Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements - Book Review

Sociology of Religion, Fall, 2003 by Sally K. Gallagher

by RICHARD T. ANTOUN. New York: AltaMira, 2001, 181 pp.; $69.00 (Cloth), $19.95 (paper).

Richard T. Antoun's Understanding Fundamentalism is a readable overview and introduction to how conservative elites and communities in three monotheistic religious traditions orient themselves to modernity. He identifies individuals and groups within each tradition who react against, reject and to various degrees seek to transform modernity as "fundamentalist" (regardless of whether or not they adopt this identification for themselves). In doing so, Antoun dismisses arguments that fundamentalism should be used in a more historically and culturally specific way to describe that strand of theologically conservative and culturally separatist Protestantism that emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century. Rather, he uses the term as a broad umbrella to indicate an orientation toward the modern world--specifically the ideological and affective rejection and protest of secularization.

Throughout the book, Antoun traces five themes: traditioning (making ancient beliefs relevant in contemporary society), totalism (integrating faith into all areas of life, not just periodic worship), activism (protesting and opposing modernity), the struggle of good and evil, and selective accommodation to modernity. His chapter on scripturalism is particularly useful as a review of the complexities with which each tradition approaches, interprets and finds meaning in their sacred texts. For a small book to give so central a place to the nuances of sacred scriptures is welcome given the tendency, still, for researchers to identify theological conservatives as holding to a doctrine of "inerrancy" or as simply taking the texts "literally." In addition to providing meaning for the religious community, Antoun argues that fundamentalists use their sacred texts to disturb taken for granted secular understandings of modernity, as well as reinforce themes of nationalism within each tradition.

For Antoun, the centrality of sacred texts undergirds another aspect of fundamentalist identity--the maintenance of subcultural religious boundaries both between good and evil, and between those inside and outside the community. These boundaries are maintained through the use of proof-texts, dress and behavioral patterns that set fundamentalists apart. Maintaining religious boundaries reinforces various degrees of separation from the hinder culture--a subject Antoun takes up in a chapter on "Three strategies in the quest for purity." The quest for purity may involve externals (such as dress or association), or symbolic identifiers (moral and ethical discourse distinguishing the "saved" from the "unsaved"), or confrontational tactics (such as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition in the United States).

One of the ironies of fundamentalism for Antoun, is that the desire for purity extends beyond private and individual expressions into a drive to transform the broader culture. While the Protestant fundamentalism of the early twentieth century was isolationist and separatist--content to essentially abandon secular modernity--Antoun sees contemporary fundamentalism as actively engaged in trying to engage and transform secular cultures. Using examples from Iran, Israel, Palestine and the United States, Antoun argues that fundamentalists across faiths share a bent toward legal and political activism that challenges dominant culture ideals (particularly those regarding gender and family).

The same things that give Antoun's book its appeal (its assessable examples and breadth) are the same things that are likely to frustrate readers hoping for a deeper analysis of Islamist, Christian fundamentalist, and Orthodox Jewish religious/social movements. Apart from my own concerns about the appropriateness of identifying Islamist, conservative Protestant, and nationalistic Jewish movements all as fundamentalist, I found Antoun's range of examples (from institutions and organizations, to personal observations made during fieldwork in a particular Jordanian village) somewhat problematic. While such wide ranging examples may make the book appealing to undergraduate readers, it glosses over important questions about the degree to which the themes Antoun identifies as characteristic of fundamentalism are really characteristic of activist elites or of individuals within particular communities of believers. His use of multiple examples from conservative Protestant organizations that thrived primarily in the 1980s (the Moral Majority and Concerned Women for America), raise more questions about institutional change than support his case for an underlying fundamentalist activist ethos. Moreover, the varying degree to which believers in each tradition embrace or embody these themes of traditioning, totalism, activism, etc., hegira to undermine the argument that there is a cohesive transtradition fundamentalism that shares these themes in common.

In the end, Understanding Fundamentalism, is about culture wars--and the ideas that transform personal belief into public resistance to the forces of secularization. Given renewed interest in religion, particularly Islam, over the past few years, the book is timely, indeed. It is likely to be a discussion-provoking addition to many undergraduate courses in sociology of religion, cultural anthropology or social movements.