fundamentalismn.
/ˌfʌndəˈmɛntl̩ɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˌfəndəˈmɛn(t)lˌɪz(ə)m/ 1.
a. Also with capital initial. Strict adherence to doctrines and practices held to be fundamental to Christianity, spec. belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and literal acceptance of the creeds as fundamentals of Protestant Christianity; a movement based on such beliefs arising among various Protestant denominations in the United States and which rose to prominence in the 1920s. Contrasted with liberalism and modernism.Sometimes with negative connotations of intolerance or inflexibility.
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society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > fundamentalism > [noun]
Exeter Hall1835
fundamentalism1842
Bible belt1926
1842 Catholic Tel. 7 May 146/1 Indifference is bad, fundamentalism seems worse.
1912 Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram 16 Feb. 8/3 It is evident to every thing individual that the need of the age is not sensationalism, but fundamentalism. There never was a time when the fundamentals of God's eternal word were needed more to be heralded from every pulpit as at this very moment.
1921 Moody Bible Inst. Monthly Aug. 524/1 The writer glorifies the rationalistic plea as in contrast with fundamentalism.
1923 Daily Mail 24 May 8 Mr. William Jennings Bryan..has been exerting the full force of his great eloquence in a campaign on behalf of what is termed ‘Fundamentalism’.
1925 K. Lake Relig. Yesterday & To-morrow 63 There has been in America some surprise at the sudden rise of Fundamentalism in the last five years.
1927 Observer 5 June 5/3 Fundamentalism and the Klux Klan are signs of alarm on behalf of the older ideals.
1955 Times 25 Aug. 14/1 Now ‘fundamentalism’..appears to describe the bigoted rejection of all Biblical criticism, a mechanical view of inspiration and an excessively literalist interpretation of scripture.
1972 Copperas Cove (Texas) Press 3 Sept. 4 What the report terms the ‘prodigious’ growth of conservative churches—Fundamentalism—is attributed to the fact that it provides comfort, support and identity for people.
2001 H. Gilbert Postcolonial Plays 176/2 Pocomania is a religious practice mixing Christian fundamentalism with some African religious customs.
2003 Sci. Amer. Mar. 17/3 Neoevangelicals, such as Billy Graham, accept the basic tenets of conservative Protestantism but reject the extreme anti-intellectualism and sectarianism of fundamentalism.
b. In other religions, esp. Islam: strict adherence to traditional orthodox religious beliefs or doctrines; a tendency or movement associated with this. See also Islamic fundamentalism n. at Islamic adj. Compounds.Sometimes used negatively to suggest religious intolerance, and also sometimes associated with militant or radical movements or organizations (see e.g. quots. 1996, 2017).
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society > faith > sect > non-Christian religions > Islam > Islamic sects and groups > [noun] > fundamentalism
fundamentalism1925
Islamic fundamentalism1944
Islamism1979
Islamicism1986
1925 Anaconda (Montana) Standard 25 Mar. 4/2 Fundamentalism seems to be waging a losing battle in Egypt. The mosque is losing its hold upon the upper classes.
1935 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 9 May 23/4 The leaders of Mohammedan fundamentalism..are urging fierce doctrines of pure Islamism and a return to the austere, desert-born fervor of their faith.
1957 L. Binder in Middle East Jrnl. 11 391 Fundamentalism in religion and the Hinduization of the national historical myth were made possible [in India]..by the historical and religious work of Europeans.
1981 Observer 27 Sept. 32/1 The new, or rather very old, Islam, the dangerous fundamentalism revived by the ayatollahs and their admirers.
1984 Times 27 Apr. 13/2 It is this very process that has helped ignite the fires of Sikh fundamentalism, rather as Shiite fundamentalism was sparked off by the forces of modernization in Iran.
1996 Eng. Today Oct. 41/1 The growth of religious fundamentalism—whether Islamic, Jewish, Hindu or Christian—which seeks to impose a single truth, often by brutal methods.
2005 T. Hall Salaam Brick Lane vii. 158 A certain proportion of every immigrant group that had settled in the East End has turned to fundamentalism, the Jews included.
2017 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 17 Feb. a4 A personal approach to Islamic belief, which contrasts sharply with the fundamentalism espoused by Islamic State and Taliban militants.
2. In non-religious contexts: strict adherence to the basic principles of any specified doctrine, subject, or discipline; a movement or approach associated with this.Sometimes with negative connotations of inflexibility or intolerance.
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1922 Nashville Tenessean 9 July 3/7 In this critical period..when men want to change the basic character of our government, we should have as our sole purpose a return to the fundamentalism of Jeffersonian democracy.
1947 Times 18 Dec. 5/2 This belief has now become a piece of Bolshevist fundamentalism rather than a precept of day-to-day conduct.
1963 U. Weinreich in Current Trends in Linguistics 1 64 (note) The aggressive ‘Jazykfront’ movement..struggled with the Marrists for the title of true Marxian fundamentalism until it was purged in the 1930's.
1977 Econ. Dev. & Cultural Change 25 211 We would argue for the substitution of careful analysis of particular price situations for the rigid price ‘fundamentalism’ that one sometimes encounters.
1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 June 34/1 A self-styled form of Darwinian fundamentalism..has risen to some prominence in a variety of fields.
2014 S. E. Bonner Bigot iv. 170 With the sweeping victory of the far right in the Congressional elections of 2010,..conservatives embraced capitalist fundamentalism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1842