Religious
Fundamentalism
Religious fundamentalism: in its
current usage, it refers not to a specific set of core beliefs but to the
response of religious traditionalists in general to contemporary social
trends.
Fundamentalists are distinguished in part by their conviction
that contemporary social forces threaten the survival of traditional values and
beliefs and that only their religion can halt the degeneration of society and
restore it to a more principled state.
So there must be a definition of
those core beliefs and values
·
There’s a true way of life being threatened by social
change
·
Religion is the route back to
salvation
Marty and Appleby:
“Fundamentalisms” all follow a certain pattern
1.
embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a
perceived crisis
2. engaged in a conflict with enemies
whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself
3. fundamentalists do not consider this battle a
conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the
forces of good and evil
4. they fear annihilation, and
try to fortify their beleaguered identity by means of selective retrieval of
certain doctrines and practices of the past
5. To
avoid contamination, they often withdraw from mainstream culture to create a
counterculture
6. Some fundamentalists adopt some
elements of modern society
7. Eventually they fight
back and attempt to resacralize an increasingly skeptical
world
Trends seen as threats by
fundamentalists:
1. The rise of modernity – growing
appeal of innovation supersedes earlier commitment to tradition and received
dogma.
2. Secularism – elimination of religion as a
source of authority in society’s various institutions. Mass media, business,
government, science, education all come to function without reference to
religious beliefs or doctrines. There is also declining individual religious
participation.
3. Cultural pluralism – eliminates any
preference in society for one religion over another; contradicts the very idea
of a universal truth.
4. Colonialism and imperialism –
threatening forces from without. Subordination of indigenous society, imposition
of new institutions and constraining indigenous cultural norms.
Four broadly defined strategies adopted by
fundamentalists:
1. World conqueror – attempts to
destroy modern society so that religious society can replace it
2. World transformer – a gradual revision of laws
3. World creator – creates a parallel society, shuns
existing institutions, they hope to create a model of living so that they can
convince others to join them
4. World renouncer –
separatist, removal from modern society
Only one of these (world
conqueror) is obviously violent – religious fundamentalism is not inherently
violent.
Geographical dimensions of fundamentalist
strategies
1. Control of sacred spaces
2. Control of secular spaces
3.
The link between territory and religious identity
4.
Global conflicts