FUNDAMENTALISM
The Only Way to Redeem Religious Ethics?
Keywords:
Fundamentalism, Christian Fundamentalism, Centrality of Love, Love and Sharing, Religious EthicsAbstract
Both modernism and Post-modernism have challenged religion and religious ethics. Modernism – which is a continuation of the Enlightenment and humanism – made the human, who is rational, autonomous and self-determining, the centre and measure of everything. Modernism’s emphasis on the power of reason and an all-powerful scientific knowledge pushed religion and religious ethics into the periphery, making it something inferior and superfluous. Post-modernity with its rejection of any system, structure, order and control and with its conception of everything as provisional has challenged again the validity of religious ethics which often speak about norms and values which are perennial and which have universal validity.The Post-modernist era is sometimes described as Post-religious and Post-moral. Liberalism and neo-liberalism promoted by modernism and post-modernism defend unlimited individual liberty, emancipation of the individual from beliefs which are not rationally proved, and liberation from religious and political authorities.
References
Stanislaus Swamikannu, “Postmodernism,” in ACPI Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 2, Johnson J. Puthenpurackal, ed., Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2010, 1061-1066.
Girma Mohammed, “Fundamentalism versus Liberalism: Towards a Hermeneutical Turn to Ethics,” in Overcoming Fundamentalism, Heidi Hadsell and Christoph Stückelberger, eds., Geneva: Globethics.net, 2009, 37.
John L. Allen, Jr., The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church, New York: Doubleday, 2009, 260.
David R. Loy, “The Religion of the Market,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65 (1997), 275-290. Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2000 (reprinted 2001), vii-viii.
Peter Pavlovic, “Fundamentalism or Tolerance: What Is the Public Role of Religion in Modern Society?” in Overcoming Fundamentalism, 55-56.
Richard Antoun, Understanding Fundamentalism, Oxford: Altamira Press, 2001, as cited in John D’Mello, “Fundamentalism,” in ACPI Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 1, 555.
John D’Mello, “Fundamentalism,” 555-556; Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God, xv. Although the context of the new preface is the terrorist attack by the Islamic fundamentalists on Sept 11, 2001.
Elizabeth M. Bucar and Barbara Barnett, eds., Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005, 156-201.
Guillermo Hansen, “Tolerance, Democracy and Fundamentalism(s): Challenges in Time of Systemic Bifurcation,” in Overcoming Fundamentalism, 185.
James Daniel Chellappa, “Christianity and Violence: A Look at the Church as ‘Oppressed’ and as ‘Oppressor’” in Violence and Its Victims: A Challenge to Philosophizing in the Indian Context, ed. Ivo Coelho, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2010, 260.
Daniel Harrington, “Kingdom of God” in The New Dictionary of
Catholic Social Thought, ed. Judith A. Dwyer, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1994, 512.
John Fuellenbach, The Kingdom of God, New York: Orbis Books, 1995, 72-77.
Richard M. Gula, Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality, New York: Paulist Press, 1989, 176.
George Soares-Prabhu, “The Kingdom of God: Jesus’ Vision of a New Society” in Theology of Liberation: An Indian Biblical Perspective, George SoaresPrabhu, Pune: JDV, 2001, 238-239.
David Bohr, Catholic Moral Tradition, Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1999, 50-51.
George Keerankeri, “‘Thy Kingdom Come!’: The Kingdom of God as Gift and Responsibility,” Jeevadhara 37 (1990) 135.
John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 15. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/ john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_07121990_redemptorismissio_en.html
Michael Amaladoss, Beyond Dialogue: Pilgrims to the Absolute, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2008, 122-123.
Joseph I. Fernando, “Religious Fundamentalism and an Ethics of Recognition,” in Overcoming Fundamentalism, 83.
John Riches, Jesus and the Transformation of Judaism, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1980.
George Keerankeri, “Jesus and Violence in His Kingdom Ministry,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 74 (2010), 818-819.
