What Is Fundamentalism?

What is fundamentalism? is a synthesis of many years of research on the relations between religion and politics from early modern times until today. It addresses one of the most controversial issues of our times and is written for a general readership.

The book has two goals: Firstly, the author wants to show that fundamentalism is found in most major religions of the world, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Secondly, this book offers a new definition of fundamentalism. There is a long academic debate about the essentials of fundamentalism and to cut the Gordian knot this book offers a clear definition on the very first page. In short, What is fundamentalism? is both a broad survey of fundamentalisms and a new theory of what fundamentalism is, how it arose and how it continues to develop.

The book is divided into chapters according to the major struggles that fundamentalists engage in: The struggle against modernity, the struggle for the word, the struggle for the family, the struggle for the child, the fight over the sciences and the struggle for the nation.

The book ends with the sober contention that fundamentalism will not be among the major threats to humanity, as one often feels when reading popular books on the subject. On the other hand, fundamentalism is an extremely interesting phenomenon because it puts into perspective the powerful ideologies and institutions that shape our lives but are taken for

granted: nationalism, secularism and the modern state.

First published: 2008, Universitetsforlaget
Torkel Brekke: Biography and bibliography