Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism refers primarily to a type of Protestant Christianity that holds to a strict literalism regarding Biblical interpretation, often to the point of asserting the literal truth of parts of the Bible that other Christians consider to be allegory or requiring less strict interpretation. One instance of this type of interpretation is creationism, literal belief in the first chapters of Genesis - where more liberal Christians may believe that they are a moral tale about God's creative power and redemption, the fundamentalist will assert that it is all literally true, happened in the last ten thousand years and all animals descended from those on Noah's Ark.

In modern usage, fundamentalism can also refer (often negatively) to fervent and strict belief in the doctrines of any religion or ideology - for instance, the phrase "free market fundamentalist" is used to describe those who hold firmly and (in the opinion of their critics) unquestioningly to free market or libertarian beliefs.

Christian fundamentalism is often traced back to a series of pamplets called The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth and published between 1910 and 1915. Each of these pamphlets was by an academic putting forward doctrines about the Bible and arguing for the inerrancy of the Bible, against Darwinism and religious movements like Christian Science (referred to as Eddyism), Mormonism and spiritualism, as well as personal testimonies.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences funded a project called The Fundamentalism Project recently, headed by Martin E. Marty and Scott Appleby which has produced a five volume guide to fundamentalism spanning 8,000 pages (published by the University of Chicago Press). In the first volume, Fundamentalisms Observed, the group describe some of the similarities between fundamentalist movements:

• a concern with the erosion of religion and an undermining of the role religion has to play in society
• a reaction against certain components of modernity
• an embrace of certain aspects of a Manicheanist dualism pitting good against evil
• absolutism and Scriptural inerrancy
• Millenialism or Messianism
• the concept of an 'elect' or specific chosen membership with strict boundaries of who is and is not saved
• charismatic leadership
• strict focus on and requirements around personal behaviour

In the United States, fundamentalism is strong in some areas and has an important role politically as part of the religious right. Preachers like Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell, groups like Focus on the Family, denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and universities like Bob Jones University and Liberty University are widely associated with Christian fundamentalism, although some are no longer self-identifying as fundamentalist, preferring to use the term evangelical.