The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics

by Susan Friend Harding

Overview

National polls show that approximately 50 million adult Americans are born-again Christians. Yet most Americans see their culture as secular, and the United States is viewed around the world as a secular nation. Further, intellectuals and journalists often portray born-again Christians, despite their numbers, as outsiders who endanger public life. But is American culture really so neatly split between the religious and the secular? Is America as "modern" and is born-again Christian religious belief as "pre-modern" as many think?


In the 1980s, born-again Christians burst into the political arena with stunning force. Gone was the image of "old-fashioned" fundamentalism and its anti-worldly, separatist philosophy. Under the leadership of the Reverend Jerry Falwell and allied preachers, millions broke taboos in place since the Scopes trial constraining their interaction with the public world. They claimed new cultural territory and refashioned themselves in the public arena. Here was a dynamic body of activists with an evangelical vision of social justice, organized under the rubric of the "Moral Majority."


Susan Harding, a cultural anthropologist, set out in the 1980s to understand the significance of this new cultural movement. The result, this long-awaited book, presents the most original and thorough examination of Christian fundamentalism to date. Falwell and his co-pastors were the pivotal figures in the movement. It is on them that Harding focuses, and, in particular, their use of the Bible's language. She argues that this language is the medium through which born-again Christians, individual and collective, come to understand themselves as Christians. And it is inside this language that much of the born-again movement took place. Preachers like Falwell command a Bible-based poetics of great complexity, variety, creativity, and force, and, with it, attempt to mold their churches into living testaments of the Bible. Harding focuses on the words—sermons, speeches, books, audiotapes, and television broadcasts—of individual preachers, particularly Falwell, as they rewrote their Bible-based tradition to include, rather than exclude, intense worldly engagement. As a result of these efforts, born-again Christians recast themselves as a people not separated from but engaged in making history. The Book of Jerry Falwell is a fascinating work of cultural analysis, a rare account that takes fundamentalist Christianity on its own terms and deepens our understanding of both religion and the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691089584
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2001
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan Friend Harding is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has published widely on fundamentalist Christianity, social movements, and culture reform, and she served as an adviser to the PBS series With God on our Side.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix
A Guide to Terms xv
INTRODUCTION Standing in the Gaps 3
PART ONE RITES OF ORIGIN 31
CHAPTER ONE Speaking Is Believing 33
CHAPTER TWO Fundamentalist Exile 61
PART TWO SITES OF REVISION 83
CHAPTER THREE The Art ofJerry Falwell 85
CHAPTER FOUR Sacrificial EconormIcs 105
CHAPTER FIVE Cultural Exodus 125
CHAPTER SIX The Moral Majority jeremiad 153
CHAPTER SEVEN The Pro-Life Gospel 183
CHAPTER EIGHT The Creation Museum 210
CHAPTER NINE The Last Days 228
CHAPTER TEN The Born-Again Telescandals 247
Postscript 270
Appendix A Thomas Road Baptist Church Statement of doctrine 277
Appendix B Sources of Jerry Falwell's Sermons 280
Notes to the Chapters 283
Bibliography 313
Credits 329
Index 331

What People are Saying About This

Kathleen Stewart

Susan Harding's Book of Jerry Falwell tells the fabulous tale of Falwell's empire building and the rise of the moral majority in the 1980s through a densely textured ethnographic reading of people, institutions, media, and events. Here biblical language is profoundly generative, living, and political. The book is a model of cultural theory and critique as it shows how seemingly opposed movements in history such as fundamentalism and secular modernity are, in fact, mutually constituting and that the critic sees this only by standing in the gap-entering their force fields yet resisting conversion.
— Kathleen Stewart, University of Texas, Austin

Frances Fitzgerald

The Book of Jerry Falwell is a brilliant and fascinating account on how the Reverend Jerry Falwell and his colleagues changed the face of Protestant fundamentalism in the United States in the 1980's.
— Frances Fitzgerald, author of Cities on a Hill

From the Publisher

"The Book of Jerry Falwell is a brilliant and fascinating account of how the Reverend Jerry Falwell and his colleagues changed the face of Protestant fundamentalism in the United States in the 1980s. Sensitive and sophisticated, it challenges conventional wisdom about the Christian right and makes the world of fundamentalist believers available to the rest of us. Harding is an original thinker, and, along the way, she gives us new insights into the power of rhetoric and the way it creates the world for us all."—Frances Fitzgerald, author of Cities on a Hill

"Few social scientists understand the power of language as well as Susan Harding does. And nobody has done a better job of investigating the language of fundamentalists. The Book of Jerry Falwell will jar its readers again and again—from its thought-provoking title to Harding's account of Falwell's controversial fund-raising techniques to her own 'encounter' with the holy spirit. Just when scholars thought they had put the wraps on fundamentalism and relegated Falwell's Moral Majority to the archives, Harding asks us to reconsider. This is a book that demands (and will surely generate) widespread debate."—Robert Wuthnow, author of After Heaven: Spirituality in American Since the 1950s

"Susan Harding's Book of Jerry Falwell tells the fabulous tale of Falwell's empire building and the rise of the moral majority in the 1980s through a densely textured ethnographic reading of people, institutions, media, and events. Here biblical language is profoundly generative, living, and political. The book is a model of cultural theory and critique as it shows how seemingly opposed movements in history such as fundamentalism and secular modernity are, in fact, mutually constituting and that the critic sees this only by standing in the gap-entering their force fields yet resisting conversion."—Kathleen Stewart, University of Texas, Austin

Robert Wuthnow

Few social scientists understand the power of language as well as Susan Harding does. And nobody has done a better job of investigating the language of fundamentalists. The Book of Jerry Falwell will jar its readers again and again—from its thought-provoking title to Harding's account of Falwell's controversial fund-raising techniques to her own 'encounter' with the holy spirit. Just when scholars thought they had put the wraps on fundamentalism and relegated Falwell's Moral Majority to the archives, Harding asks us to reconsider. This is a book that demands (and will surely generate) widespread debate.
— Robert Wuthnow, author of "After Heaven: Spirituality in American Since the 1950s"

Editorial Reviews

"Harding's central subject is the rhetoric of fundamentalism, the language of its persuasion. But she also explains how Falwell, and others like him, have brought the fundamentalist community into politics . . . Harding's headlong exuberance propels [the book] and carries us deep into the mind and heart of a subculture that is increasingly mainstream."—-Ronald D. Elving, Washington Post

"An eloquent and incisive study of religious fundamentalism in the United States. . . . [A] theoretically rich and highly original work."—-Jeremy Stolow, Sociology of Religion

"Harding's own mastery is on display throughout her book. . . . By the end . . . she has skillfully shown the myriad ways in which fundamentalist rhetoric created and transformed both the fundamentalist community itself and the wider American culture. Her work should be required reading not only for students of American religion, but for anyone who wishes to study sympathetically and fruitfully a different religious culture."—-Jonathan Moore, Christian Century

"So much has been written about resurgent Christian fundamentalism that it is difficult to imagine that someone might find something fresh to say about it. Yet Susan Friend Harding gives us some amazing glimpses into contemporary fundamentalism's heart and soul. . . . [A] bold, artful, and largely convincing book."—-Joel Carpenter, Journal of Religion

From the Publisher

So much has been written about resurgent Christian fundamentalism that it is difficult to imagine that someone might find something fresh to say about it. Yet Susan Friend Harding gives us some amazing glimpses into contemporary fundamentalism's heart and soul. . . . [A] bold, artful, and largely convincing book.

Journal of Religion - Joel Carpenter

Harding's own mastery is on display throughout her book. . . . By the end . . . she has skillfully shown the myriad ways in which fundamentalist rhetoric created and transformed both the fundamentalist community itself and the wider American culture. Her work should be required reading not only for students of American religion, but for anyone who wishes to study sympathetically and fruitfully a different religious culture.

Christian Century - Jonathan Moore

An eloquent and incisive study of religious fundamentalism in the United States. . . . [A] theoretically rich and highly original work.

Sociology of Religion - Jeremy Stolow

Harding's central subject is the rhetoric of fundamentalism, the language of its persuasion. But she also explains how Falwell, and others like him, have brought the fundamentalist community into politics . . . Harding's headlong exuberance propels [the book] and carries us deep into the mind and heart of a subculture that is increasingly mainstream.

Washington Post - Ronald D. Elving

Harding has brought the finely tuned eyes and ears of an anthropologist to her research inside Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist community. Her analysis is incisive and empathetic.

The Christian Science Monitor - Linda L. Giedl

So much has been written about resurgent Christian fundamentalism that it is difficult to imagine that someone might find something fresh to say about it. Yet Susan Friend Harding gives us some amazing glimpses into contemporary fundamentalism's heart and soul. . . . [A] bold, artful, and largely convincing book.
— Joel Carpenter

Journal of Religion

Harding's own mastery is on display throughout her book. . . . By the end . . . she has skillfully shown the myriad ways in which fundamentalist rhetoric created and transformed both the fundamentalist community itself and the wider American culture. Her work should be required reading not only for students of American religion, but for anyone who wishes to study sympathetically and fruitfully a different religious culture.
— Jonathan Moore

Christian Century

An eloquent and incisive study of religious fundamentalism in the United States. . . . [A] theoretically rich and highly original work.
— Jeremy Stolow

Sociology of Religion

Harding's central subject is the rhetoric of fundamentalism, the language of its persuasion. But she also explains how Falwell, and others like him, have brought the fundamentalist community into politics . . . Harding's headlong exuberance propels [the book] and carries us deep into the mind and heart of a subculture that is increasingly mainstream.
— Ronald D. Elving

Washington Post

Harding has brought the finely tuned eyes and ears of an anthropologist to her research inside Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist community. Her analysis is incisive and empathetic.
— Linda L. Giedl

The Christian Science Monitor

In the early 1980s, Harding (anthropology, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) followed Jerry Falwell's rising Christian fundamentalist movement. Focusing on Falwell's subtle dance between American evangelicalism and Bible-based fundamentalism, she calls her study not theology but the vernacular of Bible believers. By interpreting sermons, speeches, direct mail, videos, and TV broadcasts, she labors to elucidate this "language of cultural ferment" that ultimately serves, through the personal witness of Falwell, to bring fundamentalism out from its separatist tendencies and into a political revolution to save America in the 1980s. This is a highly readable book, though Harding can be a tad defensive of Falwell. When the media lumps him with the "telescandals" of lesser evangelists, she hedges on the line between participant and observer. Still, she remains true to her post-structuralism agenda, finding in the rhetoric of Falwellian fundamentalism the catalyst for social change and political fervor. Recommended.--Sandra Collins, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lib., Pittsburgh Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal