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The War Of The Worlds: The Militant Fundamentalism Of Dr. Thomas Todhunter Shields And The Paradox Of Modernity., Doug A. Adams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This biographical study of the militant fundamentalist, Dr. Thomas Todhunter Shields, tests traditional understandings of fundamentalism, especially its militancy, and applies both a new interpretative model for understanding Shields and a revisionist approach to the question of fundamentalist militancy. Shields’ fundamentalism was not the rabid anti-intellectualism of “a disgruntled and backward people who could not keep up with the culture of their time”[1] but instead illustrated the paradox of competing forces within the modern dialectic. The spiritual consequences of cultural liberalism within his own church and the horrific scenes he encountered as a guest of the Ministry of Information …