Definition Of Fundamentalism Analysis

In every faith there will always be group of people who tend to hold a more extremely traditional belief of their religious views. These groups of individuals are more commonly referred to as fundamentalists. While there are fundamentalists for all religions, this looks very different depending on the faith. Understanding Fundamentalism Christianity, Islam, and Jewish Movements, by Richard T. Antoun, aids in looking at fundamentalism in the three most widely practiced religions in the world. In order to more fully understand fundamentalism in each of these religions there will need to be a focus on three different aspects of fundamentalism as understood by Antoun. First, fundamentalism must be defined. Fundamentalism must be defined on a broad …show more content…
According to Antoun the broad definition of fundamentalism is one that applies to individuals who are, “… generally viewed as doctrinaire followers of sacred scripture, dwellers in and on the past, and naïve simplifiers of complex world events involved in a struggle between good and evil.” This broad definition of fundamentalism consists of two categories, its worldview and ethos. The worldview of fundamentalism is centralized around God, his scriptures, and the struggles of good and evil concerns of both individuals and groups. The ethos focuses on ideas related to the protests of minorities and outrage at the progressive shift being taken by institutions in a society that is becoming increasingly more secular. These two aspects of fundamentalism’s worldview and ethos are what make up today’s understanding of fundamentalism that can be applied to all religions. According to Antoun modern Christian fundamentalism sprung up along side the growth of a strong progressive and nationalistic Protestantism. Antoun also believes that contemporary Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction against this nationalistic based fundamentalism by Christians and a rejection of western culture and economics. While Christian and Islamic fundamentalism are connected, Antoun believes Jewish fundamentalism is the response to anti-Semitism; especially with its abundance during the Holocaust in the second World War. While Antoun is able to express well the ways in which each of the individual religions rebel against the secular society to create what is seen as the fundamental sect of the religion today, this main idea of what fundamentalism is seems to be constantly fluctuating. Throughout the book the core of what causes someone to be considered a fundamentalist seems to have to stretch and be changed in order to attempt to contain all three faiths. One example of this reshaping of what