Brittle Fundamentalism
I have just started reading Craig Evans’ book Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels. In the first chapter, he takes a look at four scholars who, having once been Christian, became skeptical of the claims of Christianity and lost their faith: Robert Price, James Robinson, Robert Funk, and Bart Ehrman. I think Evans is right on in his assessment that much of the “blame” in their departure from authentic Christianity can be placed on a “brittle fundamentalism,” that is, an unrealistic, unwarranted, and unnecessary view of scripture. Many of the Christians I know still reside in such a state. Their faith is fine as long as they remain coccooned from scholarship and hide themselves in ignorant bliss. However, when exposed to modern criticism, their “brittle” faith crumbles. Here are the words of Evans regarding Ehrman’s fall from faith:
And so everything began to unravel for Ehrman. But observe the line of reasoning; it is so typical of brittle fundamentalism. I have heard fundamentalists say, “Show me one mistake in the Bible and I will throw out the whole thing.” I suspect Ehrman heard that more than once in his Moody Bible Institute days. His reasoning today, even as a professing agnostic, still has a fundamentalist ring to it…
Ehrman’s struggle with faith - and I feel for him - grows out of mistaken expectations of the nature and function of Scripture, mistaken expectations that he was taught as a young, impressionable fundamentalist Christian.
I have seen too many young people turn their backs on their faith because they’ve been presented an innacurate picture of true Christianity and what is entailed by that. It truly is sad and should compel us to lay aside “brittle fundamentalism”, replacing it with “solid” Christianity.