Call for authors to a ”Comparative Fundamentalism” book project

Most of the state of the art research on comparative fundamentalism took place in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (e.g. The Fundamentalism Project sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and directed by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby; Terror in the Mind of God written by Mark Juergensmeyer) and was a reaction to the revival of fundamentalist movements within the nation state.

Since then we have witnessed the continued uprising of new fundamentalist movements, often transnational in nature, applying violence to achieve their goals. We have also witnessed transformations in the old fundamentalist movements and seen how previously violent religious movements embraced democracy (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) and how previously peaceful Christian right movements have embraced violence to underscore their positions on issues of homosexuality, contraception or abortion.

The recent developments reflect new changes in the world order defined by hyperglobalization, and geopolitical and socioeconomic transformations. These transformations beg the question of whether the new fundamentalist movements reflect similar grievances and aspirations as the movements that arose throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s or whether we are dealing with new trends in need of fresh scholarly attention. And in case of continuity, what is the ideological trajectory?

Since 9/11 2001 many academic resources have been allocated to study the messages and nature of Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and related movements. The broader comparative perspective has been missing from the field of terrorism and political violence that is increasingly concerned with Islamist terrorism. This volume seeks to carve out the insights that are gained from taking a comparative perspective both across geography and faith traditions but also within the same region and within the same faith tradition. It will particularly focus on violent religious movements (“religious” is defined broadly) and will hence also contribute to the larger interdisciplinary debate on what religion has to do with violence. The chapters would aim at comparing the particular traits of the religious worldviews and imagery of the movements under scrutiny.

Requirements:

We invite abstracts (max 250 words), CV (max 2 pages) and a publication list from potential contributors to an edited volume with the preliminary title “Comparative fundamentalism - Violent Religious Movements of the 21st century”

The editor will, in collaboration with Oxford University Press India, decide on the final contributors. We invite scholarship from around the world and would favor authors with proven expertise and a solid scholarship on the given movements. Proficiency in written English is also a requirement. We encourage authors from different academic disciplines, and particularly from sociology, political science, religious studies, theology, anthropology.

Potential authors should in their abstract draw out what particular movements they would write about, and why/how it would be relevant in the context of the volume. Note that the focus of the volume is particularly the religious worldviews and imagery of the movements under scrutiny, and that the movements should be active today. Once the selection process is finalized the authors will be invited to submit their draft chapters. The editors or the publisher can not guarantee publication.

We seek authors for chapters covering following themes:

• Militant Christian right movements (including Odinism, white supremacism/neo-paganism)
• Buddhist militancy across contexts
• Contemporary Zionist militancy
• Contemporary trends in militant Hindu nationalism
• Sikh Militancy today
• Jihadism today (Islamic state ideology, AQ)
• Maoist militancy

Please indicate the theme you want to contribute to in the subject line of an email to: mosh@diis.dk Deadline for sending in abstracts, CV and publication list: September 15, 2018.