battle for God, The
By Karen Armstrong
In this illuminating exploration, Karen Armstrong traces the emergence of fundamentalist movements across major world religions, revealing how these groups arose as responses to the profound upheavals of modernity. Rather than viewing fundamentalism as a retreat into ancient traditions, Armstrong presents these movements as distinctly modern phenomena, born from the anxiety and displacement that accompanied the West's dramatic transformation beginning in the sixteenth century.
As traditional ways of experiencing and understanding the divine became increasingly difficult to maintain in rapidly changing societies, religious communities found themselves compelled to develop new forms of faith. Armstrong demonstrates how fundamentalist groups represent one such adaptation, emerging not from backward-looking nostalgia but from innovative attempts to preserve religious meaning in an increasingly secular world.
The author examines how these movements, while diverse in their specific beliefs and practices, share a common origin in their communities' encounters with aggressive modernization. Whether facing unwitting cultural shifts or deliberate challenges from mainstream society, fundamentalist groups have consistently emerged from a deep unease with contemporary life.
Armstrong's analysis reveals the complex, often symbiotic relationship between fundamentalism and the very modernity it opposes, showing how each force drives the other toward greater extremes. Through this nuanced understanding, she points toward compassion as a potential path for resolving the intensifying conflicts that characterize our contemporary religious landscape.
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore Modern period
- ✓ Explore Church history
- ✓ Explore History
- ✓ Explore Fundamentalismo
- ✓ Explore Historia
- ✓ Explore Fundamentalismus
- ✓ Explore Fundamentalismo religioso
- ✓ Explore Intégrisme islamique
Topics
Details
- Published
- 2000
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- ISBN-10
- 0679435972
- Pages
- 442
- Language
- EN
