A close-up story of faith in practice

It wasn't very likely the two men would hit it off: James Ault, who had been a 1960s antiwar radical, was an Ivy League intellectual and atheist. Frank Valenti, who had returned from Vietnam severely injured, was a mechanic and later a fundamentalist Baptist preacher.

Yet the sociologist and the pastor established a candid, open-minded rapport in the mid-1980s that has paved the way for "Spirit and Flesh," an absorbing, groundbreaking, and intimate tale of life in a New England Christian congregation.

This is an ethnographic study that often reads like a novel. In portraying the stories of several couples and families that make up Shawmut River Baptist Church - and the shifting fortunes of the all-encompassing church community - Ault explores the roots of the Christian Right and its impact on American life.

Pastor Valenti was one of the first to graduate from the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty Bible College in Lynchburg, Va., and served as vice president of the Massachusetts chapter of Moral Majority. Ault had begun his study by observing right-to-life and other Christian groups in the state. But by deciding to focus on life within a single fundamentalist church, the "unsaved" scholar illumines in compelling fashion the elements of a religious culture that have helped make conservatism a potent, growing force in public life.

Ault offers enlightening explanations for why the women, who often play major roles within the patriarchal church, view feminism so negatively, and how a culture of tradition can readily, if unconsciously, absorb change into that "tradition." Along the way, he breaks through stereotypes to reveal the earnest, often transformative commitments to God within the tightknit community.

Yet he also depicts their inward focus and fear of an outside world that values individualism - what they see as the right to do whatever one wants, rather than what God wants. The church's Christian school, for example, refused to send graduates' transcripts to secular colleges.

In a small way, this is Ault's story, too. His experience with the Shawmut River congregation initiated his own journey back to God - to Christianity, though not to fundamentalism. Some of the most valuable insights come from his comparison of the church community with academia or leftist radicalism.

For three years, the sociologist participated in worship services, home Bible studies, classes at the church's Christian academy, men's prayer breakfasts, and even the pastor's personal counseling sessions with troubled couples. He gained permission to produce a documentary film, "Born Again," which appeared on PBS in 1987.

"Shawmut River" was a community built around a few extended families and centered almost wholly on church. It grew by conversions - usually among extended family members, largely Catholic. Bible study and a consistent prayer life created a shared moral culture outside the influence of the mass media.

Page: 1 | 2