In order to film a documentary on life in a fundamentalist church, Harvard graduate and son of a Methodist minister, James Ault, spent three years with Reverend Frank Valenti and his congregation at Shawmut River church. Rather than abstractly analyzing the fundamentalist phenomenon from an intellectual distance, Valenti plunged into its most important expression -- life in a local church.

His assessment is surprisingly gracious and demonstrates his attempt to thoroughly understand the culture and context of Shawmut River. Many things outsiders deem hypocritical or inconstant prove to be understandable from within fundamentalist culture. For example, he demonstrates how opposition to state-sponsored sex education makes sense from a fundamentalist mindset. Even though the material claims to not push any particular values on students, the fact that it leaves values and morals up to individual judgment rather than to divine sanction is a moral position in itself. Another example: a pro-war stance and anti-abortion position are not at odds in the fundamentalist mind precisely because both arise from the belief in the importance of personal sacrifice for the common good -- the soldier for his country and the mother for her child. A final example: Fundamentalist women carry more authority than outsiders might expect and feminists will allow. Many fundamentalist women who believe in male headship are strong, dynamic, and active women. Reverend Frank's wife, Sharon, fully aware of her influence speaks of herself as "the neck that turns the head." Subsequently, fundamentalist women view feminism as oppressive rather than liberating, because it seeks to remove them from the traditional roles that empower them in conservative culture.

Ault demonstrates how a commitment to moral absolutes is not as "primitive" as his fellow intellectuals believe. In his church experience, he discovered how moral absolutes were usually applied very particularly and personally. "I came to appreciate how moral absolutes drawn from scripture served in more flexible, adaptive and practical ways than we might otherwise imagine. This permitted not only sensible approaches to particular situations but also sensible adaptations to change over time, without altering the actual maxims or formulae used to order life" (204).

In the process of filming his documentary, James Ault experienced a spiritual awakening. Although he does not embrace the conservative positions of fundamentalists, he has come to embrace life with God: "it was, above all, my years at Shawmut River that had awakened my senses to God's presence and had encouraged me, and given me ways, to relate to God" (339). He continues, "their influence as a moral community penetrated even to my most habitual actions and influenced me permanently for the better" (348).

Although riddled with problems (before the book ends, Shawmut River experiences a church split and Pastor Valenti is removed from leadership), Ault discovers a loving community at Shawmut River. "And if at times in their own relationships members of Shawmut River showed a capacity for impatience, pride, self-justifying distortions of truth and perhaps even hate, how were they any different in this regard from other human communities I have known, such as academic departments, new-left collectives and mainline churches?" (349).

I am not a fundamentalist and I never will be. I have known people who have been hurt by fundamentalism. And yet, at the same time, I have known people who have been helped by it as well. Even though it is not the way I choose to express my Christian faith, I am thankful for this book written by an objective observer. His kind and gracious insights have given me a new appreciation for the fundamentalist phenomenon. Note: The chapter where Pastor Frank desperately tries to save a broken marriage is incredibly touching. In his own homespun, charming way he seeks to give guidance and comfort in a very difficult situation.