Our contemporary culture is dominated by two extremes relativism and fundamentalism. Neither is desirable: relativism claims that all questions of truth are irrelevant, whereas fundamentalism insists on sole possession of absolute truth. Internationally renowned sociologist of religion Peter Berger has gathered a group of scholars to consider how, from out of different traditions, one can define a middle position between both extremes. / After an extensive introductory overview by Berger, three essays ( sociological descriptions ) give an objective picture of how relativism and fundamentalism play out in today s world. In the second part ( theological directions ) authors from several different Christian traditions and one conservative Jewish tradition flesh out a normative middle ground that is neither relativist they affirm specific truth claims nor fundamentalist their affirmations include tolerance of the claims of others.

This modern classic by the author of Knowing God provides a comprehensive statement of the doctrine of Scripture from an evangelical perspective. J. I. Packer explores the meaning of the word "fundamentalism" and offers a clear and well-reasoned argument for the authority of the Bible and its proper role in the Christian life.

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - Religion, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg (IUED), course: Übersetzen als kulturwissenschaftliches Handeln I, language: English, abstract: At first glance we seem to know what fundamentalism really means. We hear it on the radio, watch it on TV and read about it in the newspaper. Fundamentalism is nowadays often connected to Islam or religion in general, often to terrorism. Nonetheless, the question remains: where does this word come from and what exactly does it mean? Relativism is another big word often connected to philosophy and great thinkers of the past like Nietzsche. The problem with relativism is the same as with fundamentalism. It seems that there is no real answer to what fundamentalism or relativism actually refers. Therefore, both of them are divided into several subcategories, and because of that, it is not possible to throw light on every little detail. For an example, one can visit the German Wikipedia entry about ‘Fundamentalismus’ (English: fundamentalism). The authors of that entry started a discussion about how it should be written to make absolutely clear that it gets the true sense of fundamentalism. Even the English Wikipedia entry is not to everyone’s satisfaction and lacks improvement. On the other hand, relativism at first sounds easy to understand, but it is hard to grasp. Mainly because it is rarely used and for that reason, there are fewer sources for definitions than for fundamentalism. In the modern times we are living in now, both of these movements, one could almost say, developed rapidly. This is another reason for setting those two words in direct comparison, but the outcome also depends on the sources available.

Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an 'all or nothing' approach: fundamentalists claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists dismiss religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores, though, the experiences of religious women who suffer under fundamentalism and fight to resist it, perceiving themselves to be at once religious and feminist. In Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women , Howland provides a forum for these different scholars, both religious and nonreligious, to meet and seek common ground in their fight against fundamentalism. Through an examination of international human rights, national law, grass roots activism, and theology, this volume explores the acute problems that contemporary fundamentalist movements pose for women's equality and liberty rights.

This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of the so-called two-party system of liberals and conservatives in American Protestant Christianity. Nancey Murphy advances the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought. A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. This, then, presents the opportunity to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right. The book concludes by speculating on the future and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.

It has been said that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Drawing on this notion, Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist: Understanding and Responding to Christian Absolutism recounts the author’s journey as a member of the fundamentalist subculture as a child and his life among the Jesus Freaks (Jesus Movement)-- a congregation of deserters from the hippie drug culture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. This movement, though of great importance in the culture of the times, now largely goes unrecognized--although the Jesus Movement provided the cover stories for many prominent secular magazines chronicling the youth culture of the late 60's and early 70's. While, not devoted to a history of the Jesus Movement, the book does a service in bringing a discussion of the Jesus Freak phenomenon to the attention of today's readers. The book goes on to recount the author's eventual abandonment of fundamentalism. As the story unfolds, critical research related to the psychology, sociology, and history of the subculture provides a framework for understanding Christian fundamentalism. Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist recounts a gripping personal pilgrimage—at times both humorous and painful— that is rooted in honest reflection and informed by theory and research. It offers worthwhile reading for mainline Christians, curious evangelicals, recovering fundamentalists or anyone wanting to understand this timely topic.

Examines the daily life of the congregation of a Fundamentalist church in a suburb in the Northeast.

First Published in 1992. On questions of faith, Ernest Gellner believes, three ideological options are available to us today. One is the return to a genuine and firm faith in a religious tradition. The other is a form of relativism which abandons the notion of unique truth altogether and resigns itself to treating truth as relative to the society or culture in question. The third, which Gellner calls enlightenment rationalism, upholds the idea that there is a unique truth, but denies that any society can ever possess it definitively. Learned and stimulating, Professor Gellner’s book is an important contribution to our understanding of postmodernism and the relations between Islam and the West. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the ideological condition of contemporary society.

Many American's today are taking note of the surprisingly strong political force that is the religious right. Controversial decisions by the government are met with hundreds of lobbyists, millions of dollars of advertising spending, and a powerful grassroots response. How has the fundamentalist movement managed to resist the pressures of the scientific community and the draw of modern popular culture to hold on to their ultra-conservative Christian views? Understanding the movement's history is key to answering this question. Fundamentalism and American Culture has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements. For Marsden, fundamentalists are not just religious conservatives; they are conservatives who are willing to take a stand and to fight. In Marsden's words (borrowed by Jerry Falwell), "a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is angry about something." In the late nineteenth century American Protestantism was gradually dividing between liberals who were accepting new scientific and higher critical views that contradicted the Bible and defenders of the more traditional evangelicalism. By the 1920s a full-fledged "fundamentalist" movement had developed in protest against theological changes in the churches and changing mores in the culture. Building on networks of evangelists, Bible conferences, Bible institutes, and missions agencies, fundamentalists coalesced into a major protest movement that proved to have remarkable staying power. For this new edition, a major new chapter compares fundamentalism since the 1970s to the fundamentalism of the 1920s, looking particularly at the extraordinary growth in political emphasis and power of the more recent movement. Never has it been more important to understand the history of fundamentalism in our rapidly polarizing nation. Marsen's carefully researched and engrossing work remains the best way to do just that.

Long before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Islamic fundamentalism was exerting a significant influence in nearly every corner of the world. Bassam Tibi, a widely recognized expert on Islam and Arab culture, offers an important and disquieting analysis of this particular synthesis of religion and politics. A Muslim and descendant of a famous Damascene Islamic scholar family, Tibi sees Islamic fundamentalism as the result of Islam's confrontation with modernity and not only--as it is widely believed--economic adversity. The movement is unprecedented in Islamic history and parallels the inability of Islamic nation-states to integrate into the new world secular order. For this updated edition, Tibi has written a new preface and lengthy introduction addressing Islamic fundamentalism in light of and since September 11.