Religious Radicalism

Abstract

Religious radicalism requires demarcation. In order to conduct an academic debate, we need to agree on a number of criteria. What is the difference between a moderate believer and a radical? Is it not the case that so-called 'holy texts' include calls for radical behaviour? In this exploratory article, which serves as an introduction to the book, we look at the hermeneutical debate on religious radicalism. We highlight five approaches: historiographic, anthropological, political, socio-psychological and theological. We also present a number of useful tables to distinguish radical religious views and conclude with a conceptualization of fundamentalism.