1. Fundamentalism
Dr. Christopher S. Rice

4. Contemporary Jewish
Fundamentalism

5. Six-Day War (1967)

6. Kookists

7. Gush Emunin

8. What do they believe?
• Government enforcement of strict
observance of traditional religious
beliefs
– Halakah
• Enlargement of Jewish settlements in
Gaza and West Bank

9. What do they believe?
• Government enforcement of strict
observance of traditional religious
beliefs
– Halakah
• Enlargement of Jewish settlements in
Gaza and West Bank

10. Contemporary Islamic
Fundamentalism

11. A response to three factors:
• Decolonialization of the Middle
East following (and during) World
War II.
• The creation of Israel in 1948.
• The continuing influence of
Western ideas and practices on
Islamic countries.

12. Arab Pan-Nationalism

13. IRAN

14. Opposition to Shah fueled by:
• Fundamentalist criticism of the
Shah himself
• The Westernization of Iran
• The brutality of the Shah’s police
and security forces
• Growing and persistent economic
inequalities in Iran.

16. Contemporary Christian
Fundamentalism

17. The “Great Awakening”

18. The New Israel

19. Contemporary Christian
Fundamentalists

22. Roe v. Wade

23. Opposition to
contemporary
liberalism,
secular humanism

25. Philosophy of
Fundamentalism

26. Fundamentalism
Strict adherence to ancient
or fundamental doctrines,
with no concessions to
modern developments in
thought or customs.

28. Science explains the what,
not the why…

30. “If God be for us, who can
be against us?”

32. Sacred Texts

33. Inerrancy
vs.
Science

34. Human Nature

35. Social Creatures

36. Women ≠ Men

38. Maintenance of
“Traditional Families”

39. Secular Humanism

40. Secular Humanism
Public/Private Split, Banishment of
Religion from Public Sphere

41. Secular Humanism Science
Public/Private Split, Banishment of
Religion from Public Sphere

42. Secular Humanism Science
Individualism
Public/Private Split, Banishment of
Religion from Public Sphere

43. Secular Humanism Science
Relativism &
Multiculturalism
Individualism
Public/Private Split, Banishment of
Religion from Public Sphere

44. Relativism
the viewpoint that all beliefs and
practices are simply matters of
taste, including those beliefs of the
fundamentalists. No belief or
practice may be viewed as
objectively correct.

45. GOALS

46. Ideological?

47. Superpatriotism
the tendency to place nationalistic
pride and supremacy above every
other public consideration, the
readiness to follow our leaders
uncritically in their dealings with
other nations, especially
confrontations involving the use of
military force and violence.

48. “We are not deceived by their
pretenses to piety. We have seen
their kind before. They are the heirs of
all the murderous ideologies of the
20th century. By sacrificing human life
to serve their radical visions – by
abandoning every value except the
will to power – they follow in the path
of fascism, and Nazism, and
totalitarianism.”
President George W. Bush,
“Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the
American People”

49. Community of
Believers

50. Totalitarianism
the complete control of society
– government, social,
economic, cultural institutions –
in order to fulfill an ideological
vision of how society should be
organized and how life should
be lived.

51. Authority

52. Jewish & Christian
Fundamentalists
vs.
Muslim Fundamentalists

53. Fundamentalism and Authority
• Believe that government power should be exercised
to promote a community of believers and the moral
conduct their faith requires of them.
• Government should not prohibit the expression of
religious beliefs, but facilitate the free display of the
dominant religious orientation.
• Public education – instead of teaching secular
humanism, cultural pluralism and relativism – should
teach the superiority of the cultures, religion of the
fundamentalists.
• Instead of a complete freedom of speech,
governments should regulate non-political speech
which denigrates sacred values and accepted
morality.
• Accept individual freedoms, but want government,
religious authority to promote the moral values, actions
emphasized in their particular religious beliefs.