Revelation and Claims to Finality: Assumptions Underlying Fundamentalism in Christianity and Islam * by Hans Zirker
Revelation and Claims to Finality: Assumptions Underlying Fundamentalism in Christianity and Islam * By Hans Zirker Nowadays many different types of groups, movements and tendencies are called ‘fundamentalist'; in using this word, one is not employing an unambiguous term to de- scribe something definite, but rather a vague signal to indicate a variety of outlooks, which often do not have much more in common than that they stand out from their sur- roundings by their disparagement of modern ideas, together with uncompromising claims to certainty and suspicion of the multiplicity of possible positions that are open to adoption.1 However, the widespread discussion of 'fundamentalism' makes it clear that from the outset this word is rooted in Christianity;2 today, as previously, it still usually re- fers to tensions and confrontations existing within different churches.3 When people nowadays speak of religious 'fundamentalists', in a wider sense, particularly with regard to Islam, the question arises of whether this is based merely on a general expansion of the concept, or whether perhaps there is a deeper underlying structural relationship be- tween the two religions, a relationship which could reveal a great deal of the theology of both sides. In order for this to be examined, the problem must however be investigated more from the historical point of view and in more specific theological terms, than would be possible solely by the use of the term 'fundamentalism'. The Age of Enlightenment of modern times provides us with a more valuable starting point for this inquiry with its feel- ing of unease that, on the one hand, faith in God's revelation demands complete com- * From Islam and Christian Muslim Relations, 3, 1992, 211–235; translated by Michael Walpole from the original German, ‘Geschichtliche Offenbarung und Endgültigkeitsansprüche.
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