Religious fundamentalism
The world is complicated? Go back to the basics, and burn the rest!
The New Mindscape #12–3
Responses to the crisis of religion
Since the late 20th century and up till today, the firm faith in materialism and modernisation has been subjected to doubt. Some people say we are entering a “post-materialist” era. Many people don’t want to be materialist any more. But if not materialist, then what?
“Post-secularism” is another term used by some scholars [1]. Although we have become a secularised society, we don’t believe so deeply in secularisation any more. As a result, there is more and more search for spirituality, and religions are becoming more popular.
But this is not necessarily the same kind of religion and spirituality as in traditional times. So, what is the way out? Is it neither traditional religion nor materialism? It seems that humanity today is at a crossroad. What is the solution to the crisis of religion on the one hand, and the crisis of materialism and secularism on the other hand?
Religious communities have tried to respond to this crisis in many ways. Here I’m going to talk about three common types of responses.
Response 1: religious fundamentalism and extremism.
The first type of response can be called fundamentalism. This is a response to hyper-pluralism, to the multiplicity of different ideologies, teachings, philosophies and religions that are increasingly in contact with each other. One of the responses to the challenge of modernity, it is called religious fundamentalism.[2]
The basic idea of fundamentalism is that the reason traditional religion doesn’t really work anymore, is that it has become full of man-made customs that have little to do with the teachings of the religion itself. Consequently, what needs to be done is to purify the religion, to clean away all these customs and traditions, and to return to the “fundamentals” of the original teachings of the founder. But beyond that, the fundamentalist mindset does not tolerate any deviation from the original teachings, since it considers that these deviations completely destroy the original religion.
For example, in Muslim countries, there are lot of tombs of holy men. A lot of people go to those tombs to pray, hoping to get blessings by praying there, so as to get healed or have good luck — similar to the way that Hong Kong people go to Wong Tai Sin Temple. They go to those shrines of holy men to get good luck, blessing, healing and so on. However, some Muslims started to ask, “Where did Muhammad — Peace be upon him! say that we should go and pray at tombs? This is totally unscientific. Get rid of these superstitions!” This is the idea of fundamentalism — clear away everything and go back to the fundamental and original teaching. Look at the teaching literally: don’t try to read it symbolically, because we have to be scientific. That is another idea of fundamentalism.
In this sense, fundamentalism is actually very modern. It is not about going back to tradition, but about trying to be modern.[3] That is to say, don’t try to look for any mystical symbols and deep meanings and allegories, the way the ancients did. Just like a scientist, we should look at the text — what does the Bible or the Qur’an say? We would do what the Bible or Koran says, and follow these holy books literally. But the problem is that those holy books were written centuries ago, when social conditions were entirely different from today. So, for example, the Qur’an was revealed in tribal Arabia, in which there was no government; tribes were constantly launching raids against each other, and an alliance of tribes decided to wage war against the emergent Muslim community to completely exterminate it. Many of the verses of the Qur’an were revealed in the midst of these wars, and instructed Mohammad and his followers on how to conduct war. These instructions enjoined on the fighters to act in a more humane manner than the customs of tribal warfare that were prevalent at the time of Mohammad. But, when these teachings are applied literally in the completely different context of the 21st century, the result might be quite retrogressive and destructive.
We find fundamentalist movements in every major religion. In Christianity, there is Christian fundamentalism. In fact, the word “fundamentalism” comes from some Christians in the early 20th Century, who wanted to go back to the “fundamentals” of the Bible [4]. There is also Islamic fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism [5], Hindu fundamentalism [6], and even Buddhist fundamentalism [7]. In a word, fundamentalism exists in most different religions.
Fundamentalism has a number of common features. The first is a simplistic dualism. The world is complicated, so it needs to be simplified. Don’t get all confused — everything has to be very clear. We lack clarity in this world so we have to clear it up. It’s very simple — there is only good and evil, right and wrong, us and them. If you are trying to be thoughtful and moderate, you are already on the path of the devil. The devil is trying to tempt you and twist your mind by trying to make you think in subtle ways. This strong dualism is one of the key features of fundamentalism — the world is divided between good and evil people.
In fundamentalism, other religions are considered to be evil. Actually, even different sects of the same religion, are considered to be evil. “Jesus loves me more than he loves you. Our church has God’s love, not yours. Your church is a fake one — the devil is behind your church.” We see the same kind of phenomenon between different fundamentalist Muslim sects.
According to this view, not only is the world is divided between “us” and “them”, good and evil; but the evil side is so dangerous that we have to be extremely careful. Even though God is on the side of the good people, the good people are threatened in the battle between good and evil. Satan, or the devil, is behind the evil group — be it another country, another religion, non-religious people, or another sect of the same religion. The power of Satan is threatening the truth.
This paranoia is a response to the complexity of the world today, when there are so many ideas, possibilities and choices. One response is simply to be paranoid and afraid of it all — it’s all the work of Satan. Become more extreme, simplify, and try to eliminate those who don’t follow the same belief.
This is connected to an apocalyptic orientation. We are in a war between good and evil, but ultimately, this war will lead to the end of the world. Violence, natural disasters, all the problems in the world — these are signs that the world is coming to an end [8]. There are prophecies about the “last day” in many religious scriptures. Apocalyptic groups believe that these prophecies are literally true, and that they are players in the final drama — the apocalyptic battle between good and evil, like in a Hollywood film. Some apocalyptic sects try to speed up the apocalypse: let’s help to destroy the world. Why do they appear to be so vicious, brutal, destructive and bloodthirsty? Why don’t they care to engage in any kind of mutual understanding and negotiations with anybody? It is precisely because they are, in their minds, living in the end of the world. Even if ultimately all of them are killed, that’s not a problem for them, because that is destined to happen at the end of the world. Only the chosen few will survive. This type of apocalypticism can be found in different religious sects. In history there have been Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Daoist apocalyptic groups. Some apocalyptic groups are peaceful, waiting for the end of the world rather than doing something to harm other people. But some of the groups that we see in the world today are dangerously violent. Their destructive violence is an expression of their dualistic mind-set, paranoia, and apocalypticism [9].
To convert to a religion is similar to the adoption of a new philosophy, culture or a new set of values; it is to adopt a new mental operating system. When someone adopts a new mental operating system, there has to be a reconciliation between the new set of values and the old one. The old set of values refers to people’s previous life experiences, their inherited value systems, the perspectives acquired under other people’s influence, and so on and so forth. When we adopt a new set of values or a new belief, we then have to work out the relationship between what existed before in our mindscape and the new set of values.
However, in the fundamentalist mindset, people should not reconcile the tension between the old and the new operating systems. Instead, they should completely remove what previously existed in their minds, so as to totally embrace the new ideology. They should completely reject everything about themselves, their families and friends — to reject everything that is not completely in line with the new ideology. This is the idea of a totalised conversion experience — a total mental transformation, what people used to call “brainwashing” [10].
[1] Possamai, A. (2017). Post-secularism in multiple modernities. Journal of Sociology, 53(4), 822–835. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783317743830
[2] Shupe, Anson, ‘ Religious Fundamentalism’, in Peter B. Clarke (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (2011), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199588961.013.0027.
[3] Weismann, Itzchak. “Modernity from Within: Islamic Fundamentalism and Sufism”. Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 86, no. 1 (2011): 142–170. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam.2011.018
[4] Bendroth, Margaret. “Christian fundamentalism in America.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.419
[5] Heilman, Samuel C. “JEWS AND FUNDAMENTALISM.” Jewish Political Studies Review 17, no. 1/2 (2005): 183–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834627.
[6] Battaglia, Gino. “Neo-Hindu fundamentalism challenging the secular and pluralistic Indian state.” Religions 8, no. 10 (2017): 216.
[7] Seneviratne, H. L. “The monk’s new robes: Buddhist fundamentalism and social change.” In The Freedom to do God’s Will, pp. 143–158. Routledge, 2003.
[8] Talmon, Yonina. “Pursuit of the millennium: the relation between religious and social change.” European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes De Sociologie 3, no. 1 (1962): 125–148.
[9] Wessinger, Catherine, ‘Apocalypse and Violence’, in John J. Collins (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature (2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199856497.013.025
[10] Lifton, R.J., 2012. Thought reform and the psychology of totalism: A study of’brainwashing’in China. UNC Press Books.
Massimo Introvigne (2014) Advocacy, brainwashing theories, and new religious movements, Religion,44:2, 303–319, DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2014.888021
This essay and the New Mindscape Medium series are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong’s Common Core Curriculum Course CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change, with the support of the Asian Religious Connections research cluster of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
