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For other uses, see Fundamentalism (disambiguation).

The term Fundamentalism (from the Latin noun fundamen, fundaminis, related to the verb fundare, meaning to establish, found, or confirm) usually has a religious connotation indicating unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs,[1] but fundamentalism has come to be applied to a broad tendency among certain groups, mainly, although not exclusively, in religion. This tendency is most often characterized by a markedly strict literalism as applied to certain specific scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, and a strong sense of the importance of maintaining ingroup and outgroup distinctions,[2][3][4][5] leading to an emphasis on purity and the desire to return to a previous ideal from which it is believed that members have begun to stray. Rejection of diversity of opinion as applied to these established "fundamentals" and their accepted interpretation within the group is often the result of this tendency.[6]

Depending upon the context, Fundamentalism can be used as a pejorative rather than neutral characterization, similar to the ways in which referencing political perspectives as "right-wing" or "left-wing" can, for some, have negative connotations.[7][8]


See also: Evangelicalism

Fundamentalism, in the context of Christianity, has been defined by George Marsden as the demand for a strict adherence to certain theological doctrines, in reaction against Modernist theology.[9] The term was originally coined by its supporters to describe what they claimed were five specific classic theological beliefs of Christianity, and that developed into a Christian fundamentalist movement within the Protestant community of the United States in the early part of the 20th century.[10] Fundamentalism as a movement arose in the United States, starting among conservative Presbyterian theologians at Princeton Theological Seminary in the late 19th century. It soon spread to conservatives among the Baptists and other denominations around 1910 to 1920. The movement's purpose was to reaffirm key theological tenets and defend them against the challenges of liberal theology and higher criticism.[11]


By the late 1910s, theological conservatives rallying around the Five Fundamentals came to be known as "fundamentalists". They reject the existence of commonalities with theologically related religious traditions, such as the grouping of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism into one Abrahamic family of religions.[3] In contrast, Evangelical groups, while they typically agree on the theology "fundamentals" as expressed in The Fundamentals, often are willing to participate in events with religious groups who do not hold to the essential doctrines.[13]


Main article: Jewish fundamentalism

The term Jewish fundamentalism has been used to characterize militant religious Zionism, and both Ashkenazi and Sephardic versions of Haredi Judaism.[14]

Ian S Lustik has characterized Jewish fundamentalism as "an ultranationalist, eschatologically based, irredentist ideology."[15]


The Shia and Sunni religious conflicts since the 7th century created an opening for radical ideologues, such as Ali Shariati (1933–77), to merge social revolution with Islamic fundamentalism, as exemplified by the Iranian Revolution in 1979.[16] Islamic fundamentalism has appeared in many countries;[17] the Wahhabi version is promoted worldwide and financed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan.[18][19]

The Iran hostage crisis of 1979–80 marked a major turning point in the use of the term "fundamentalism". The media, in an attempt to explain the ideology of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution to a Western audience described it as a "fundamentalist version of Islam" by way of analogy to the Christian fundamentalist movement in the U.S. Thus was born the term "Islamic fundamentalist", which would come to be one of the most common usages of the term in the following years.[20]


Scholars identify several politically active Hindu movements (including the RSS, BJP and VHP) as part of the "Hindu fundamentalist family."[21]

A recent[when?] phenomenon in India has been the rise of Hindu fundamentalism, which has led to political mobilization against Muslims.[21][22][23]


In the most recent[when?] instances, Buddhist fundamentalism has also targeted other religious and ethnic groups, such as that in Myanmar. As a Buddhist dominated nation, Burma has seen recent tensions between Muslim minorities and the Buddhist majority, especially during the 2013 Burma anti-Muslim riots, alleged[by whom?] to have been instigated by hardliner groups such as the 969 Movement.[24]

There are historic and contemporary examples of Buddhist fundamentalism in each of the three main branches of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. In Japan, a prominent example has been the practice of shakubuku among some members of the Nichiren sect—a method of proselytizing involving strident condemnation of other sects as deficient or evil. Similarly, some members of the New Kadampa Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the Western Shugden Society have appropriated the controversial and fiercely sectarian[clarification needed] protector deity Dorje Shugden as a symbol of maintaining the purity of the Gelugpa sect from contamination by teachings of other sects, condemning the Dalai Lama's eclectic approach (see Dorje Shugden controversy).[25]


"Fundamentalist" has been used pejoratively to refer to philosophies perceived as literal-minded or carrying a pretense of being the sole source of objective truth, regardless of whether it is usually called a religion. For instance, the Archbishop of Wales has criticized "atheistic fundamentalism" broadly[26][27][28] and said "Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous".[29] He also said, "the new fundamentalism of our age ... leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, and the claim that, because God is on our side, he is not on yours."[30]


In France, the imposition of restrictions on the wearing of headscarves in state-run schools has been labeled "secular fundamentalism".[32][33] In the United States, private or cultural intolerance of women wearing the hijab (Islamic headcovering) and political activism by Muslims also has been labeled "secular fundamentalism" by some Muslims in the U.S.[34]

The term "fundamentalism" is sometimes applied to signify a counter-cultural fidelity to a principle or set of principles, as in the pejorative term "market fundamentalism", used to imply exaggerated religious-like faith in the ability of unfettered laissez-faire or free market economic views or policies to solve economic and social problems. According to economist John Quiggin, the standard features of "economic fundamentalist rhetoric" are "dogmatic" assertions and the claim that anyone who holds contrary views is not a real economist. Retired professor in religious studies Roderick Hindery lists positive qualities attributed to political, economic, or other forms of cultural fundamentalism, including "vitality, enthusiasm, willingness to back up words with actions, and the avoidance of facile compromise," as well as negative aspects, such as psychological attitudes[which?], occasionally elitist and pessimistic perspectives, and, in some cases, literalism.[35]


In December 2007, the Anglican Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan criticized what he referred to as "atheistic fundamentalism", claiming that it advocated that religion has no substance and "that faith has no value and is superstitious nonsense."[27][28] He claimed it led to situations such as councils calling Christmas "Winterval", schools refusing to put on nativity plays and crosses removed from chapels. Others have countered that some of these attacks on Christmas are urban myths, not all schools do nativity plays because they choose to perform other traditional plays like A Christmas Carol or The Snow Queen and, because of rising tensions between various religions, opening up public spaces to alternate displays rather than the Nativity scene is an attempt to keep government religion-neutral.[36]


Many criticisms of fundamentalist positions have been offered. One of the most common is that some claims made by a fundamentalist group cannot be proven, and are irrational, demonstrably false, or contrary to scientific evidence. Some[which?] of these criticisms were famously asserted by Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey Trial.


A criticism by Elliot N. Dorff:




Albert Camus opposed both Nazi fascism and Stalinist communism, leading to a split with Jean-Paul Sartre. In the Myth of Sisyphus he developed the concept of philosophical suicide, which he defined as any ideological system or belief that claims to bridge what he saw as a conflict between man's yearning for absolute unity and the inherent irrational nature of the universe.[citation needed]


Political usage of the term "fundamentalism" has also been criticized. "Fundamentalism" has been used by political groups to attack their opponents, using the term flexibly depending on their political interests. According to Judith Nagata, a professor of Asia Research Institute in the National University of Singapore, "The Afghan mujahiddin, locked in combat with the Soviet enemy in the 1980s, could be praised as 'freedom fighters' by their American backers at the time, while the present Taliban, viewed, among other things, as protectors of American enemy Osama bin Laden, are unequivocally 'fundamentalist'."[40]



The Associated Press' AP Stylebook recommends that the term fundamentalist not be used for any group that does not apply the term to itself. Many scholars have adopted a similar position.[42] Other scholars, however, use the term in the broader descriptive sense to refer to various groups in various religious traditions including those groups that would object to being classified as fundamentalists, such as in The Fundamentalism Project.[43]

Christian fundamentalists, who generally consider the term to be pejorative when used to refer to themselves, often object to the placement of themselves and Islamist groups into a single category since they believe that the fundamentals of Christianity are different from the fundamentals of Islam. They feel that characteristics based on the new definition are wrongly projected back onto Christian fundamentalists by their critics.

Many Muslims[who?] object to the use of the term when referring to Islamist groups, and oppose being placed in the same category as Christian fundamentalists, whom they see as theologically incomplete. Unlike Christian fundamentalist groups, Islamist groups do not use the term fundamentalist to refer to themselves. Shia groups which are often considered fundamentalist in the West are generally not described that way in the Islamic world.

See also[edit]

Citations and footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Nagata, Judith (Jun 2001). "Beyond Theology: Toward an Anthropology of "Fundamentalism"". American Anthropologist 103 (2): 481–498. doi:10.1525/aa.2001.103.2.481. 
  2. ^ Altemeyer, B.; Hunsberger, B. (1992). "Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice". International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 2 (2): 113–133. doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0202_5. 
  5. ^ Hunsberger, B (1995). "Religion and prejudice: The role of religious fundamentalism, quest, and right-wing authoritarianism". Journal of Social Issues 51 (2): 113–129. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1995.tb01326.x. 
  6. ^
  7. ^ Harris, Harriet (2008). Fundamentalism and Evangelicals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-953253-2. OCLC 182663241. 
  8. ^ Boer, Roland (2005). "Fundamentalism" (PDF). In Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg, Meaghan Morris and Raymonnd Williams. New keywords: a revised vocabulary of culture and society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 134–137. ISBN 0-631-22568-4. OCLC 230674627 57357498. Retrieved July 27, 2008. 
  10. ^ Buescher, John. "A History of Fundamentalism", Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  13. ^ Carpenter, Revive us Again (1997) p 200
  14. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel
  15. ^ Ian S. Lustik. "Israel's Dangerous Fundamentalists". pp. 118–139. ISSN 0015-7228. Archived from the original on 2009-10-25. Retrieved November 4, 2013. Foreign Policy Number 68 Fall 1987 
  17. ^ Lawrence Davidson, Islamic Fundamentalism (Greenwood, 2003)
  18. ^ Natana DeLong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  19. ^ Lindijer, Koert (24 August 2013). "How Islam from the north spreads once more into the Sahel". The Africanists. Retrieved 24 November 2014. Hundreds of years later, Islam again comes to the Sahel, this time with an unstoppable mission mentality and the way paved by money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan. Foreigners, and also Malians who received scholarships to study in Saudi Arabia, introduce this strict form of Islam, and condemn the sufi's [sic]. [verification needed]
  20. ^ "Google News Search: Chart shows spikes in '79 (Iran hostage crisis), after 9/11 and in '92 and '93 (Algerian elections, PLO).". Retrieved December 9, 2008. [original research?]
  21. ^ a b Brekke (1991). Fundamentalism: Prophecy and Protest in an Age of Globalization. Cambridge University Press. p. 127. 
  22. ^ Ajay K. Mehra (2013). Emerging Trends in Indian Politics: The Fifteenth General Election. Routledge. p. 1. 
  23. ^ James Peoples; Garrick Bailey (2008). Cengage Advantage Books: Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Cengage Learning. p. 371. 
  24. ^ KYAW ZWA MOE (March 30, 2013). "Root Out the Source of Meikhtila Unrest". Retrieved November 4, 2013. 
  25. ^
  27. ^ a b Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru | The Church in Wales
  28. ^ a b "'Atheistic fundamentalism' fears". BBC News. December 22, 2007. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 
  29. ^ "Archbishop of Wales fears the rise of "Atheistic Fundamentalism"". Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved November 4, 2013. 
  30. ^ "Atheistic fundamentalism" fears". BBC News. 22 December 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2013. 
  32. ^ "Secular fundamentalism", International Herald Tribune, December 19, 2003
  36. ^ Toynbee, Polly (December 21, 2007). "Sorry to disappoint, but it's nonsense to suggest we want to ban Christmas". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 3, 2010. 
  41. ^ Gary J. Lewis, Stuart J. Ritchie, Timothy C. Bates (2011-09-03). "The relationship between intelligence and multiple domains of religious belief: Evidence from a large adult US sample" (PDF). 



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