So what is fundamentalism? In one of the first and most careful sociologically based theoretical works on fundamentalism, Riesebrodt (1993 [1990], p. 9) defines fundamentalism as “an urban movement directed primarily against dissolution of personalistic, patriarchal notions of order and social relations and their replacement by depersonalized principles.” In the follow-up book to the five-volume Fundamentalism Project, Almond et al. (2003, p. 17) define fundamentalism as “a discernible pattern of religious militance by which self-styled ‘true believers’ attempt to arrest the erosion of religious identity, fortify the borders of the religious community, and create viable alternatives to secular institutions and behaviors.” Put most directly …show more content…
Fundamentalists and their sympathizers see their stand against the tidal wave of change as honorable, right, life preserving, and a life calling. They are people fighting against the heavy hand of secular oppression, emptiness, anomie, and the restriction of freedom. As Bruce (2000, p. 117) states, “Fundamentalism is the rational response of traditionally religious peoples to social, political and economic changes that downgrade and constrain the role of religion in the public world... . [F]fundamentalists have not exaggerated the extent to which modern cultures threaten what they hold dear.”
THE RECENT RISE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM In the 1970s, fundamentalism appeared to hit the world stage from out of thin air (Am merman 1987). Although there were earlier movements [such as the Jewish Gush Emunim (the Bloc of the Faithful) in 1974], the Iranian Revolution was the first unmistakable indicator of a growing phenomenon. Fundamentalism also resurged in the United States, this time as a much more politically active strain. Fundamentalist movements emerged in most of the world’s religions on most of the earth’s continents. Something was happening. In a 1979 article, Ethridge & Feagin noted a lack of “a coherent sociological definition and theoretical context for the term fundamentalism” (p. 37). And no wonder. The accepted wisdom among those who studied