ruthven_malise_fundamentalism_a_very_short_introduction
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Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
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Michael Hoskin |
Fred Piper and Sean Murphy |
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ATHEISM |
Julian Baggini |
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AUGUSTINE |
Henry Chadwick |
David Hopkins |
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BARTHES |
Jonathan Culler |
DARWIN Jonathan Howard |
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THE BIBLE |
John Riches |
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS |
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THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea |
Timothy Lim |
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BRITISH POLITICS |
DEMOCRACY |
Bernard Crick |
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Anthony Wright |
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DESCARTES Tom Sorell |
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Michael Carrithers |
DESIGN |
John Heskett |
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BUDDHISM |
Damien Keown |
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David Norman |
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J. Allan Hobson |
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Damien Keown |
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DRUGS |
Leslie Iversen |
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James Fulcher |
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Martin Redfern |
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Cunliffe |
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Stephen Howe |
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Malise Ruthven |
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Terrell Carver |
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Ian Hargreaves |
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ETHICS |
Simon Blackburn |
JUDAISM Norman Solomon |
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THE EUROPEAN UNION |
JUNG |
Anthony Stevens |
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John Pinder |
KAFKA |
Ritchie Robertson |
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Roger Scruton |
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Brian and Deborah Charlesworth |
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Patrick Gardiner |
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EXISTENTIALISM |
THE KORAN |
Michael Cook |
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Thomas Flynn |
LINGUISTICS |
Peter Matthews |
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FASCISM |
Kevin Passmore |
LITERARY THEORY |
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FEMINISM Margaret Walters |
Jonathan Culler |
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THE FIRST WORLD WAR |
LOCKE |
John Dunn |
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Michael Howard |
LOGIC |
Graham Priest |
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FOSSILS |
Keith Thomson |
MACHIAVELLI |
Quentin Skinner |
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FOUCAULT Gary Gutting |
THE MARQUIS DE SADE |
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION |
John Phillips |
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William Doyle |
MARX |
Peter Singer |
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FREE WILL Thomas Pink |
MATHEMATICS |
Timothy Gowers |
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FREUD Anthony Storr |
MEDICAL ETHICS |
Tony Hope |
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FUNDAMENTALISM |
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN |
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Malise Ruthven |
John Gillingham and |
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GALILEO |
Stillman Drake |
Ralph A. Griffiths |
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GANDHI |
Bhikhu Parekh |
MODERN ART |
David Cottington |
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Bill McGuire |
MOLECULES Philip Ball |
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GLOBALIZATION |
MUSIC |
Nicholas Cook |
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Manfred Steger |
MYTH |
Robert A. Segal |
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GLOBAL WARMING |
NATIONALISM Steven Grosby |
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Mark Maslin |
NEWTON |
Robert Iliffe |
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HABERMAS |
NIETZSCHE |
Michael Tanner |
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James Gordon Finlayson |
NINETEENTH-CENTURY |
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HEGEL Peter Singer |
BRITAIN |
Christopher Harvie and |
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HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood |
H. C. G. Matthew |
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HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson |
NORTHERN IRELAND |
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HINDUISM Kim Knott |
Marc Mulholland |
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HISTORY |
John H. Arnold |
PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close |
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HOBBES |
Richard Tuck |
PAUL |
E. P. Sanders |
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HUMAN EVOLUTION |
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Edward Craig |
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Bernard Wood |
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HUME A. J. Ayer |
Raymond Wacks |
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Samir Okasha |
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Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone |
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PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards |
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PLATO Julia Annas |
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Christopher Janaway |
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POLITICS Kenneth Minogue |
SHAKESPEARE |
Germaine Greer |
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POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY |
SIKHISM |
Eleanor Nesbitt |
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David Miller |
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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL |
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POSTCOLONIALISM |
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ANTHROPOLOGY |
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Robert Young |
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John Monaghan and Peter Just |
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POSTMODERNISM |
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SOCIALISM |
Michael Newman |
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Christopher Butler |
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SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce |
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POSTSTRUCTURALISM |
SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor |
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Catherine Belsey |
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THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR |
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PREHISTORY |
Chris Gosden |
Helen Graham |
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PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY |
SPINOZA |
Roger Scruton |
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Catherine Osborne |
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STUART BRITAIN |
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PSYCHOLOGY |
Gillian Butler and |
John Morrill |
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Freda McManus |
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TERRORISM |
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PSYCHIATRY |
Tom Burns |
Charles Townshend |
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QUANTUM THEORY |
THEOLOGY David F. Ford |
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John Polkinghorne |
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THE HISTORY OF TIME |
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THE RENAISSANCE |
Jerry Brotton |
Leofranc Holford-Strevens |
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RENAISSANCE ART |
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TRAGEDY |
Adrian Poole |
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Geraldine A. Johnson |
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THE TUDORS |
John Guy |
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ROMAN BRITAIN |
Peter Salway |
TWENTIETH-CENTURY |
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE |
BRITAIN |
Kenneth O. Morgan |
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Christopher Kelly |
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THE VIKINGS |
Julian D. Richards |
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ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler |
WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling |
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RUSSELL A. C. Grayling |
WORLD MUSIC |
Philip Bohlman |
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RUSSIAN LITERATURE |
THE WORLD TRADE |
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Catriona Kelly |
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ORGANIZATION |
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THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION |
Amrita Narlikar |
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S. A. Smith |
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Available soon:
AFRICAN HISTORY |
INTERNATIONAL |
John Parker and Richard Rathbone |
MIGRATION Khalid Koser |
CHAOS Leonard Smith |
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS |
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta |
Paul Wilkinson |
HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside |
RACISM Ali Rattansi |
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Malise Ruthven
FUNDAMENTALISM
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
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by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Malise Ruthven 2004, 2007
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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First edition published as an Oxford University Press Paperback in 2005 New edition published as a Very Short Introduction 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
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Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hampshire
ISBN 978–0–19–921270–5
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Contents
Preface ix
List of illustrations xi
1Family resemblances 1
2 |
The scandal of difference |
24 |
3 |
The snares of literalism |
40 |
4Controlling women 59
5 |
Fundamentalism and nationalism I |
81 |
6 |
Fundamentalism and nationalism II |
93 |
7Conclusion 120
References 137
Further reading 142
Index 145
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Preface
This book is the fruit of several years’ reflection about the revivals that seem to be occurring in all the major religious traditions and the capacity these revivals have for generating highly charged social and political conflicts in a shrinking globalized world where people of differing and competing faiths are having to live in close proximity with each other. While recognizing that fundamentalism is a fact of life in the 21st century – one that was illustrated in the most spectacular way on 11 September 2001 – this introduction seeks to untangle some of the meanings associated with the term, despite its obvious drawbacks.
Fundamentalism originated in the very specific theological context of early 20th-century Protestant America, and its applicability beyond its original matrix is, to put it mildly, problematic. Nevertheless, as I hope to show through numerous examples and parallels, there are compelling family resemblances between militancies or fundamentalisms in different religious traditions. They may not add up to a coherent ideological alternative to the triumph of liberal democracy as described by Francis Fukuyama in his celebrated 1992 essay The End of History and the Last Man. But they are symptomatic, I believe, of the spiritual dystopias and dysfunctional cultural relationships that characterize the world of what some contemporary commentators are choosing to call ‘Late Capitalism’.