Religious fundamentalism Books

Book SynopsisCarly Gelsinger is an awkward and lonely thirteen-year-old when she stumbles into Pine Canyon Assemblies of God, the cracked stucco church on the outskirts of her remote small town. She assimilates, despite her apprehensions, because she is desperate to belong. Soon, she is on fire for God. She speaks in tongues, slays demons, and follows her abusive pastor’s every word―and it’s not until her life is burnt to the ground that she finds the courage to leave. Raw and illuminating,Once You Go In is a coming-of-age tale about the beauty and danger of absolute faith, and the stories people tell themselves to avoid their deepest fears.

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Book Synopsis2014 is WAF's 25th anniversary year, and this book maps the development of the organisation over the past 25 years, through the life stories and political reflections of some of its members. It focuses on the ways in which lived contradictions have been reflected in their politics. Their stories describe the pathways that led them to WAF, and the role WAF has played in their lives and in the different forms of politicial activism in which they have engaged. Discussing feminist activism from a wide variety of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, contributors highlight the complex relationships of belonging that are at the heart of contemporary social life - including the problems of exclusionary political projects of belonging. They also explore the ways in which anti-fundamentalism relates to broader feminist, anti-racist and other emancipatory political ideologies and movements. The personal stories at the centre of this book are those of women whose lives enact the complexities of multiple (if shifting and contingent) mutually constitutive axes of power and difference. Much of their concerns therefore relate to crossing the boundaries of collectivity and practising a 'dialogical transversal politics' that has developed as an alternative to identity politics.Trade ReviewThis timely book should inspire younger generations of activists to pick up the torch, to lead simultaneously anti-racist and anti-fundamentalist feminist politics. With the xenophobic far right rising and communalism turning beliefs and cultures into identity politics' weapons, women's rights, citizenship and secular traditions are at stake. The spirit of WAF, its rare political clarity, its true internationalism, are more than ever needed. Marieme Helie Lucas, founder of Women Living Under Muslim Laws The powerful analyses and reflections of diverse women in the UK fighting authoritarian religious movements are documented here in all their brilliance and honesty. This is a resource in the best sense: of the refusal to submit, the courage to challenge, the strength to reflect critically. In a turbulent and complex period global - religious atrocities, military invasions, and a brutal war against the dignity and personhood of women - this book shows us that we can and must face many ways at once if progressive global politics is to have a future. Professor Chetan Bhatt, London School of Economics and Political Science There is much to learn from, and much to celebrate, in these pages: a feminist, anti-racist politics which supports religious freedom and expression but which challenges fundamentalism in all its forms, combined with compelling testaments to the intermingling of the personal and the political in private and public life. As individual accounts and as the documentation of an important social movement, these inspiring political narratives provide insight into one of the most complex and persistent challenges of our time. Molly Andrews, Professor of Political Psychology and Co-Director, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East LondonTable of ContentsIntroduction Sukhwant Dhaliwal & Nira Yuval-Davis 1. Pragna Patel Flying by the nets of racism, patriarchy and religion 2. Clara Connolly Confessions of an Anti-Clerical Feminist 3. Gita Sahgal Knowing My Place - The Secular Tradition and Universal Values 4. Ruth Pearson Linking the local with the global: the legacy of migrant grandparents 5. Taranum Maan Gods and Daughters Shakila 6. Nira Yuval-Davis Intersectional Contestations 7. Hannana Siddiqui My Life as an Activist 8. Julia Bard Learning to Question 9. Georgie Wemyss Activist Listening 10. Nadje Al-Ali From Germany to Iraq via WAF: A Political Journey 11. Sukhwant Dhaliwal Made in 'Little India' 12. Cassandra Balchin Making myself through difference 13. Rashmi Varma Telling Lives 14. Sue O'Sullivan Change, Chance, and Contradictions 15. Eva Turner One of My CVs 16. Jane Lane No clear pathway, just a lifelong zigzag 17. Ritu Mahendru Sexual and Gender Based Violence Against Women 18. Natalie Bennett Anti-fundamentalist feminism and green politics 19. Judy Greenway The Spirit of Resistance: Helen Lowe 1944-2011

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Book SynopsisEssay on Islamization is a study of the Islamization of all Muslim societies and their conversion to orthodox Islam which, with its chapels, soldier monks and holy war, leads to fundamentalism as well as to a moral puritanism. Cherkaoui gauges the importance of this global phenomenon by analyzing the empirical data of some sixty Muslim and non-Muslim societies. He also conducts two ethnographic surveys to identify the metamorphoses of Muslim religious practices and their causes.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Disenchantment of the World, Depopulation of the Heavens  1 Persistence of Faith in Islam Countries, Progress of Atheism Elsewhere  2 Orientation toward the Human or toward the Divine: Progressive Secularization or Resilience of the Religious  Conclusion 2 Time for the Sacred  1 Rising Religiosity  2 The Time of the Sacred and Education  3 Variations in Rates of Practice by Social Determinants  4 Cultual, Media and Cultural Practices  5 Integration, Regulation and Trust 3 Twilight of the Gods  1 The Disenchantment of the World  2 Works and Days: Islam Paganized and Chthonian Beliefs  3 The Paradox of Consequences of Colonization  4 The Political Instrumentalization of Salafism and the Enchanted World 4 Is a Rational Explanation of Islamization Possible?  1 Exogenous Causes   1.1 Socio-Economic Changes Lead to a Secular Decline in Religiosity   1.2 The Religious Market Would Account for the Practices of Believers and Their Intensity of Belief   1.3 The Separation of Church and State Would Influence Religious Practice   1.4 The Extension of Islam Could Be Explained by the Policy Pursued by Certain States with Virtually Unlimited Financial Means   1.5 The Media Have Influenced Muslim Public Opinion   1.6 The Muslim Is Searching for His Identity, His Belonging and Reference Groups  2 Endogenous Explanations   2.1 The Relative Deprivation of Young People Is the Cause of This Popular Enthusiasm for Islam and for Their Proselytism   2.2 The Perception that Muslims Have of Themselves and Others Is a Reflection of Both the Spread of Islam and Their Zeal   2.3 The Transformations of the Social Morphology of Muslim Countries, the End of Popular Islam and the Growing Domination of Scriptural Islam, Could Be Causes of This Green Tidal Wave   2.4 The Structures of Interaction and Interdependence Explain the Diffusion of Religious Practices 5 Deprivation and Islamization: Socio- Educational Mobility and Its Consequences  1 Social Mobility and Educational Mobility  2 Generative Mechanisms of Mobility  3 Meritocracy or Dominance Structure? 6 The Mechanisms that Produce Islamic Fundamentalism: an Outline for an Interpretation of Its Genesis  1 Elective Affinities between Popular Islam and Social Morphology  2 Transformations of Morphology and the Decline of Popular Islam: the Resurgence of Salafism  3 The Prophecy of the “Proletaroid” Intellectuals as a Response to the Crisis of Society  4 Rational Choice Theory and Altruistic Suicide 7 From Absolute Monotheism to Ethical Puritanism  1 The Ethical Puritanism of Muslims and Moral Tolerance In the West  2 Muslims and the Magic of Modernity  Conclusion 8 Confidence in Institutions: an International Comparison  1 Trust as the Basis for the Legitimacy of the Social Order  2 Time of Suspicion 9 Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences  1 Morphologies and Democracies   2 The People’s Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism  3 Taxonomy of Democracies  4 Distribution of Countries according to the Three Models. Place of the Muslims in the Democratic Trihedron Bibliography Index Nominum

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Book SynopsisIn Conjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism, W. Paul Williamson takes a critical look at the sociohistorical emergence of fundamentalism and examines how historians constructed popular, though questionable, conceptions of the movement that have dominated decades of empirical research in psychology. He further analyzes the notions of militancy and anti-modernity as valid characterizations of fundamentalism and examines whether fundamentalism, as a Christian Protestant phenomenon, is useful in labelling global forms of religious extremism and violence. In observing the lack of theory-driven research, the publication offers theories that situate fundamentalism as a social psychological phenomenon as opposed to some personal predisposition. Students and scholars of fundamentalism will discover Conjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism to be a provocative study on the topic.Table of ContentsConjectures and Controversy in the Study of Fundamentalism  W. Paul Williamson  Abstract  Keywords  1 Introduction  2 A Condensed History of Fundamentalism  2.1 Protestant Christian Fundamentalism  2.2 Other Fundamentalisms  2.3 Section Conclusion  3 The Problems of Modernity, Militancy, and Cross-cultural Application  3.1 What Is Modernity?  3.2 Are Fundamentalists Really Militant  3.3 Is the Label “Fundamentalism” Useful across Cultures?  3.4 Section Conclusion  4 Theories of Fundamentalism  4.1 Global Fundamentalism (GF) Theory  4.2 Social Identity Theory (SIT)  4.3 Intratextual Fundamentalism  4.4 Section Conclusion  5 General Conclusion  Acknowledgment  References

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Book SynopsisEssay on Islamization is a study of the Islamization of all Muslim societies and their conversion to orthodox Islam which, with its chapels, soldier monks and holy war, leads to fundamentalism as well as to a moral puritanism. Cherkaoui gauges the importance of this global phenomenon by analyzing the empirical data of some sixty Muslim and non-Muslim societies. He also conducts two ethnographic surveys to identify the metamorphoses of Muslim religious practices and their causes.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Disenchantment of the World, Depopulation of the Heavens  1 Persistence of Faith in Islam Countries, Progress of Atheism Elsewhere  2 Orientation toward the Human or toward the Divine: Progressive Secularization or Resilience of the Religious  Conclusion 2 Time for the Sacred  1 Rising Religiosity  2 The Time of the Sacred and Education  3 Variations in Rates of Practice by Social Determinants  4 Cultual, Media and Cultural Practices  5 Integration, Regulation and Trust 3 Twilight of the Gods  1 The Disenchantment of the World  2 Works and Days: Islam Paganized and Chthonian Beliefs  3 The Paradox of Consequences of Colonization  4 The Political Instrumentalization of Salafism and the Enchanted World 4 Is a Rational Explanation of Islamization Possible?  1 Exogenous Causes   1.1 Socio-Economic Changes Lead to a Secular Decline in Religiosity   1.2 The Religious Market Would Account for the Practices of Believers and Their Intensity of Belief   1.3 The Separation of Church and State Would Influence Religious Practice   1.4 The Extension of Islam Could Be Explained by the Policy Pursued by Certain States with Virtually Unlimited Financial Means   1.5 The Media Have Influenced Muslim Public Opinion   1.6 The Muslim Is Searching for His Identity, His Belonging and Reference Groups  2 Endogenous Explanations   2.1 The Relative Deprivation of Young People Is the Cause of This Popular Enthusiasm for Islam and for Their Proselytism   2.2 The Perception that Muslims Have of Themselves and Others Is a Reflection of Both the Spread of Islam and Their Zeal   2.3 The Transformations of the Social Morphology of Muslim Countries, the End of Popular Islam and the Growing Domination of Scriptural Islam, Could Be Causes of This Green Tidal Wave   2.4 The Structures of Interaction and Interdependence Explain the Diffusion of Religious Practices 5 Deprivation and Islamization: Socio- Educational Mobility and Its Consequences  1 Social Mobility and Educational Mobility  2 Generative Mechanisms of Mobility  3 Meritocracy or Dominance Structure? 6 The Mechanisms that Produce Islamic Fundamentalism: an Outline for an Interpretation of Its Genesis  1 Elective Affinities between Popular Islam and Social Morphology  2 Transformations of Morphology and the Decline of Popular Islam: the Resurgence of Salafism  3 The Prophecy of the “Proletaroid” Intellectuals as a Response to the Crisis of Society  4 Rational Choice Theory and Altruistic Suicide 7 From Absolute Monotheism to Ethical Puritanism  1 The Ethical Puritanism of Muslims and Moral Tolerance In the West  2 Muslims and the Magic of Modernity  Conclusion 8 Confidence in Institutions: an International Comparison  1 Trust as the Basis for the Legitimacy of the Social Order  2 Time of Suspicion 9 Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences  1 Morphologies and Democracies   2 The People’s Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism  3 Taxonomy of Democracies  4 Distribution of Countries according to the Three Models. Place of the Muslims in the Democratic Trihedron Bibliography Index Nominum

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Book SynopsisAn International Review of Empirical Research on the Psychology of Fundamentalism is a sequel to Williamson (2020), who examined the sociohistorical emergence of fundamentalism and controversial conceptions of the movement that have dominated decades of empirical research in psychology. He concluded by calling for a critical review of this sizable literature, amassed from the early 20th century. In the present book, W. Paul Williamson and Sarah Demmrich respond by providing summaries and critical observations for 365 empirical studies, collected and organized from peer-reviewed journals. A summary of findings indicated that the largest share of statistical associations between study variables and fundamentalism was moderate in size, followed by those that were weak, and then by strong relationships, which were much less frequent. However, this observed pattern of relationships, particularly those characterized by moderate and especially strong associations, much reflected the findings from sexual bias studies. Finally, the authors offer critical considerations for sample selection, methodology, and theoretical applications in future fundamentalism research.Table of ContentsAbstract Keywords 1. Introduction 1.1. Collection and Categorization of Studies, and Overview of Chapters 1.2. Method of Review and Evaluation 2. Construct Definitions and Measurements of Fundamentalism 2.1. Earlier Measures of Fundamentalism (1951-1990) 2.1.1. An Exceptional Early Measure of Fundamentalism 2.2. More Recent Measures of Fundamentalism (1991-2020) 2.2.1. Measures of Fundamentalism Based on General Concepts 2.2.2. Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RFS) 2.2.3. Intratextual Fundamentalism Scale (IFS) 2.2.4. Multi-Dimensional Fundamentalism Inventory (MDFI) 2.2.5. North American Protestant Fundamentalism Scale (NAPFS) 2.2.6. Moaddel-Karabenick Fundamentalism Scale (MKFS) 2.2.7. Bible Verse Selection Task (BVST) 2.3. Chapter Conclusion 3. Demographics of Fundamentalism 4. Fundamentalism Research on Cognitive Issues 4.1. Fundamentalist Beliefs and Worldview 4.1.1. Moral Beliefs 4.1.2. Worldview 4.2. Cognition Studies 4.2.1. Specific Cognition Areas 4.2.2. General Cognition Issues 4.3. Chapter Conclusion 5. Research on Lifespan and Health 5.1. Lifespan Issues 5.1.1. Development 5.1.2. Family and Marriage 5.1.3. Sexual and Gender Issues 5.1.4. Death 5.2. Health Issues 5.2.1. Mental Health 5.2.2. Physical and Spiritual Health 5.3. Chapter Conclusion 6. Personality, Social, and Reactionary Issues 6.1. Personality and Virtues 6.1.1. Authoritarianism 6.2. Social Issues 6.2.1. Criminal Justice 6.2.2. Politics 6.3. Reactionary Issues 6.3.1. Militancy and Recruitment 6.3.2. Threat 6.4. Chapter Conclusion 7. Research on Social Bias 7.1. Ethnic Bias 7.2. Sexual Bias 7.2.1. Homosexual Prejudice 7.2.2. Gender Prejudice 7.2.3. Transgender and Bisexual Prejudice 7.3. Group Bias 7.3.1. Ethnocentrism 7.3.2. Religious Prejudice 7.3.3. Ingroup/Outgroup Prejudice 7.4. Studies Reporting Composites of Social Bias 7.5. Chapter Conclusion 8. General Conclusion 8.1. Overall Findings 8.2. Sample Issues 8.3. Methodological Issues 8.3.1. Specific Methodology Considerations 8.3.2. SEM and Mediation Methods of Analysis 8.4. Theory—the Missing Link—and Closing Remarks Acknowledgments References

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