Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in the Modern World

Rating:
Summary: Reasonable and Thoughtful book
Review: Having read dozens of books on evangelical Christianity and Fundamentalism for my Masters Degree, this one truly stands out. Nancy Ammerman spent months with a medium-sized fundamentalist Church in New England, observing services, attending meetings, and interviewing members of the congregation. The result is this fine book that very fairly points out some of the successes and flaws of this church, and fundamentalism in general. It is well-footnoted and easy to read, quite an accomplishment in an academic book. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Reasonable and Thoughtful book
Review: Having read dozens of books on evangelical Christianity and Fundamentalism for my Masters Degree, this one truly stands out. Nancy Ammerman spent months with a medium-sized fundamentalist Church in New England, observing services, attending meetings, and interviewing members of the congregation. The result is this fine book that very fairly points out some of the successes and flaws of this church, and fundamentalism in general. It is well-footnoted and easy to read, quite an accomplishment in an academic book. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: an important source on fundamentalist Christianity
Review: This is a good book, and I recommend it, but it's not perfect. Although Ammerman did a lot of ethnographic work, it seems like she relies mostly on interview material rather than direct observation, and that was sort of frustrating. I have to assume that if what she was told by her subjects had contradicted what she saw, she would have said so, but I still found myself wishing I had a clearer picture of daily life in the congregation. Still, I don't know of a better book on the same subject -- that such a good book as this has these limitations only shows how difficult a subject it was to tackle.

Rating:
Summary: an important source on fundamentalist Christianity
Review: This is a good book, and I recommend it, but it's not perfect. Although Ammerman did a lot of ethnographic work, it seems like she relies mostly on interview material rather than direct observation, and that was sort of frustrating. I have to assume that if what she was told by her subjects had contradicted what she saw, she would have said so, but I still found myself wishing I had a clearer picture of daily life in the congregation. Still, I don't know of a better book on the same subject -- that such a good book as this has these limitations only shows how difficult a subject it was to tackle.