Citation

Munson H. Religion Compass 2008; 2(4): 689-707.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The term ‘fundamentalist’ is often used indiscriminately. In this essay, the term is used to refer to movements that insist on strict conformity to a sacred text and to a moral code ostensibly based on it. Such movements often also articulate secular grievances such as nationalistic resentment of foreign domination. To focus only on the fundamentalist dimension of such groups is, in some cases at least, to ignore some of the principal sources of their appeal. One should avoid assuming that moral outrage ostensibly provoked by the violation of traditional religious values is really a mere reflection of nationalistic, ethnic, or other social grievances. But one should also avoid ignoring social grievances when the available evidence suggests that they are in fact relevant.