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54-446: Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures , dogmas , or ideologies , along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing one's ingroup and outgroup , which leads to an emphasis on some conception of "purity", and a desire to return to a previous ideal from which advocates believe members have strayed. The term

108-583: A History Channel series explaining why academic scholarship rejects forms of biblical literalism: Christian Smith wrote in his 2012 book, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture : George Marsden George Mish Marsden (born February 25, 1939) is an American historian who has written extensively on the interaction between Christianity and American culture , particularly on Christianity in American higher education and on American evangelicalism . He

162-436: 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 capitalist 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

216-631: A literary religion. Similarly, the canonization of the New Testament by the Early Christian Church became an important aspect in the formation of the separate religious identity for Christianity. Ecclesiastical authorities used the acceptance or rejection of specific scriptural books as a major indicator of group identity, and it played a role in the determination of excommunications in Christianity and in cherem in

270-860: 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 became a common use of the term in following years. Jewish fundamentalism has been used to characterize militant religious Zionism , and both Ashkenazi and Sephardic versions of Haredi Judaism . Ian S. Lustik has characterized "Jewish fundamentalism" as "an ultranationalist, eschatologically based, irredentist ideology". The term New Atheism describes

324-458: A number of signs that he had displeased Dorje Shugden by receiving teachings from non-Gelug schools, and thus initiated a revival movement that opposed the mixing of non-Gelug practices by Gelug practitioners. The main function of the deity was presented as "the protection of the Ge-luk tradition through violent means, even including the killing of its enemies." Crucially, however, these "‘enemies’ of

378-544: A part of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy , conservative Christian scholarship affirms the following: Steve Falkenberg, professor of religious psychology at Eastern Kentucky University , observed: Conrad Hyers , professor of comparative religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota , criticizes biblical literalism as a mentality that: Robert Cargill responded to viewers' questions on

432-500: A particular religious tradition. Depending upon the context, the label "fundamentalism" can be a pejorative rather than a neutral characterization , similar to the ways that calling political perspectives "right-wing" or "left-wing" can have negative connotations. Buddhist fundamentalism has targeted other religious and ethnic groups, as in Myanmar . A Buddhist-dominated country, Myanmar has seen tensions between Muslim minorities and

486-509: A passage is clearly intended by the writer as allegory, poetry, or some other genre, the Bible should be interpreted as literal statements by the author. Critics argue that allegorical intent can be ambiguous. Fundamentalists typically treat as simple history, according to its plain sense, passages such as those that recount the Genesis creation , the Genesis flood narrative and Noah's ark , and

540-476: A protestation march against the imposition of restrictions on the wearing of headscarves in state-run schools, a banner labeled the ban as "secular fundamentalism". 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". The term "fundamentalism" is sometimes applied to signify

594-483: A work not merely inspired by God but, in fact, representing the Word of God without possibility of error or contradiction. Biblical literalism first became an issue in the 18th century, enough so for Diderot to mention it in his Encyclopédie . Karen Armstrong sees "[p]reoccupation with literal truth" as "a product of the scientific revolution". The vast majority of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians regard

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648-862: Is a complex and contradictory phenomenon. While some would argue that certain aspects of Gaudiya Vaishnavism manifest fundamentalist tendencies, these tendencies are more clearly displayed in Hindutva , the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India today, and an increasingly powerful and influential voice within the religion. Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions, but has no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet(s) nor any binding holy book; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic , pantheistic , panentheistic , pandeistic , henotheistic , monotheistic , monistic , agnostic , atheistic or humanist . According to Doniger, "ideas about all

702-705: Is best known for his award-winning biography of the New England clergyman Jonathan Edwards , a prominent theologian of Colonial America . Marsden was born on February 25, 1939, in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania . He attended Haverford College , Westminster Theological Seminary , and Yale University , completing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in American history under Sydney E. Ahlstrom . He taught at Calvin College (1965–1986), Duke Divinity School (1986–1992), and as Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at

756-443: Is inextricably mixed into the very meaning of the divine word. As a result, it is impossible to follow the indisputable word of God; one can only achieve a human understanding of God's will. Howard Thurman was interviewed in the late 1970s for a BBC feature on religion. He told the interviewer: I say that creeds, dogmas, and theologies are inventions of the mind. It is the nature of the mind to make sense out of experience, to reduce

810-475: Is most associated with higher levels of fundamentalism." 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. 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

864-458: Is no gap between the culture in which the Bible was written and the culture of a modern reader. On the contrary, exegetical and interpretative principles come into play as part of the process of closing that cultural gap. The doctrine does deny that the Bible is a code to decipher, or that understanding it requires complex academic analysis as is typical in the historical-critical method of interpretation. Biblical literalists believe that, unless

918-525: Is not on yours." He claimed it led to situations such as councils calling Christmas " Winterval ", schools refusing to put on nativity plays and crosses being removed from chapels. Others have countered that some of these attacks on Christmas are urban legends , 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

972-416: Is used extensively by fundamentalist Christians, in contrast to the historical-critical method of mainstream Judaism , Catholicism or Mainline Protestantism . Those who relate biblical literalism to the historical-grammatical method use the word "letterism" to cover interpreting the Bible according to the dictionary definition of literalism. Alternatively, used as a pejorative to describe or ridicule

1026-457: Is usually called a religion . For instance, the Archbishop of Wales has criticized "atheistic fundamentalism" broadly and said "Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous". 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

1080-540: Is usually used in the context of religion to indicate an unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs (the "fundamentals"). The term "fundamentalism" is generally regarded by scholars of religion as referring to a largely modern religious phenomenon which, while itself a reinterpretation of religion as defined by the parameters of modernism , reifies religion in reaction against modernist , secularist , liberal and ecumenical tendencies developing in religion and society in general that it perceives to be foreign to

1134-614: The 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka and in the course of the 2018 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka , allegedly instigated by hardline groups such as the Bodu Bala Sena . Historic and contemporary examples of Buddhist fundamentalism occur in each of the three main branches of Buddhism : Theravada , Mahayana , and Vajrayana . In addition to the above examples of fundamentalism in Theravada-dominated societies,

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1188-482: The Fundamentalism Project . Tex Sample asserts that it is a mistake to refer to a Muslim , Jewish , or Christian fundamentalist. Rather, a fundamentalist's fundamentalism is their primary concern, over and above other denominational or faith considerations. Biblical literalism The term can refer to the historical-grammatical method , a hermeneutic technique that strives to uncover

1242-580: The Judeo-Christian tradition seems to relate in part to a process of canonization of the Hebrew Bible , which occurred over the course of a few centuries from approximately 200 BCE to 200 CE. In the Jewish tradition, the highly regarded written word represented a direct conduit to the mind of God, and the later rabbinical school of Judaism encouraged the attendant scholarship that accompanied

1296-669: The Nativity scene is an attempt to keep government religion-neutral. In The New Inquisition , Robert Anton Wilson lampoons the members of skeptical organizations such as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal as fundamentalist materialists, alleging that they dogmatically dismiss any evidence that conflicts with materialism as hallucination or fraud. In France, during

1350-486: The Niagara Bible Conferences which were held annually between 1878 and 1897. During those conferences, the tenets widely considered to be fundamental Christian belief were identified. "Fundamentalism" was prefigured by The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth , a collection of twelve pamphlets published between 1910 and 1915 by brothers Milton and Lyman Stewart . It is widely considered to be

1404-972: The Pueblo Revolt (1680s), the Shawnee Prophet Movement (1805–1811), the Cherokee Prophet Movement (1811–1813), the Red Stick War (1813–1814), White Path's Rebellion (1826), the Winnebago Prophet Movement (1830–1832), the first Ghost Dance (1869–1870) and the second Ghost Dance (1889–1890), and the Snake movements among the Cherokee, Choctaw , and Muscogee Creek peoples during the 1890s. The existence of fundamentalism in Hinduism

1458-661: The Reformation , Martin Luther (1483–1546 CE) separated the biblical apocrypha from the rest of the Old Testament books in his 1534 Bible , reflecting scholarly doubts that had continued for centuries, and the Westminster Confession of 1646 demoted them to a status that denied their canonicity. American Protestant literalists and biblical inerrantists have adopted this smaller Protestant Bible as

1512-818: The University of Notre Dame (1992–2008). As of 2017 Marsden is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. His former doctoral students include Diana Butler Bass , Matthew Grow , Thomas S. Kidd , Steven Nolt , and Rick Ostrander . He was awarded the Bancroft Prize for his book Jonathan Edwards: A Life in 2004, the Merle Curti Award in 2004, and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion in 2005. A Festschrift

1566-518: The early history of Islam in the 7th century, to the time of the Kharijites . From their essentially political position, they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Shia and Sunni Muslims . The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfir , whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death. The Shia and Sunni religious conflicts since

1620-404: The "essential" doctrines. A few scholars label some indigenist revitalization movements within ethnic and indigenous religions who reject the changes brought by the modern states and major religions in favor of a return to traditional ways as fundamentalists in contrast with syncretic reform movements. Thus, numerous new generally fundamentalist Native American religious movements include

1674-473: 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'." "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

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1728-540: The 20th century. 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 . The concept of "fundamentalism" has roots in

1782-533: 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. Islamic fundamentalism has appeared in many countries; the Salafi - Wahhabi version is promoted worldwide and financed by Saudi Arabia , Qatar , and Pakistan . The Iran hostage crisis of 1979–80 marked

1836-542: The Bible literally, saying it is the actual word of God. That is similar to what Gallup has measured over the last two decades, but down from the 1970s and 1980s. A 49% plurality of Americans say the Bible is the inspired word of God but that it should not be taken literally, consistently the most common view in Gallup's nearly 40-year history of this question. Another 17% consider the Bible an ancient book of stories recorded by man." The high regard for religious scriptures in

1890-527: The Biblical text as clear , and believe that the average person may understand the basic meaning and teachings of the Bible. The doctrine has resulted in an estimated 45,000 Protestant denominations, none of which hold exactly the same views. Such Christians often refer to the teachings of the Bible rather than to the process of interpretation itself . The doctrine of clarity of the text does not mean that no interpretative principles are necessary, or that there

1944-587: The Buddhist majority , especially during the 2013 Burma anti-Muslim riots (possibly instigated by hardline groups such as the 969 Movement ). as well as during actions which are associated with the Rohingya genocide (2016 onwards). Buddhist fundamentalism also features in Sri Lanka . Buddhist-dominated Sri Lanka has seen recent tensions between Muslim minorities and the Buddhist majority, especially during

1998-688: The Gelug refers less to the members of rival schools than to members of the Gelug tradition ‘who mix Dzong-ka-ba’s tradition with elements coming from other traditions, particularly the Nying-ma Dzok-chen ’." In Japan, a prominent example has been the practice among some members of the Mahayana Nichiren sect of shakubuku – a method of proselytizing which involves the strident condemnation of other sects as deficient or evil . George Marsden has defined Christian fundamentalism as

2052-619: The Jewish tradition. Origen (184–253 CE), familiar with reading and interpreting Hellenistic literature , taught that some parts of the Bible ought to be interpreted non-literally. Concerning the Genesis account of creation, he wrote: "who is so silly as to believe that God ... planted a paradise eastward in Eden, and set in it a visible and palpable tree of life ... [and] anyone who tasted its fruit with his bodily teeth would gain life?" He also proposed that such hermeneutics should be applied to

2106-548: 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, occasionally elitist and pessimistic perspectives, and in some cases literalism. A criticism by Elliot N. Dorff : In order to carry out

2160-434: The conglomerates of experience to units of comprehension which we call principles, or ideologies, or concepts. Religious experience is dynamic, fluid, effervescent, yeasty. But the mind can't handle these so it has to imprison religious experience in some way, get it bottled up. Then, when the experience quiets down, the mind draws a bead on it and extracts concepts, notions, dogmas, so that religious experience can make sense to

2214-541: The contrary. The religion "defies our desire to define and categorize it." In India, the term “dharma” is preferred, which is broader than the Western term “religion.” Hence, certain scholars argue that Hinduism lacks dogma and thus a specific notion of "fundamentalism," while other scholars identify several politically active Hindu movements as part of a "Hindu fundamentalist family." Fundamentalism within Islam goes back to

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2268-474: The demand for strict adherence to certain theological doctrines, in opposition to Modernist theology . Its supporters originally coined the term in order to describe what they claimed were five specific classic theological beliefs of Christianity, and the coinage of the term led to the development of a Christian fundamentalist movement within the Protestant community of the United States in the early part of

2322-686: The five fundamentals came to be known as "fundamentalists". They rejected the existence of commonalities with theologically related religious traditions, such as the grouping of Christianity, Islam , and Judaism into one Abrahamic family of religions . By contrast, while Evangelical groups (such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ) typically agree with the "fundamentals" as they are expressed in The Fundamentals , they are often willing to participate in events with religious groups that do not hold to

2376-612: The foundation of modern Christian fundamentalism. In 1910, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church identified what became known as the five fundamentals : In 1920, the word "fundamentalist" was first used in print by Curtis Lee Laws, editor of The Watchman Examiner , a Baptist newspaper. Laws proposed that those Christians who were fighting for the fundamentals of the faith should be called "fundamentalists". Theological conservatives who rallied around

2430-456: The fundamentalist program in practice, one would need a perfect understanding of the ancient language of the original text, if indeed the true text can be discerned from among variants. Furthermore, human beings are the ones who transmit this understanding between generations. Even if one wanted to follow the literal word of God, the need for people first to understand that word necessitates human interpretation. Through that process human fallibility

2484-454: The gospel accounts as well. Church father Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) wrote of the need for reason in interpreting Jewish and Christian scripture, and of much of the Book of Genesis being an extended metaphor. But Augustine also implicitly accepted the literalism of the creation of Adam and Eve , and explicitly accepted the literalism of the virginity of Jesus 's mother Mary . In

2538-507: The interpretative approaches of fundamentalist or evangelical Christians, it can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism : "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense". Fundamentalists and evangelicals sometimes refer to themselves as literalists or biblical literalists. Sociologists also use the term in reference to conservative Christian beliefs which include not just literalism but also biblical inerrancy . A 2011 Gallup survey reports, "Three in 10 Americans interpret

2592-433: The major issues of faith and lifestyle – vegetarianism, nonviolence, belief in rebirth, even caste – are subjects of debate, not dogma ." Some would argue that, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, a lack of theological 'fundamentals' means that a dogmatic 'religious fundamentalism' per se is hard to find. Others point to the recent rise of Hindu nationalism in India as evidence to

2646-572: The meaning of the text by taking into account not just the grammatical words, but also the syntactical aspects, the cultural and historical background, and the literary genre. It emphasizes the referential aspect of the words in the text without denying the relevance of literary aspects, genre, or figures of speech within the text (e.g., parable, allegory, simile, or metaphor). It does not necessarily lead to complete agreement upon one single interpretation of any given passage. This Christian fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to scripture

2700-466: The mind. Meanwhile, religious experience goes on experiencing, so that by the time I get my dogma stated so that I can think about it, the religious experience becomes an object of thought. Influential criticisms of fundamentalism include James Barr 's books on Christian fundamentalism and Bassam Tibi 's analysis of Islamic fundamentalism. A study at the University of Edinburgh found that of its six measured dimensions of religiosity, "lower intelligence

2754-528: The opposite stance to said policies. Political usage of the term "fundamentalism" has been criticized. It has been used by political groups to berate 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

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2808-572: The positions of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Critics have described New Atheism as " secular fundamentalism ". In modern politics, fundamentalism has been associated with right-wing conservative ideology, especially social conservatism. Social conservatives often support policies in line with religious fundamentalism, such as support for school prayer and opposition to LGBT rights and abortion . Conversely, secularism has been associated with left-wing or liberal ideology, as it takes

2862-707: The reification of a protector deity , Dorje Shugden , by 19th-century Tibetan lama Pabongkhapa could be seen as an example of fundamentalism in the Vajrayana tradition. Dorje Shugden was a key tool in Pabongkhapa's persecution of the flourishing Rimé movement , an ecumenical movement which fused the teachings of the Sakya , Kagyu and Nyingma , in response to the dominance of the Gelug school. While Pabongkhapa had an initially inclusive view early in his life, he received

2916-432: The unnaturally long life-spans of the patriarchs given in genealogies of Genesis , as well as the strict historicity of the narrative accounts about the ancient Israelites , the supernatural interventions of God in history, and Jesus's miracles . Literalism does not deny that parables, metaphors and allegory exist in the Bible, but rather relies on contextual interpretations based on apparent authorial intention. As

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