1. What is the Fundamentalism?

Scientific denomination

Fundamentalism is a term used to refer to faith in an absolutist and literalist manner. It involves the idea of an effort to purify or reform beliefs and practices in accord with the self‐defined fundamentals of the faith. Fundamentalist interpretation entails a self‐conscious effort to avoid compromise, adaptation or critical reinterpretation of holy books of belief.

Origin and use of the term

Fundamentalism

For the first time, the term “Fundamentalism” was applied to a specific Christian experience that emerged as a response to the development of Christian “modernism” in the nineteenth century. While modernism elicited reaction in many areas, it was most vehement in the United States. Between 1909 and 1915 a group of American theologians wrote and published a series of booklets called The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, in which they defined what they believed to be the absolutely fundamental doctrines of Christianity. The core of these doctrines was the literal inerrancy of the Bible in all its statements and affirmations. During the debates of the 1920s, supporters of this position came to be called Fundamentalists. 

For many years the term “Fundamentalism” was applied almost exclusively to this particular Christian tradition. By the 1970s, as scholars and the general public became increasingly aware of the resurgence of religion in many different societies, the term began to be applied to movements of religious revival in a wide variety of contexts. When applied to non‐Christians, the term most denoted individuals and movements in the Islamic revival of the final quarter of the twentieth century in Muslim and Arab countries.

In the late 20th century the most influential -and the most controversial- study of Fundamentalism was The Fundamentalism Project (1991–1995), a series of five volumes edited by the American scholars Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Marty and Appleby viewed fundamentalism primarily as the militant rejection of secular modernity. They argued that Fundamentalism is not just traditional religiosity but an inherently political phenomenon, though this dimension may sometimes be dormant. Marty and Appleby also contended that fundamentalism is inherently totalitarian, insofar as it seeks to remake all aspects of society and government on religious principles.

Analysis of the source

The pictures show the importance and supremacy of religions (God, holy books, religious law, etc.) for some believers in different aspects of life. The writings on manifestos referring to sacred scriptures (Jesus and Sharia) and to a literal view on women (Jewish women' entry forbidden) as well as Muslim protestants and Orthodox Jewish men' clothes are visible elements of Fundamentalist movements. The writings on manifestos regard Fundamentalist thoughts while clothes and physical aspects concern a Fundamentalist public image.

Intercultural & interdisciplinary information

A good example of a somehow different kind  Fundamentalism is the Fundamentalism in Hinduism. Use Hinduism Module's page 12 to compare Hindu Fundamentalism with the subject discussed in this module.

Link to other module
[Hinduism Module's page 12]