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What is fundamentalism?
2005-10-20 08:00:11
By CHARLES KAYOKA
Naming and assigning meaning to a phenomenon is such a powerful process.
When you give meaning to a phenomenon, you create boundaries; you develop an exclusive system of signification and representation that puts other, but related entities, out of an identical order.
And I have always said those who have power to name, and assign meaning to entities, become so powerful, let alone generate an indelible impact on our minds and the way we look at reality.
The concept ’fundamentalism’ or to qualify it, ’religious fundamentalism’, or to become more specific, ’Islamic fundamentalism’, to go with the current global diplomatic or political parlance, is such a powerful, mind-jerking term, fear-inspiring, that when associated with a person or a particular group of people, it tends to paint these ’others’ in a bad image.
And the misuse of the concept ’religious fundamentalism’ does not only waive possibilities of us having varied interpretations of the term, but does also imply that there is no fundamentalism in other religious groups, their denominations or sects.
That it is characteristic of only one religion. So here you are, with the larger picture of a certain social group, and you assign on it a purported meaning fixing caption- Religious Fundamentalism. And gullible as we are all, we can’t go beyond the caption and try to unravel other possibilities of meanings exuded by the picture.
Am I wrong to maintain in this article that ’fundamentalism: is characteristic of all religions and even secular cultural systems?
My dictionary simply defines fundamentalism, in its religious and political applications, as ’the belief that original religious and political laws should be followed very strictly and not be changed.’
It further says, ’ the belief of some Christians that every word in the Bible is exactly true,’ is fundamentalism.
This definition comes with it several possibilities of interpretations I am not sure if I can explore all meanings I am getting.
First of all, it means that fundamentalism refers to unchangeability of certain tenets considered basic, immutable, of some faith or political ideology.
In this case all faiths in the world do not like their basic principles changed, hence the last word at the end of the Bible, that nothing is to be added to or subtracted from the Holy text.
This is fundamentalism in its less manifest sense. But the adding and subtracting does not apply only to the wording of the Bible as most of us would think.
It actually means that the instructions, the teachings, the interpretations of reality and of our very being, and which guide our interrelationship with the human and non-human world, are to be followed to the letter by the faithful.
Fundamentalism, as it is, means fixing captions that provide us with no space to manoeuvre and give alternative meanings and interpretations, and all religions are like that.
Secondly, if you apply a relativistic approach when defining fundamentalism, then you have heresy in play.
And heresy is the non-canonized interpretations and meaning; and heretic tendencies allow people other than those at the centre to enter the meaning assigning game, ending up with interpretations displeasing the authority.
Heresy allows individuals to start asking questions, and question the validity of the truth carrying claims.
In the same manner those who use the word fundamentalism to negatively label members of an ’authored’ religious sect or denomination use it selectively and in such a way that the intended audience would think the meaning applied is the only one.
If we go with the definition above, you will find that every religion has fundamental principles that it would not like changed. Moreover, all religions are principally fundamental.
Those who wrongly think that Christianity, for this matter, is relativistic, having its meanings applied relative to situations and conditions of those who believe it, as they differ in time and place are wrong, quite wrong.
The story of religion tells us that after the fall of the Roman Empire the Christian clergy became government as well and religion unleashed its most fundamentalist fangs.
For almost 400 years, drama was banned and when re-allowed only religious plays were performed, and, at the beginning, only in monasteries and inside the churches.
Drama was banned because of the allegations that it breached religious principles.
The fundamentalist and hegemonic influence of Christianity waned as peoples’ knowledge base expanded and new sources developed.
Sources of knowledge became many and Christianity was no longer the centre of knowing and understanding the world.
The world following the medieval period was appropriately called the era of individualism.
Individuals became their own sources of knowledge.
Christian religion hegemony was dealt another blow with the development of universities, expansion of research activities, engagement in serious philosophising, and allowing individuals to think for, by and about themselves, in manners that did away with the fundamental teachings of religion.
Renaissance with its attendant, seafaring and discovery of new world, industrialisation and scientific discoveries in early nineteen century discoveries and critical writings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, among other prominent thinkers, made the canonised Christian interpretations of reality shaky and indeed, made just one of, and not the only, way of interpreting reality.
Thus the age of reason was introduced.
Realism and its close successor Naturalism came into play. Henceforth Christianity started rapidly losing its fundamentalist and hegemonic grip on the mind and behaviour of members of the society.
For instance, such writers like Ibsen questioned the Christian teaching that women should remain in the house- angels of the house, as they were called- attempts to ban such plays were futile though.
However, it should be clear that despite the waning of the hegemonic grip the teachings of Christianity and the wording of the Bible have remained fundamentalist, and are still so.
It is because that science and relativistic interpretations of reality and the challenging of the concept of the universe as divine creation took reigns and influenced the new thinking, which wrongly made us think that Christian fundamentalist principles have died and obliterated from the Bible and that now, it does only apply to religions other than Christianity.
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