Question

Discuss religious fundamentalism in Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam?

Answer 1

Religious understanding is embedded in two structures of meaning: world-view and ethos. The world view of religion includes a cosmological interpretation of nature, including concepts of cause and action and their relationship to supernatural powers. Religion's ethos relates human nature to reality as described in its world view, usually through basic norms, structures of everyday life, and emotional patterns. The world view and the culture of a broader religion, such as Christianity or Islam, frequently embody mechanisms of invention linked to particular contexts, as followers translate them into local words.

Such mechanisms take a number of forms, from unreflective trends of gradual change to specific expressions of schism and sectarism. Fundamentalism is an significant type of theological evolution in the modern period, distinguished by the articulations of the world view and culture of adherents. Most notably, fundamentalists are extremely selective in identifying the central elements of their world view, typically relying on a traditional interpretation of history while stressing some facets of orthodoxy over others as a reaction to perceived challenges to religious reality.

Thus, the fundamentalist world view is neither a complete rejection nor a strict emulation of the earlier forms of orthodoxy. Fundamentalist world views stress in particular the assumed validity of sources of truth and authority, creating structures of knowledge based on both confidence and certainty. The earthly interpretation of such a system of understanding, in effect, is integral to the conservative ethic, sometimes triggering confrontations with those in the same religious beliefs as with those outside it.