commercials.
About the Author
G. Elijah Dann has taught in departments of philosophy,
religion, and health studies at various universities in southern
Ontario, and most recently was Visiting Research Fellow at the
Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria.
He is the author of After Rorty: Possibilities for Ethics and
Religion (2006) and co-editor of Philosophy: A New Introduction
(2004). He is presently completing a book on the role of religious
values in the public square.
Reviews
``The repulsion expressed in some of these riveting accounts is
strong. Yet several authors speak of happy childhoods, of loving
parents and church friends, of great evangelical singing, and more;
and they say that they miss elements in their fundamentalist pasts,
while not missing those pasts. A major contribution of this
collection is its evidence of diverse post-fundamentalist spiritual
journeys. One author thinks that Jesus may have actually lived, but
'he has long since been fashioned into an ideal by those seeking
ideological tools' (38). Another became a Roman Catholic
theologican, another a philosophy professor, another a 'liberal
Anglican' who is 'an openly and unashamedly gay man' (68). Several
affirm a Christianity to complicated to explain briefly, and some
are still seeking. For anyone interested in the nature of religious
experience, these are fascinating accounts. Thought they do not
tell us what keeps others in fundamentalism, they are frank,
forthright, and often painful in explaining why some cannot do so.'
-- Jacob H. Dorn, Wright State University -- Anglican and Episcopal
History, Vol. 81 (1), March 2012, 201003
``This book will enlighten ex-fundamentalists along with those
having no experience in the movement.... [It] will give
non-fundamentalists some astonishing insight into how otherwise
rational, humane people might plunge into such an anti-rational,
harsh world view, and why its so hard for them to escape. But for
former fundamentalists, reliving their our own traumatic
experiences through these stories, the understanding will go much
deeper. We will think to ourselves, in relief and empathy, I was
not alone.'' -- Confessions of a Cultural Idiot Blog, February 2,
2009, 200902
``Who'd have thought a collection of stories about fundamentalism
could be such a good read? Elijah Dann is not only a fine writer
himself, but his ability to select compelling narratives by other
ex-fundamentalists shows the acumen of a splendid editor.'' -- Eric
McCormack, novelist, author of The Dutch Wife -- 200805
``Leaving Fundamentalism is relevant to religious right alert
readers for a couple of reasons. Dr. Dann's introduction to the
first person stories of people who have left fundamentalism is a
crisp and clear look at Evangelical and Catholic conservatism as we
see it unfolding today. Linguistically and historically the reader
is introduced to how we have arrived to where we are. Constantine,
The Great Schism, the Reformation, Inquisition, colonization of the
New World, naturalism, materialism, modernism, culture wars, and
9/11 are deftly explained. Dann throws light on how the term
fundamentalism came to be seen in the late 20th century early 21st
century as derogatory. He explains how the Scopes trial brought
about a mid-century retreat of fundamentalists into a sub-culture
of blue laws and how they re-emerged and re-branded themselves into
the movements we see today. You don't need a natural curiousity of
the history Christian faith to find yourself captivated.... This is
not a scornful look at faith, it is an intensely human and
respectful one. We are introduced to individuals who tell their own
story, be they Catholic or Protestant. Their narratives have been
blessed by a courteous and open editor. Complexity is not an enemy.
I found myself struck by the emotions of the 11 authors.... Common
themes of search, belonging, need, anxiety, loss, guilt and
discomfort are expressed with raw honesty and I am left humbled,
surprised, happy, sorrowful, more informed and wanting to learn
more.'' -- Religious Right Alert blog, March 7, 2010, 201003
``Fundamentalism, in its anxious search for inviolate truth,
commands submission to a supposed objective and unmovable power
outside of the mysteries of human fragility, struggle and wisdom.
It is no friend of the poetry of authentic human story which
searches the ways of truth through deep engagement within the
realities of life. ``Leaving fundamentalism'' gives witness to the
hard work of uncovering and embracing the mysterious and vulnerable
truth of human story. The both frightening and lovely thing about
``leaving fundamentalism'' whatever the direction of the human and
spiritual journey afterward, is that the leaving is an awakening to
the pain, challenge and joy that comes as though one has finally
been given permission to be fully human. This collection draws us
into the beautiful complexities of individual journeys united in
their liberating encounter with the mystery, ambiguity and poetry
of life itself and is to be commended for the courage of its
authors.'' -- Eileen Scully (PhD), Coordinator for Ministry and
Worship, The Anglican Church of Canada -- 200805
``Thoughtful essays about the experiences of those who have
abandoned conservative Christianity.... Do not skip Dann's
introductory essay, an excellent definition of contemporary
Christian fundamentalism. It also summarizes the movement's
political context--this is particularly useful as we approach a
U.S. election. Why should you read this book? It will ... help us
reach out to those whose religious experience has not included open
discussions of faith issues.'' -- Rev. Lee Simpson -- United Church
Observer, August 2008, 200809
