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Course module: GE2V16002
GE2V16002
Fundamentalism in the Modern World
Course info
Course codeGE2V16002
EC7.5
Course goals
•          understanding key concepts such as fundamentalism, modernisation, secularisation and identity in their historical context;
•          awareness of various academic perspectives on religion and modernisation;
•          ability to place recent societal phenomena and debates in a cultural-historical context;
•          broad view of the role of religion in the history of Western civilisation.
 
Content
Religious fundamentalism seems to be on the rise and it seems to threaten open and democratic societies. But what is it? And how have different fundamentalisms evolved into their current forms? Since the end of the Cold War, Western powers have focused increasing efforts on fighting religious fanaticism. Most of us see images of Islamic fundamentalists, or irrational Christian evangelists in the media and in social media. Yet fundamentalism is more complex than these images. And religion continues to play a key role in the Western world, offering a vehicle for differentiation, cohesion and identity. In this course we examine both popular images of fundamentalism and the historical roots of the religions most associated with fundamentalism. We challenge ourselves to define and understand the many fundamentalisms in contemporary culture.

In this course, we therefore gain knowledge about the past to better inform our understanding of the present. We examine the opposition between fundamentalism and modernisation, between tradition and progress, constancy and renewal, and unity and multiformity.

This course considers the phenomenon of fundamentalism with the tools of cultural history, examining selected historical expressions of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic fundamentalism from the Enlightenment to the present day.

Please note: The lectures of this course are in English. If there is only one seminar group, discussions will also be entirely in English.
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