VARIETIES OF FUNDAMENTALISM - CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS OF 2 PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS
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Many behavioral science studies of religious fundamentalism are seriously hampered by conceptual confusion. The major source of much of this confusion is the lack of a coherent sociological definition and theoretical context for the term fundamentalism. We propose a Parsonian definition of Fundamentalism, which is interpreted in the context of a theory of evolutionary social change. The methodological implications of this approach are identified and then applied in a survey research study of the lay leaders of two historically related denominations, the Disciples of Christ and the Church of Christ. Our factor analysis of 25 questionnaire items suggests there are three types of Fundamentalism. Socioeconomic variables explain some of the variation in the Fundamentalism scores, but denominational affiliation explains more. Our findings suggest that future research should use denominationspecific indices of Fundamentalism. Copyright 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved
