Fundamentalism is ... Religious fundamentalism: the essence

Fundamentalism is one of the trends of Orthodox Christianity. To better understand contemporary Orthodoxy, it is important to pay attention to what trends and trends exist within it. We will consider three main groups that can be distinguished in Orthodoxy: fundamentalism, traditionalism and liberalism. In fact, such groups can be distinguished in any movement and in any Christian denomination. But at the same time each of them has its own internal features, its own ways of realizing these phenomena.

What is religious fundamentalism

Let us turn to the first of the currents. Fundamentalism is, above all, a movement that, firstly, emphasizes the importance of tradition, the importance of the past. Another significant feature of it is that society in it is more important than personality. The society with its values, tendencies of development, interests comes to the fore. All this is more important than the values and interests of the individual.

Fundamentalism, with its attention to traditions, to the past, and to society as a whole, is very typical for crisis eras. When there is a crisis, people are looking for some kind of foundation, something unchanging, unshakable state of changing life.

The form of fundamentalism in Orthodoxy. Protective Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is a current that can manifest itself in various forms. Let's consider the most basic of them. The first of these forms is what can be called a protective Orthodoxy. This is a sense of Orthodoxy, as some kind of Christian world. It is the understanding that before the revolution there was some kind of ideal state of the church. And our task is to preserve as completely as possible what we had.

Supporters of such a protective movement is not so much. However, among people who are interested in Orthodoxy, this is quite an influential current. He has his minuses - here clearly blurred the boundaries between the church tradition, between faith and culture. That is, to draw a border where Christianity ends and culture begins, when it comes to security, it's very difficult. Supporters of the conservative Orthodoxy are extremely negative about any renewal tendencies, attempts to reform divine services, introduce the Russian language instead of the Old Slavonic one. To any liberal movement, they are negative and even aggressive.

Nationalist Orthodoxy

Religious fundamentalism has another form. A brighter manifestation of fundamentalist tendencies, far from their own faith, but nonetheless, flourishing in Orthodoxy, is what can be called nationalist Orthodoxy.

Christianity is closely connected with nationalism and for many acts as a kind of national self-identification. And here a special role is played by the idea of a special mission of the Russian people. And it is the Russian Orthodoxy that has a special universal mission. And, perhaps, therefore, attention is not paid to some concepts of sinfulness and righteousness in the generally accepted sense. Because sinfulness is, ostensibly, what others have. But in the very Russian Orthodoxy, everything is fine and just as it should be.

Typical signs of nationalist Orthodoxy

For the nationalist Orthodoxy, the mythologization of history is very typical. This is because we magnify Rus, we glorify Russian Orthodoxy. And this is not only a modern state - history should be particularly great. And when it comes to the mythologization of history, the most mythologized figures are strong political figures.

Many here consider the saints of Ivan the Terrible, here there is a special attention to the sanctity of Nicholas II, here many speak about some special church role of Joseph Stalin, here such heroes as Chapaev are extremely popular. Nationalist Orthodoxy is particularly vividly manifested in the form of all sorts of brotherhoods, Cossack organizations and monarchist movements.

Islamic fundamentalism

Talk about the extent of the spread of Islam and its role in society is meaningless. It is enough to cite statistics according to which the number of people preaching Islam in the world takes the third place. At first, so far, there are Orthodox Christians. Therefore, the words that fundamentalism is just an Orthodox current will not be entirely true.

Initially, Islamic fundamentalism was considered only as an attempt to purge Islam from any outside influence. To date, speaking of Islamic fundamentalism, we are increasingly referring to the active intervention of religion in the policy of the state. It, naturally, leads to a change in both the political and social structure of Islamic states. First of all, this is due to certain moral rules and canons, which establish not only the behavior and life values of an individual, but also the whole of society as a whole.

In recent years, such concepts as fundamentalism, extremism are increasingly common. However, this is not entirely correct. Speaking of Islamic extremism, we should mean people who are just covered with the preaching of Islam and have nothing to do with true Muslim believers.

Orthodox Liberalism

Speaking of what is modern fundamentalism, we can not fail to mention Orthodox liberalism. Liberalism, based on its nature, can not be associated with an organized movement. It is closely connected with freedom, with attempts to change something. And therefore the liberal is rarely a representative of the current.

Liberalism is rather a kind of worldview, a certain attitude of the world, than an organized structure. The theological liberalism is closely connected with the denial of certain key tenets of Christianity. In Russia there have been repeated attempts at reform. People who are trying to reform the Orthodox Church and the Orthodox ministry are called Renovationists.

Orthodox Traditionalism

The first manifestation of Orthodox traditionalism is what is sometimes called "Parisian theology." It is very closely related to Russian migration. When the Orthodox Church found itself in exile, theological institutions and theological seminaries began to be created there. She was forced to build a Christian theology, capable of dialogue and capable of some apologetics in the face of the Western world. Supporters of Orthodox traditionalism turn to the first millennium of the existence of Christianity and preach its ideas.

This is the main canon, which reveals Christian fundamentalism, traditionalism and liberalism.