Growing Up Fundamentalist: Journeys in Legalism & Grace

By Stefan Ulstein

Book Overview

Many who grew up in conservative Christian homes look back with appreciation on their childhood. But others battle with a way of life they now judge to be legalistic, rigid and filled more with guilt than with grace. Here you will find the straight, honest talk of many who were reared in fundamentalist homes. The man who grew up thinking his father never had a feeling. The intellectual who decided he didn't have to untie all the knots. The devout artist who would rather paint a nude than a 900-foot Jesus. Men and women who have struggled with broken families, sexual abuse, homosexuality, the effects of war. Some have left the church altogether; others hold a robust, if changed, faith. All have stories that are by turns charged comic and reassuring. Stefan Ulstein's probing interviews will help you learn how your friends, your children - and maybe those you hope to evangelize - perceive the complicated way of life often called fundamentalism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830816186
• ISBN13: 9780830816187
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Testimonies of Ex Fundamentalists

This book of interviews with former fundamentalists does a reasonable job of portraying the difficulties that many of us have had to wrestle with in coming to terms with our fundamentalist past. The interviews are done sensitively and one feels as if the author has allowed his subjects to speak rather than trying to put words into their mouths. Many of the individuals interviewed still consider themselves to be Christians. Some do not. However, I found this book more uplifting than some of the "anti testimonies" I have read by fundamentalists who have become "born again atheists." This book is probably most useful for ex fundamentalists trying to figure out a new Christian direction than it is a sociological study of the species.

Heartbreaking, but not all that representative.

The Preface to the book gives an excellent history of fundamentalism in America. It is very important to have knowledge of the history in order to have understanding of the experience of growing up fundamentalist. The interviews selected for inclusion in the book were insightful, honest, and, yes, heartbreaking. I applaud Ulstein's willingness to honestly present the fundamentalist experience. However, it is clear that while he may not consider himself a fundamentalist, he is still a member of "the fold" as an evangelical. Thus, I feel the interviews selected for publication are a reflection of this. While he certainly includes some interviews of people who are no longer involved in fundamentalist or evangelical churches, the majority of interviews are with people who are. I do not think this is an accurate reflection of ex-fundamentalists. I think, quite frankly, that most of us have abandoned the fundamentalist and evangelical brand of Christianity. As an evangelical, I think Ulstein has not dealt with some of his own underlying assumptions.....one of which is that most people who are brought up in fundamentalist churches "resolve" their issues by becoming "liberal" evangelicals (an oxymoron if I ever heard one). I think Ulstein is just too threatened by those of us who have become Roman Catholics or Buddhists or Episcopalians or atheists to include many of us (other than a few tokens) in his book. I think a sentence on the back of the book says it all, "Stefan Ulstein's probing interviews will help you learn how your friends, your children--and maybe those you hope to evangelize--perceive the complicated way of life often called fundamentalism."