Appeal to civilizational unity as a source of self-identification is one of the most important global trends in social development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The religious factor plays an especially important role here due to religion being one of central aspects of every society. Its influence on politics in the form of fundamentalism is a topic that is constantly discussed both in scientific discussions and in the development of political decisions.
The concept of “fundamentalism” originally arose in the United States and since the 1870s, was taken to characterize Christian groups that united radical representatives of evangelical churches. To a certain extent, fundamentalism was a reaction to the liberal interpretation of the Bible. Fundamentalists considered that it challenged the pristine truth about the supernatural and miraculous episodes of biblical history and the status of Scripture as a source of God’s direct and unconditional revelation. In the light of that, fundamentalists were especially famous for their protest against the teaching of Darwin’s evolutionary theory in American public schools, with its culmination in the famous Monkey Trial of 1925 in Tennessee.
Today, the term “fundamentalism” is used to refer to a whole range of political, religious, and ideological phenomena that express the protest of traditional culture against modernization. Purely secular phenomena are often defined as fundamentalist: for example, right-wing and left-wing extremist, environmental, feminist, alternative social movements, as well as various directions in political thinking. Wolffsohn (2021) adds that “the advance of the religious fundamentalists is due to their attempt to re-establish religious and therewith cultural autonomy – a motive familiar to both the Jewish and Islamic worlds” (p. 1). Watt (2008) and Cahan (2013) present their views on fundamentalism in Judaism specifically, each offering their own perspective on it in their respective essays. This paper seeks to compare and contrast their arguments and conclusions.
As a specific type of cultural creativity, fundamentalism is characterized by a certain type of phenomena interpretation, the production of knowledge and decision-making, dogmatism, unwillingness to engage in dialogue, and the absence of critical self-assessment. However, the power of fundamentalism and its appeal to many people should not be underestimated because of its impassioned call for spiritual awakening and rebirth. Religious (or quasi-religious) fundamentalism is born out of the need for “true faith” and the purification of the fallen world in the context of the rapid secularization of culture. However, Munson (2021) claims that “it is wrong to assume that ostensibly religious motives are invariably mere reflections of secular grievances” (p. 265). The weakening of the influence of traditional values, the decline of interest in religious life, and the devaluation of moral consciousness are central issues to fundamentalism. For example, Ariel (2021) states that “one can define Jewish fundamentalists as those taking affirmative religious stands in face of secularization and liberalization of Jewish life” (p. 26). Thus, fundamentalism in the modern world is not just a type of worldview, but also a real political factor, influencing the formation of specific socio-political models of the development of society.
It is known that Europeans are extremely scrupulous in relation to the Jewish question, and there are many reasons for this, primarily of a historical, moral, and ethical nature. In his essay Jews, Fundamentalism, and Supersessionism, Watt (2008) argues that Jewish fundamentalism is inherently different from Christian fundamentalism in its nature, which is the former should not be evaluated in the categories of the latter. He states that usually, people assume that Jewish fundamentalism is built on obsolete moral norms, and it has been surpassed by Christianity in terms of progress and history. On the other hand, Cahan (2013) claims that Jewish fundamentalism is rather ambiguous in its nature, being both inclusive to many different groups and incredibly specific to some features of Christianity.
Both authors do not assume that Jewish fundamentalism is in any way wrong in itself or inferior to Christianity; however, their opinions on it rather vary. Moreover, they also review very different perspectives of Jewish fundamentalism in their essays. Watt (2008) concentrates on the concept of supersessionism, which declares Christians as new God’s chosen people instead of Jews and proclaims the New Testament as superior to the Old Testament. The author reviews how supersessionism applies to Jewish fundamentalism, which notions does it carry, and why it can be used to belittle Judaism’s religious morals. Whereas Cahan (2013) explores the complicated and controversial meaning of the term “fundamentalism” in the context of Judaism, specifically in relation to Jewish settlers movement. She delves into the background of Jewish settlers in Hebron, the challenges they faced, and whether or not they can be called fundamentalist in their religious attitude. Where Watt (2008) raises the question on whether is it ethical to apply the concept of supersessionism to the issue of fundamentalism, Cahan (2013) discusses the overall concept of fundamentalism in regards to Jewish settlers.
By the end of the 20th century, fundamentalism has become an alternative formula for the politicization of cultural differences in all civilizations. In his essay, Watt (2008) elaborates on the religious aspects of that, discussing the superiority complex Christianity seems to have over Judaism. Cahan (2013) also discusses this complicated relationship between Christian and Jewish worlds, relaying on the history of settlers movement. Both authors develop their arguments not on the point whether fundamentalism should exist at all, but on its place and meaning in exacerbation of differences between religions. With the end of the ideological conflict between West and East, different cultures, more than ever before, began to manifest themselves as fundamental values, forms of life, collective ideas. and expectations. Watt (2008) and Cahan (2013) discuss how these cultures clash with each other in their fundamentalist approaches, and the conflicts emerge.
Religions themselves have become the object of deliberate exploitation for political purposes. Since cultural patterns claim universal recognition and are perceived by many people as a way to solve life’s problems, cultural self-awareness and the awareness of cultural differences resulting from it now arise. Fundamentalism, however, is generally used as a means to separate cultures and people, claim both authors, as it has got its rather negative evaluation as fertile ground for radicalism and extremism. For example, the rising political influence of important fundamentalist communities in Israel might lead to increased tension and extremist tendencies in society (Hoseini Faegh 2021). Pragmatically combining elements of late modernity with elements from the dogmatized baggage of the pre-modern tradition, fundamentalism seeks to attack the basic structures and consequences of the culture of the modern era.
To inspire the people with a literal interpretation, the indisputable truth of the “well-forgotten old” — this is the meaning of fundamentalism. The thesis of the indisputability of Scripture is not accidentally brought to the forefront, Watt (2008) and Cahan (2013) add. It represents the value and cognitive foundation for the entire ideology of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism basically assumes that if the creation story is not literally true in all its details, then there is nothing in the entire Bible that can or should be taken for granted. The thesis of Jewish fundamentalism, first in place and in meaning, can be formulated as follows: a dogmatic, uncompromising approach to halachic problems. Innovation is thus condemned by virtue of the very fact of novelty, and the old is good by virtue of the very fact of antiquity. Jewish fundamentalists, perhaps even more insistently than Protestant ones, emphasized the absolute immutability, static nature of religious dogmas, beliefs and institutions as the highest value and the main meaning of all their activities.
To sum up, orthodoxy, in its essence, is inseparable from orthopraxy, thus, the requirements of “correct faith” are always, in one way or another, connected with the requirement of “correct observance.” However, as Watt (2008) states, the relationship between these two components in Judaism and in Christianity is completely different. For Christianity, religious issues have always been in the foreground, and therefore Christian fundamentalism arose, took shape, and formulated its credo primarily in the categories of confessional. In Judaism, problems of practical observance have always occupied a central place, so the split between reformed and fundamentalist Judaism could not but be identified, first of all, in this area. Cahan (2013) also draws on a similar argument, stating that Jewish fundamentalism, while possessing some similarities to Christian one, is still innately different from it, and thus cannot be categorized by its denominators. Although one must admit that both authors use that claim to explain issues that are not connected to each other, as their perspectives vary. Overall, the two essays, while bearing some similarities in arguments, still delve into very different aspects of Jewish fundamentalism, each exploring their own respective situation inside of it.
References
Ariel, Y. (2021). Cultural wars and communal perseverance: Jewish fundamentalism in our time. In N. Käsehage (Ed.), Religious fundamentalism in the age of pandemic (pp. 25-46). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Web.
Cahan, J. A. (2013). The Jewish Settler movement and the concept of Fundamentalism. In S. Wood & D. H. Watt (Eds.), Fundamentalism: Perspectives on a Contested History (pp. 108–122). essay, University of South Carolina Press.
Hoseini Faegh, S. (2021). Jewish Fundamentalism in the Context of Political Pragmatism:The Role of the Haredim in Strengthening Extremist Tendencies in the Israeli Regime. Political Strategic Studies, 10(38), 77-110. Web.
Munson, H. (2021). Fundamentalism. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, 265–276. Web.
Watt, D. H. (2008). Jews, fundamentalism, and supersessionism. Fides Et Historia, 40(1), 1–23.
Wolffsohn, M. (2021). Fundamentalism: A Shield for the Culture?. In: Whose Holy Land?. Springer, Cham. Web.