Fundamentalisms Observed: Volume 1

Book Overview

This volume is an encyclopedic introduction to movements of religious reaction in the twentieth century. The fourteen chapters are thematically linked by a common set of concerns: the social, political, cultural, and religious contexts in which these movements were born; the particular world-views, systems of thought, and beliefs that govern each movement; the ways in which leaders and group members make sense of and respond to the challenges of the modern, postcolonial era in world history.

The contributors include sociologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians, some of whom have been participant-observers in the groups under consideration. As an analysis of the global resurgence of religion, Fundamentalisms Observed sheds new light on current religious movements and cultures from North America to the Far East.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226508781
• ISBN13: 9780226508788
• Release Date: July 1994
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 888 Pages
• Weight: 3.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Dense readings but of definite impact

This is the first of five volumes by The Fundamentalism Project. It is the only volume I have read to date. This volume begins with North American Protestant Fundamentalism, for which the term "fundamentalism" was coined and then studies in 15 more sections, each with a different author, (across 13 chapters) other religious movements around the world that have reacted to modernity in a way that might be described as "fundamentalistic" ... even if in quite a different form than North American Protestant Fundamentalism. The book may (almost) be worthwhile for its chapter on North American Protestantism alone but there is a huge amount more. The concluding chapter then tries to determine what might be "fundamentalistic" about all the religions presented thus far. This is just a beginning and it appears that study of the remaining four volumes might be needed to integrate all the material covered in this introductory volume alone. What impressed me most was how many people worldwide are far from the kind of "intellectual" religion expressed, say, by Unitarian Universalism or the Society of Friends, let alone from secular humanism and atheism. I suppose I should have known this but until I read through here I had not been mindful of it. Try explaining the appeal of Gnostic Christian mythology to any of the believers of these fundamentalisms and I think you will find a gap too wide to cross. I had not even paid attention to the issues found in Roman Catholic Traditionalism in the U.S., Roman Catholic Activist Conversation in the U.S., or Protestant Fundamentalism in Latin America. As section after section moved away from the Protestant Fundamentalism I was familar with, I began to feel overwhelmed by the varieties of what seem to be emotionally dominated belief systems. Moving through Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Japanese forms, in a survey, text book form but nonetheless considerable detail told me I was "not in Kansas anymore". The five volumes may be too much for me and best suited for scholars or students of religion. I plan to go on next to Volume 5 (Fundamentalisms Comprehended) and see if it provides an appropriate summary for a lay reader such as myself. The conclusion of this book ("Fundamentalisms Observed"), "An Interim Report on a Hypothetical Family" does provide some summary information but it is brief and much of the details from the early sections seem not digested yet here into summary form. It seems what may emerge is an understanding of fundamentalisms that is not rooted in North American Protestant Fundamentalism, but has abstracted key elements of what seem like quite different ways of reacting to modernity with some aims of preservation. The major value of this volume, for me, as a lay reader, is to realize that there is an enormous amount and variety of religious activity in the world which is resisting modernity and which seems irrational. Given my liberal U.S. Protestant background, I'd never seen in such detai

Exhaustive Study of a Menacing Global Religious Phenomenon

*Fundamentalisms Observed* (the 1st volume of 5) is perhaps the most prestigious contribution yet to the ever expanding literature on the subject. Covering this global phenomenon in several traditions, and with a tight typology, this volume brings together a high-powered team of academics from a dozen disciplines and countries to cover such fundamentalisms as North American Protestantism (Chp. 1), Roman Catholicism (Chp. 2), Protestant fundamentalism in Latin America (Chp. 3), Haredim Jewish fundamentalism (Chp. 4), Zionist Jewish fundamentalism (Chp. 5), Sunni Arab fundamentalism (Chp. 6), Shi'ite fundamentalism (Chp. 7), Islamic fundamentalism in South Asia, (Chp. 8), Hindu fundamentalism (Chp. 9), Fundamentalism in the Sikh tradition (Chp. 10), Buddhist fundamentalism in the Theravadin tradition (Chp. 11), Islamic resurgence in Malaysia and Indonesia (Chp. 12), Confucian revivalism in East Asia (Chp. 13) and Fundamamentalism in Japan (Chp. 14). What is particularly illuminating is the analytical conclusion (Chp. 15) where 9 points are layed out baring on the similarities in the fundamentalisms observed. Thus far, the definitive study on the subject (surpassing Lawrence's *Defenders of God*) and an important reference on the subject for scholar and layman alike