Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-s9k8s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-18T05:11:55.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religious fundamentalism: a conceptual critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2013

RICHARD McDONOUGH
RICHARD McDONOUGH*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Republic of Singapore188065 e-mail: rmcdonough@smu.edu.sgrmm249@cornell.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article argues that religious fundamentalism, understood, roughly, as the view that people must obey God's commands unconditionally, is conceptually incoherent because such religious fundamentalists inevitably must substitute human judgement for God's judgement. The article argues, first, that fundamentalism, founded upon the normal sort of indirect communications from God, is indefensible. Second, the article considers the crucial case in which God is said to communicate directly to human beings, and argues that the fundamentalist interpretation of such communications is also incoherent, and, on this basis, argues that religious fundamentalism is actually an extreme form of irreligiousness. Finally, the article considers Kierkegaard's prima facie defence of unconditional religious faith, and argues that, despite some similarity with the fundamentalists, Kierkegaard's appreciation of human finitude leads him to a profoundly anti-fundamentalist stance.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 561 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alamgir, Sarosh (2010) Kinship in Thought between Islam and the West (Taastrup, Denmark: Iqbal Academy Scandinavia), <www.allamaiqbal.com/ias/article.html > .Google Scholar
Aquinas, St Thomas (1997) Summa Theologica, I (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Barnstone, William (1984) Introduction to The Other Bible (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco), xvii–xxiii.Google Scholar
Beale, G. K. (1999) The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Bebbington, D. W. (2008) Evangelicals in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London: Unwin).Google Scholar
Brown, Robert McAfee (1993) Liberation Theology (Westminster: John Knox Press).Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam (1999) Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies (Brooklyn: South End Press).Google Scholar
Collins, James (1967) The Mind of Kierkegaard (Chicago: Henry Regency).Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard (2007) ‘How dare you call me a fundamentalist: the right to criticize “faith-heads” ’, The Times, 12 May.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard (2008) The God Delusion (Boston & New York: Mariner Books).Google Scholar
Descartes, René (1992) ‘Can God do the logically impossible?’, in Urban, Linwood and Walton, Douglas (eds) The Power of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 37–40.Google Scholar
Dinges, William D., & Hitchcock, James (1991) ‘Roman Catholic traditionalism and activist conservatism in the United States’, in Marty, Martin E. & Appelby, R. S. (eds) Fundamentalism Observed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 66–121.Google Scholar
Dostoyevsky, Feodor (2005) The Brothers Karamazov, Constance Garnett (tr.) (New York: Random House).Google Scholar
Esposito, John L. (2002) What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Evans, Rod, & Berent, Irwin (1990) Fundamentalism: Hazards and Heartbreaks (La Salle: Open Court).Google Scholar
Flew, Anthony (2008) There is a God (New York: Harper One).Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1960) ‘The thought: a logical inquiry’, in Strawson, Peter (ed.) Philosophical Logic (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 17–38.Google Scholar
Goodman, Nelson (1974) Fact, Fiction, and Forecast (New York: Bobbs-Merrill).Google Scholar
Graham, A. C. (1995) Disputers of the Tao (La Salle: Open Court).Google Scholar
Grimsley, Ronald (1973) Kierkegaard: A Biographical Introduction (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).Google Scholar
Harris, Harriet (2008) Fundamentalism and Evangelicals (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Jay (1994) How Do We Know This? Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism (Albany: State University of New York Press).Google Scholar
Hartle, Ann (2005) ‘Montaigne and scepticism’, in Langer, Ullrich (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Montaigne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 183–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegel, G. F. W. (1968) Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, II (New York: Humanities Press).Google Scholar
Hodge, Charles (2006) Systematic Theology (Ann Arbor: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library).Google Scholar
Hong, Howard, & Hong, Edna (1983) Historical Introduction toFear and Trembling (Princeton: Princeton University Press), ix–xxxix.Google Scholar
Hume, David (1967) A Treatise of Human Nature (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Husain, Ed (2009) The Islamist: Why I Became an Islamic Fundamentalist, What I saw Inside, and Why I Left (New York: Penguin).Google Scholar
Jedin, Hubert (2008) A History of the Council of Trent, 2 vols (ACLS Humanities E-book).Google Scholar
John of the Cross, St (2003) Dark Night of the Soul (New York: Riverhead Books).Google Scholar
Kaufmann, Walter (1966) Hegel: Texts and Commentary (New York: Doubleday Anchor).Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren (1962) The Point of View for my Work as Author (New York: Harper).Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren (1972) Training in Christianity (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren (1983a) Fear and Trembling & Repetition (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren (1983b) The Sickness Unto Death (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul (1984) Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Kurzman, Charles (1998) Liberal Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, Michael (2006) ‘Evangelicals debate the meaning of evangelical’, New York Times, 16 April, <www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/weekinreview/16luo.html?_r=1&adxnnlx=1145227368-p%20hJwvCXS0qceSTw%20jLi8w&pagewanted=all > .Google Scholar
Madison, John (1961) Federalist Articles (New York: New American Library).Google Scholar
Marty, M., & Appelby, R. S. (eds) (1991) Fundamentalisms Observed (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Marty, M., & Appelby, R. S. (eds) (1993) Fundamentalisms and the State (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Marty, M., & Appelby, R. S. (eds) (1995) Fundamentalisms Comprehended (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Mathieu, Marion (2008) Wittgenstein, Finitism, and the Foundations of Mathematics (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.) (2006) The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, William (2005) ‘Søren Kierkegaard’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <www.iep.utm.edu/kierkega/ > .Google Scholar
McDonald, William (2009) ‘Søren Kierkegaard’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ > .Google Scholar
Miller, Paul Allen, & Platter, Charles (2010) Plato's Apology of Socrates: A Commentary (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press).Google Scholar
Montaigne, Michael (2003) Apology for Raymond Sebond (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Moore, Chris (ed.) (2010) Libertarian Today, <www.libertariantoday.com/2010/10/christian-zionist-fundamentalists-and.html > .Google Scholar
Theresa, Mother (2010) Where There is Love, There is God (New York: Doubleday Religion).Google Scholar
Noll, Mark (1992) A History of Fundamentalism in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids MI: W. B. Erdmanns).Google Scholar
Pailin, David (2009) The Anthropological Character of Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Paine, Thomas (1967) The Age of Reason, in Thomas Paine Collections (Hong Kong: Forgotten Books).Google Scholar
Parker, Philip A. (ed.) (2009) Fundamentalisms: Webster's Facts and Phrases (New York: Icon Group International).Google Scholar
Peake, Samuel (2001) Peake's Commentary on the Bible (New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Perry, Elizabeth J. (2001) Challenging the Mandate of Heaven (New York: M. E. Sharpe).Google Scholar
Plater, W. E., & White, H. J. (1926) Grammar of the Vulgate (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Priest, Graham, & Tanaka, Koji (2009) ‘Paraconsistent logic’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-paraconsistent/ > .Google Scholar
Rée, Jonathan, & Chamberlain, Jane (1998) Kierkegaard: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell).Google Scholar
Rosenkranz, G. S., & Hoffman, J. (1980) ‘The omnipotence paradox, modality, and time’, Southern Journal of Philosophy, 18, 213–220.Google Scholar
Rowland, Christopher (ed.) (2007) The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruthven, Malise (2004) Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Schimmel, Solomon (2008) The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shields, Jon (2009) The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right (Princeton: Princeton University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sisolda, Rajendra, Wolfe, David, & Sheth, Jaquidish (2007) Firms of Endearment: How First Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Smith, Christian (2002) Christian America: What Evangelicals Really Want (Berkeley: University of California Press).Google Scholar
Smith, Houston (1965) The Religions of Man (New York: Harper and Row).Google Scholar
Snodgrass, Klyne (2008) Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans).Google Scholar
Sorenson, Roy (2012) ‘ “Vagueness” ’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/vagueness/ > .Google Scholar
Storr, Anthony (2001) Freud: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unbroken Faith (2011) Channel News Asia, Documentary,<www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110319-0000373/The-making-of-Unbroken-Faith > .+.>Google Scholar
Wenham, John (2009) Christ and the Bible, 2nd edn (Guildford: Eagle).Google Scholar
Wiebe, Philipe H. (1998) Visions of Jesus: Direct Encounters from the New Testament to Today (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wieringa, E. (1989) The Nature of God: An Inquiry into Divine Attributes (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
Wild, Stefan (1989) ‘Political interpretations of the Qur'an’, in McAuliffe (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 273–290.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1958) Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1970) Zettel (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1972) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1980) Culture and Value (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Williams, Daniel (2010) God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolffe, John (2007) The Expansion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers, and Finney (Westmont IL: IVP Academic).Google Scholar