Defining the F-Word: Hoffmann on Fundamentalism

Tags

conversion, Evil, extermination, Fundamentalism, fundies, good, holy books, libertarians, martyrdom, neocons, R. Joseph Hoffmann, suicide bombing

Although the word “fundamentalism” is sometimes viewed as a fairly meaningless term of polemic, R. Joseph Hoffmann makes a somewhat light-hearted and entertaining attempt at defining its key elements. Apparently, fundamentalism is all about:

(1) Having a book you think is really, really excellent and which you imagine applies to just about everything:

“Fundamentalists read texts written 1000 years ago as though they were hot off the press.”

(2) Imagining a firm division between the side of good (us) and the side of evil (them).

“To be a fundamentalist is to have the religious equivalent of a teenager’s fear of vampires.”

(3) Having a desire for either self-extermination or homocidal extermination

“self-extermination, a form of martyrdom, is a way in which Christian crazies can vindicate their readings of sacred writ. Homicidal martyrdom is the trademark of Islamic fundamentalists, a much messier way to do business.”

(4) Having an infatuation with converting everybody else

“Pentecostal and charismatic denominations have grown by 37% since 2001; the Churches of Christ by 48%; the Assemblies of God by 68%. (United) Methodists and Northern Baptist by 0%, Jews, -10% and Catholics, through a healthy infusion of Hispanic and Latino votaries, a mere 11%. The undeniable appeal of taking God’s word seriously is unslaked by contemporary life.”

Not bad, but perhaps a bit broad? Those elements could definitely be applied to, say, libertarians and neocons… Ah, sooo. Perhaps not so broad after all…

Advertisement

New Articles from The Dunedin School: Job; Aqedah; Achsah

Tags

9/11, Achsah, aqedah, differend, divine violence, hybridity, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, Job, suicide bombing, symbolic exchange, tangata whenua

Rounding up some recent articles emanating from The Dunedin School:

Deane Galbraith examines the book of Job through the lens of Jean-François Lyotard’s concept of the differend, uncovering a further dimension of injustice in the book resulting from God’s appeal to universalising and transcendent standards of divine justice which serve to deny justice to Job in the specific facts of Job’s dispute. He describes the book of Job as “the Bible’s most anti-Christian text”.
‘”Would you condemn me that you may be justified?”: Job as differend.’ Bible and Critical Theory 5.3 (October 2009)

Eric Repphun explores the aqedah and divine violence in general, with reference to Jean Baudrillard’s theory of symbolic exchange. He questions whether suicide bombing, including 9/11 horrifies us, in part, not only because of its transgressing of the boundaries between the human and the inhuman, but also because “it violates the conventional logics of exchange rooted in capitalist ideas of exchange and use value”.
‘Anything in Exchange for the World: Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, and the Aqedah.’ International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 7.2 (July 2009)

Judith McKinlay fleshes out the elliptical story of Achsah, a hybrid biblical character, in whose person and genealogy is an uncomfortable reminder of the tangata whenua (indigenous people) still in the land. “Forever located in Scripture, she is the pawn of an imperial hegemony…”
‘Meeting Achsah on Achsah’s land.’ Bible and Critical Theory 5.3 (October 2009)