Religious Fundamentalism

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Religious Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism: Religion based on an unquestioning belief in the literal truth of a sacred text.

Fundamentalists want to return to the basic of their faith.

Arises only where traditional beliefs and values are threatened by modern society and globalisation.

Threat can come from outside, e.g. capitalist globalisation or can come from within, e.g. when parts of society adopt secular ideas (attitudes to sexualtity and gender.)

Features of fundamentalism:

  • Authoritative sacred text
  • 'Us and Them' mentality
  • Aggressive reaction
  • Use of  modern tech
  • Patriarchy
  • Prophecy
  • Conspiracy theories
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Fundamentalism and modernity

Davie- fundamentalism occurs where modernity threatens people's traditional beliefs and values and they feel that they need to defend themselves against it.

Fundamentalists are themselves products of modernity- born out of the clash of modernity and traditional cultures.

Giddens- Is a product of and reaction to globalisation, undermines social norms.

In today's late modern society, people are constantly faced with choice, uncertainty and risk. Fundamentalism is attractive because it offers rigid, traditional beliefs that offer certainty.

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Cosmopolitanism

Giddens- compares fundamentalism and cosmopolitanism.

Cosmopolitanism- way of thinking that embraces modernity and is keeping with the globalising world.

Characteristics of cosmopolitanism:

  • Tolerant of other views
  • Open to new ideas
  • Requires people to justify their views with rational arguements, not sacred texts
  • Sees one lifestyle as a personal choice not given by authority
  • Emphasises pursuit of personal meaning rather than submission to authority

Sees fundamentalism as the enemy of cosmopolitan thought and modernity.

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Responses to postmodernity

Bauman- sees fundamentalism as a response to living in postmodernity. Postmodern society brings freedom of choice, uncertainty and a heightened awareness of risk.

Some embrace the new freedom, other are attracted to fundamentalism.

Castells- distinguishes between two responses to postmodernity:

  • Resistant identity- defensive reaction of those who feel threatened and retreat into fundamentalist communities.
  • Project identity- response of those who are forward-looking and engage with social movements such as feminism and environmentalism.
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Criticisms

Beckford- criticises Giddens, Bauman and Castells

  • Distinguish too sharply between cosmpolitanism and fundamentalism, ignoring hybrid movements.
  • Fixed on fundamentalism, ignoring other important developments

Giddens lumps all types of fundamentalism together, ignoring differences between them.

Also describes fundamentalism as a defensive reaction that ignores the fact that reinventing tradtion is also a modern reflexive activity.

Haynes- argues that we should not focus on the idea that islamic fundamentalism is a reaction against globalisation.

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Monotheism and fundamentalism

Monotheism- A single God

Bruce- main cause of fundamentalism is the idea that globalisation threatens their beliefs and lifestyle.

Regards fundamentalism as being confined to monotheistic religions, whereas polytheistic religions are unlikely to produce fundamentalism.

Monotheistic religions are based on the idea that God's will is revealed through a single sacred text, whereas polytheistic religions lack a single omnipotent deity and a single authoritative text and therefore there are many interpretations and no absolute truth.

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Two fundamentalisms

Bruce- while all fundamentalists share the same characteristics, different movements may have different origins.

  • In the West- fundamentalism is most often a reaction to change taking place within a society, e.g. New Christian right in America has developed in response to choice in America.
  • In the thrid world- fundamentalism is usually a reaction to changes being thrust upon a society, e.g. Islamic revolution in Iran.
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Secular fundamentalism

Davie- recent decades have seen secular forms of fundamentalism. This is a result of changes in the nature of modern society.

Distinguishes between two phases of modernity.

  • 1st phase- rise to religious fundamentalism

enlightenment project: optimistic secular belief in human progress based on science and reason.

  • 2nd phase- rise to secular fundametalism

Optimism of the enlightenment project has come under attack because of the growing pessimism and uncertainty. Led to a loss of faith in the enlightenment ideologies.

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Secular fundamentalism

Secular ideologies struggle for survival like religion and Davie notes that they are past their sell-by-date.

Some people turned to secular fundamentalism when secular views are attacked- People have turned hugely secular/anit-religious.

Happened in Western Europe, challenges to liberal attitudes provoked a secular fundamentalist reaction.

France banned pupils rom wearing religious symbols and in 2010 it was illegal for women to wear the veil in public.

Ansell- form of cultural racism that use liberal language of universal equality and social integration. In reality they are perserving cultural identity.

Davie argues that both religious and secular movements can become fundamentalist as a result of the greater uncertainties of life.

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Religion and the 'clash of civilisation'

Huntington- religios conflicts have intensified since the collapse of communism and are symptoms of the clash of civilisation.

Identifies seven civilisations:

  • Western
  • latin America
  • Confucian (China)
  • Japanese
  • Islamic
  • Hindu
  • Slavic-Orthodox (Russia and Eastern Europe.)

Each has common cultural background and history and is closely idenitifed with one of the world's greatest religions.

Shared religion creates social cohesion within civilisations, but can also create conflict between them.

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Religion and the 'clash of civilisation'

Religious differences are a major source of identity for three reasons:

  • Fall of communism has resulted in political differences becoming less important as a source of identity.
  • Globalisation has made nation-state less significant as a source of identity- creating a gap religion has filled.
  • Globalisation makes contact between civilisations easier and more frequent, increasing conflict.

Huntington- sees religious differences as creating a set of hostile 'us and them' relationships with increased competition for economic and military power.

Believes that the west is under threat from islam and predicts growing conflict between the 'west and the rest.'

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Criticisms

Jackson- sees his work as an example of orientalism- western ideology that stereotypes Eastern nations and people as unworthy, inferior or fanatical others.

Casanova- ignores important religious divisions within the civilisations he identifies.

Horrie and Chippindale- sees clash of the civilisations as a grossly misleading neo-conservative ideology that portrays the whole of islam as the enemy.

Armstrong- hostility towards the west doesn't stem from fundamentalist islam but is a reaction to western foreign policy in the middle east.

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Religion and development

Globalisation in India:

Brought rapid economic growth and has seen India become a more important player on the world political stage,

Has created a huge, successful, scientifically educated, urban middle class in India. Secularisation theory would suggest that these people would abandon religion, however Nanda found that a vast majority still believed in the supernatural.

People in India are becoming more religious and this increase in religion has been reflected in a huge growth of religious tourism.

Middle class are attracted to what were once low-status village Gods worshipped by the poor- this is because they are seenas being responsive to people's needs.

Nanda rejects poverty and existential insecurity because they are not poor. Also rejects the idea that their beliefs are a defensive reaction to modernisation and westernisation.

It is because of their ambivalence (mixed feelings) about their newfound wealth for why they are religious.

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Hindu ultra-nationalism

'Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.'

Nanda- India's success in the global market is increasingly attibuted to the superiority of Hindu values, along with the essence of Indian culture and identity.

The worship of Hindu Gods has become the same as worshipping the nation of India.

Hinduism has also penetrated public life, e.g astrology being taught as an academic subject and using cows (sacred animal) urine as a cure for AIDS.

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Capitalism in East Asia

China is now a major global industrial power

Success of capitalism has led some sciologists to argue that religion has played a role similar to that of the calvinists.

Redding- describes the spirit of capitalism among Chinese entrepreneurs. Sees their post-Confucian values encouraging hard work, self-discipline, frugality and a commitment to education and self improvement.

Leads to economic productivity and accumulation of money.

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Pentecostalism in Latin America

Berger- pentecostalism in Latin America acts as a ;functional equivalent to Weber's protestant ethic in that it encourages the development of capitalism in the same way calvinism did.

Embrace an ascetic lifestyle and encourages members to prosper and become upwardly mobile.

Christanity has globalised by expanding out of Europe and into South America.

Lehmann distinguishes two phases of this expansion:

  • 1st phase- Christanity accompanied colonisation and was imposed on the indigenous populations by conquest.
  • 2nd phase- spread because it gained a popular following.

He attributes the success of pentacostalism to its abilty to incorporate local beliefs.

Pentecostalism creates new local religious forms rather than simply replacing local beliefs.

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