This is a pastoral rather than a controversial book. Its main aim is not to show fundamentalists that they are wrong, but rather to help those who have grown up in the world of fundamentalism or have become committed to it but in the end have come to feel that it is a prison from which they must escape. ""This is undoubtedly one of the best little books on fundamentalism to appear in print in recent times. . . . It is not a book which will convince the average fundamentalist. His or her choice has been made, ratified, and solidified in such a way as to preclude any openness to a position other than one in conformity with the fundamentalist tradition. The book's usefulness lies in what it offers to those who are candidates for that 'scripturally-based' certitude which holds an eerie attraction for so many men and women of faith today. It should be read not only by those who are candidates for fundamentalism, but also by all pastors and pastoral workers who must deal with the problem of fundamentalism in our midst. As a matter of fact, I think that it ought to be read by all who esteem the scriptures, properly understood, to be of singular importance for the church and its Christian faith."" --Raymond F. Collins, Professor of New Testament in the Catholic University of Louvain James Barr was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, where he taught for ten years. His illustrious teaching career has also included professorships at Edinburgh University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Manchester University, and Oxford University. He has held visiting professorships and delivered major lecture series in Europe, the United States, Africa, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand, and was longtime editor of the Journal of Semitic Studies.