O objetivo deste trabalho é fornecer uma análise de formas contemporâneas de pensamento e atitudes fundamentalistas à luz do filósofo italiano Gianni Vattimo, que postula que existiriam duas maneiras de pensar no processo de interpretação e construção do sentido: uma forte, que pressupõe uma verdade absoluta, e a outra fraca, que pressupõe uma verdade construída, o que não implica uma ação fraca, mas a abertura de possibilidades para mudanças profundas. O processo de construção da verdade forte produz verdades violentas, no sentido de que exclui outras verdades concorrentes. Neste trabalho, tomamos como base os fundamentalismos religiosos para refletir sobre outras formas atuais de fundamentalismo. O trabalho representa uma tentativa para evitar diferentes confrontos violentos entre variados pensamentos fundamentalistas. / The objective of this work is to provide an analysis of contemporary forms of fundamentalist thought and attitudes, in line with the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo, who postulates that there are two ways of thinking in the process of interpretation and meaning making: a strong one, which presupposes an absolute truth, and a weak one, which presupposes a constructed truth though not implying a weak possibility of action, but an opening of new possibilities for profound changes instead. The process of truth construction produces violent truths in the sense that it strongly excludes other competing truths. In this research, forms of religious fundamentalism are taken as starting points in a reflection on other present-day forms of fundamentalism. This work aims at the avoidance of various violent confrontations among several kinds of fundamentalist thoughts.

This study deals with the relationship between religious fundamentalism and the internet. It aims to be a critique of the conception that religion and modernization are inherently incompatible; that modernization leads to the death of religion, as advocated the secularization theorists. It argues that the notion is an inaccurate characterization and understanding of the interplay between the forces of religion and modernization; rather, both co-exist and mutually reinforce one another. It also argues that it is inappropriate to label religious fundamentalism as an anti-modern movement; it might be true that it is ideologically ultra-orthodox, but it is technologically a modern movement. The value of this study lies in its findings that the most conservative religious groups like the Salafi community not only persist in the face of modernization, but also transform realities of modernity like the internet into a new form of modern product that serves well their religious needs and interests. To support this, I analysed Salafism, a transnational Islamic fundamentalist movement, and its use of the internet within the Indonesian context to uncover how they employ the technology. I examined the ways the Salafis use the internet in accordance with their ideological purposes in the frameworks of ‘cultured technology’, localization process of global force of information technology, appropriation of global media, and spiritualizing technology. Textual analysis was mainly employed as a method to understand the Salafi web contents and uncover the ways the Salafi use the internet.

During the last one year, while working on this thesis, I have been asked several times as to how Islam or Islamic fundamentalism makes a communication thesis. The answer is simple: my concern is not Islam as a religion or fundamentalism as a religious or political movement but the way Islam is defined and fundamentalism presented. In the age of communication reality is not just what we see or sense but what we are shown and made to perceive. It would be no exaggeration to suggest that today our dependence on the communication networks is such that even for something that happens in front of us we need interpretations to fully comprehend it. Thus reality without interpretations, in most cases, has come to carry little meaning. Our perception of reality today is not based on our individual experiences only. It is, in fact, the sum total of the reality plus interpretations by the 'public arenas' such as education institutions, mass media, the civil service, parliament, the courts, industry, the research and scientific community, political parties etc. (Cracknell, 1993: 4). This study deals with the interpretations of Islam and Islamic fundamentalism by the Muslim as well as western public arenas. Throughout this thesis I use the word 'Islam' not as a religion but as a symbol of political power and cultural identity. Because, I believe that Islam as a faith is a personal and spiritual matter that for majority of the Muslims, like the believers of any religion, need not be compared with any other religion unless to prove it superior. But as a symbol of political power and cultural identity Islam does need interpretations and has been interpreted in many different ways. What triggered my interest in yet another interpretation was that what I had seen in Pakistan and what I felt the West thought of Muslim societies had no logical connection. For instance, there is a widespread belief in the West that Muslim societies are deeply religious and Islam guides every aspect of the Muslims' life. The reality that I have seen and experienced in Pakistan society, which is ninety-six per cent Muslim, is that few, very few indeed, Muslims may be willing to die or kill for Islam, but will not live according to Islam. The people of Pakistan, in their day-to-day life, are as secular as the people of any other part of the world. They have all human virtues and vices that human beings are capable of anywhere in the world. But still there is no denying the fact that Pakistan, or for that matter any underdeveloped society, is different from the industrialised West. How and why are they different is what I have investigated in this thesis. I have no hesitation in admitting that except for the discrepancy in the reality that I had seen in Pakistan and its perception that I noticed in the West, I had no clear idea about the subject. But I have always believed, as Sartre has said somewhere, that the honourable thing about reading is to let yourself be influenced. I claim to have started this thesis with an open mind, but I do not claim to be an objective writer, unless objectivity is seen as nothing but to be honest to one's self as well as others. All of us live with our subjectivity that is influenced by our individual and collective objective conditions. Most of us are content to live with what we have learnt during our formative phase in life. Some of us are not. I belong to the latter tribe. Through the years I have unlearnt many a thing about religion, culture and human beings that I had learnt from my family, school and society, to accommodate more ideas, opinions and concepts, not less. That process still continues. One thing that I have learnt in life, and which I shall cherish forever, is that human beings must not be frozen in their cultural, religious and social categories; they must not be seen as good and bad without an understanding of their environment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by George Marsden for the Department of History. "July 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 420-442).

<p>Uppsatsens syfte är att söka förklara politiska våldet i Indien utrifrån tre perspektiv; territoriell odelbarhet, nationalism och fundamentalism. Avgränsningen är de etniska minoriteterna; assameser, bodo, kashmirer, muslimer, naga, sikher, tripura och ursprungsstammar. Åren som uppsatsen har fokus på är 1985-2000. Uppsatsen är en fallstudie av Indien där åtta olika etniska minoriteter är studieobjekt. Maryland Universitys MAR-databas, Uppsala universitets UCDP-databas samt South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP-databasen) fungerar som huvudsakliga källor.</p><p>Resultatet visar att den territoriella odelbarheten har stark förklaringskraft i de flesta av fallen (sju av åtta) i Indien. Nationalismen är en förklaring i vissa av studieobjekten medan fundamentalismen i endast i fåtal av fallen. För muslimernas del ger dessa perspektiv ingen förklaring för det politiska våldet.</p>

This study attempts to incorporate religious fundamentalism into an existing framework for understanding spiritual variables from an object relations perspective of development. Out of this theory have emerged two constructs-image of God and spiritual maturity-which are both spiritually and developmentally oriented. Based on theoretical considerations, it was hypothesized that religious fundamentalism would be connected to lower levels of object relations development and spiritual maturity, and more negative God images. Eighty-five Christians from 18-68 years old were therefore administered four inventories that measured these four constructs. Although mainly weak correlations for the overall sample were found, for students religious fundamentalism was linked to lower levels of object relations development, as hypothesized. Implications of this and other findings are explored.

Revivalism and fundamentalism were significant forces that greatly influenced the life and theology of North American Mennonites during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After World War II, the (Old) Mennonite Church began to make a significant shift away from fundamentalism. The Conservative Mennonite movement began in the 1950s in protest against the theological and sociological changes taking place in the Mennonite Church, particularly the loss of fundamentalist doctrines. This thesis traces the influences of fundamentalism as they were adopted early in the twentieth century by the Mennonite Church and came to fulfillment in the founding of the Conservative Mennonite movement. By looking at the history of the (Old) Mennonites in North America and the development of Protestant fundamentalism, this thesis provides a theological analysis of the influence of fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite movement.

This paper addresses the conception that fundamentalisms are “anti-modern.” I propose that this view is a mischaracterization of fundamentalisms. I argue that an understanding of fundamentalisms would be better served by forgoing this “anti-modern” characterization and instead approaching fundamentalisms from the perspective that they are wholly modern phenomenon. In my analysis I use the writings and speeches of Pat Robertson as examples of the modern nature of America Fundamentalism in four areas. The first area examines how the Enlightenment influenced Fundamentalism’s development of inerrantism. The second area examines Fundamentalism’s prophetic interpretation. The third area examines the political nature of Fundamentalism. The fourth area examines Pat Robertson’s rhetoric to reveal that he reflects philosophically modern thought and rejects postmodernism.

This study examined the relationship among implicit and explicit measures of prejudice (against African-Americans, homosexuals, and Muslims), Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Religious Fundamentalism (RF), and Christian Orthodoxy (CO). The implicit measure of prejudice was Facial EMG, which is the measurement of the activity of key facial muscles when participants were exposed to pictures of members of the minority groups, as well as to pictures of the corresponding group. The explicit measure of prejudice was the Social Distance Scale, which measures how willing people are to have someone in a variety of close relationships. The primary hypothesis was that one’s score on the implicit (and some of the explicit) measures of prejudice can be predicted using RF, CO, and RWA. The analyses revealed that RWA was predictive of prejudice against homosexuals and Muslims, but not against African-Americans.

Revivalism and fundamentalism were significant forces that greatly influenced the life and theology of North American Mennonites during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After World War II, the (Old) Mennonite Church began to make a significant shift away from fundamentalism. The Conservative Mennonite movement began in the 1950s in protest against the theological and sociological changes taking place in the Mennonite Church, particularly the loss of fundamentalist doctrines. This thesis traces the influences of fundamentalism as they were adopted early in the twentieth century by the Mennonite Church and came to fulfillment in the founding of the Conservative Mennonite movement. By looking at the history of the (Old) Mennonites in North America and the development of Protestant fundamentalism, this thesis provides a theological analysis of the influence of fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite movement.