A Working Summary Definition of "Fundamentalism"
"... like it or not, the word “fundamentalism” is here to stay.
And I have come to agree: the term is not perfect, but it is a useful label
for movements that, despite their differences, bear a strong family resemblance.
At the outset of their monumental six-volume Fundamentalist Project, Martin
E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby argue that the “fundamentalisms”
all follow a certain pattern. They are embattled forms of spirituality,
which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis. They are engaged
in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical
to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional
political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces
of good and evil. They fear annihilation, and try to fortify their beleaguered
identity by means of a selective retrieval of certain doctrines and practices
of the past. To avoid contamination, they often withdraw from mainstream
society to create a counterculture; yet fundamentalists are not impractical
dreamers. They have absorbed the pragmatic rationalism of modernity, and,
under the guidance of their charismatic leaders, they refine these “fundamentals”
so as to create an ideology that provides the faithful with a plan of action.
Eventually they fight back and attempt to resacralize an increasingly skeptical
world.” (Introduction, page xiii) |
