This text is an ethnographic study of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship group at McMaster University, who espouse fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible and the necessity of a personal relationship with Christ.

Academics and non-academics alike have been intrigued by conservative Protestant groups that thrive in secular social and institutional contexts. This book offers an ethnographic study of one such group, the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at McMaster University. These conservative Protestants espouse fundamental interpretations of the Bible, women's roles, the age of the earth, alcohol consumption, sexual ethics, and the necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. How does this tiny minority function withing the overwhelmingly secular context of the university? The strategies of the ICVF seem both to strengthen and to mitigate evangelicals' sense of difference from their non-Christian teachers and peers. Bramadat suggests that this model can also be useful for understanding the construction of individual and group identity among other minority groups, both religious and non-religious models.

Rejecting stereotypes of evangelicals as 'illiterate hillbillies,' he focuses 'on evangelicals' creativity in the face of the perciecved hegemony of the secular ethos.' In this way, he challenges what he calls the 'profound condescension' he has 'encountered when discussing evangelicals with liberal Christians, academics, and friends