Fundamentalism in America

This important book challenges the idea that religious fundamentalism can adequately be understood as a paranoid, xenophobic faith. The author examines the contradictions of fundamentalism as they appear in prophecy, sermon, film, and fiction, including work by Gore Vidal, Peter Matthiesen, Thom Jones, Alison Lurie, and Pete Dexter. Melling shows, in an original reading, how scripture, race and politics have combined in the conservative opposition to the Clinton presidency that is found in the writings of influential figures such as Pat Robertson, Salem Kirban, and Hal Lindsey. ?In its wide-ranging consideration of the rhetoric of the "New World Order," the literature of prophecy, Cold War films, televangelism, cross-border texts, and postnationalist writing, this book provides a vital and compelling account of the present crisis in religious and national identity in the United States.Read less