Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age

Today's media are rife with stories of modern-day defenders of God--Christian, Jew, and Muslim--in revolt against what they feel to be the modern rejection of God's teaching as revealed in their sacred texts. Historian Bruce Lawrence has written the first comparative study to make sense of these contemporary zealots. He argues that fundamentalism is not simply an anachronistic religious revival that will soon fade from the world scene, but rather a burgeoning global movement that we ignore at our peril. Lawrence explains the nature of fundamentalism; he details its manifestation in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity; and he asserts that fundamentalism is at the heart of the modern world: "Fundamentalists do not deny or disregard modernity; they protest as moderns against the heresies of the modern age." They use science, technology, and the mass media for their own ends, yet they reject scientific and technological theories that dilute what they believe to be absolute truths. "Without certitude, the world is doomed. With it, salvation (for some) is assured."--Publisher description.