What is fundamentalism? Characteristics of this way of thinking

A summary about the characteristics of fundamentalism in the historical context of Europe.

In this vast world in which we live there are many ways of looking at reality. Everyone, based on their experiences and their way of relating to the world, has been developing a political opinion.

However, it is not uncommon to find people who are excessively dogmatic and intolerant of ideological diversity, seeing in others people who are tremendously wrong or who pose a threat to their way of seeing the world.

Integralism refers to any ideology that, in itself, does not tolerate any kind of departure from its principles.. Although it has its origins in the most staunch Catholicism, the concept has evolved to refer to any thought that borders on fanaticism. Let's take a look at it below.

What is fundamentalism?

In its origin and linked to the European context, fundamentalism, specifically Catholic fundamentalism, is understood as the political current that advocates that the Catholic faith be the basis of legal legislation and order in society. Catholic fundamentalists considered it unacceptable that a European state could disassociate itself from the principles of God and that any new, liberal, modernist ideas endangered the social order and the integrity of the country as a Catholic nation.

Today the term has evolved to designate any socio-political movement bordering on fanaticism, whether religious, ethnic, nationalistic or cultural. In essence, an integralist, whatever the ideal, wants society to be socially and politically ordered on the basis of inflexible and immovable principles, such as that laws be made according to the stipulations of a holy book, that the entire state speak only the language that gives its name to the country, or that there be only one ethnic group.

History of Catholic fundamentalism

Although the original fundamentalist ideas extend their roots to the Middle Ages, with the popes Gregory VII and Boniface VIII, fundamentalism would not fully articulate itself as a sophisticated movement until after the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.. The 19th century was shaking all Catholic principles and the power of the Church given the shocking ideas coming out of the bourgeois revolutions, such as popular sovereignty, science and methods based on reason and empiricism.

Catholic fundamentalism emerged in Europe between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, around the polemics of the Catholic Church with various post-French Revolution principles and liberalism. This term was initially coined to designate those who opposed the so-called "modernists", who advocated the creation of a synthetic movement between Christian theology and liberal philosophy, advocating human freedom and a greater religious tolerance.

The supporters of Catholic fundamentalism considered it unthinkable to abandon the state without the guidance of God. Much less acceptable to the fundamentalists was to disassociate the Church from the social order, leaving it in the background or as an institution subordinated to what the state laws indicated.

With the passage of time, Catholic fundamentalism would take shape, becoming a strong anti-pluralist movement of Catholicism, having many supporters in France, given the importance of liberal ideas in the country, but also gaining strength in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania at the end of the 19th century. In these countries the idea took hold that the Catholic faith should come first, and that any way of reducing or eliminating and that any means of reducing or eliminating ideological competitors were legitimate, especially against liberalism and liberalism.especially against liberalism and humanism.

Pope Pius IX condemned liberal ideas by expounding them in his Syllabus errorum complectens praecipuos nostrae aetatis errores. It would be this Syllabus what would end up laying the foundations of Catholic fundamentalism, especially in the case of the Spanish. This Catholic fundamentalism would reach its most classic vision in the papal reaction to modernism, carried out by Pius X in 1907. Those who were more partial to the papal vision were called "integral Catholics".

Catholic fundamentalism would eventually decline after the Second Vatican Council, given the lack of support within the Catholic hierarchy.. At this time the idea that State and Church should be strongly united was seen as very outdated, even among the most fervent Catholics. In that same Council the idea of personal freedom and freedom of thought was defended, tolerating less orthodox visions and accepting, although with the limitations that any religion has, the freedom of creed.

Catholic fundamentalism in Spain

In Spain, Catholic fundamentalism would be one of the three most important branches of Hispanic political Catholicism, together with Carlism and liberal Catholicism, being the option that most defends the Catholic integrity. In fact, within the current, being Catholic was taken as the main feature of the individual's identity, above any political or social militancy..

This fundamentalism materialized in the form of the National Catholic Party, founded in 1888 by Ramón Nocedal, whose militants came mainly from the Carlist ranks and whose means of dissemination was the newspaper "El Siglo Futuro" (1875-1936). The party, like the rest of European Catholic fundamentalism, was a staunch enemy of the enlightened ideas of liberalism, seen as a direct threat to the Spanish way of life, as well as rejecting rationalism, seen as the path that led to heresy insofar as it doubted the word of God.

After decades and with the arrival of the Second Spanish Republic, this Spanish Catholic fundamentalism would lose strength as a separate current and would end up merging with Carlism. After Nocedal's death, the most outstanding figure as leader of the fundamentalist thought, recycled and transformed into traditionalism, would be Fal Conde, who would be the main leader of the movement since 1934.After Nocedal's death, the most outstanding figure as leader of the fundamentalist thought, recycled and transformed into traditionalism, would be Fal Conde, who would be the main leader of the movement since 1934.

Postulates of the fundamentalist attitude

Whether Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Serbian supremacist or Catalan identitarian, all fundamentalist ideology gathers, in essence, the following postulates.

1. Exclusion

Fundamentalism rejects anyone who does not share its principles, often in a hostile manner. Visions alien to their way of thinking are perceived as direct threats to their identity and they respond aggressively..

2. Antipluralistic and dogmatic

Plurality is rejected. There is only one way or way of seeing things that is correct and they must fight to impose it. One is integral to the extent that one agrees with their way of being: theirs.

Any interdisciplinary attempt is considered dangerous, as a way of contagion or surrender by those who have the "truth".. You cannot discuss the "truth", either you believe or you are a traitor. It is aspired that there is only one way of seeing the world, one faith, one law or one norm. Any alternative is unacceptable.

3. Evil is in others

Integrist movements consider that any vision alien to their way of thinking is a danger to the social order.

In the case of Catholicism, the only way to protect society from itself was the regeneration of the Church as the regulator of collective behavior. Secularization, that is, the passage from the religious sphere to the civil sphere, was the decadence of society.

4. Static attitude

It assumes an attitude contrary to any change or opening of thought.. That is, the acceptance of outside ideas endangers one's own and, for this reason, the system must be closed and static in time.

Many fundamentalist movements look to the past as an ideal vision of what is a perfect world according to their ideals, while the future is perceived as dangerous. In Catholicism it is Europe before the French Revolution, in Islam it would be before the intrusion of Western freedoms, or, in the case of the more identitarian Catalan independentism, the Middle Ages.

5. Rejection of reason

There is no room for any kind of conciliation between what is understood as its truth and error.. Either it is argued between rationalism or it is argued with identity, be it Catholic, Muslim, Protestant or of any kind.

Reason is, according to the fundamentalist point of view, a secondary dimension of the human being. It is considered that reason by itself is not capable of giving full meaning to man's existence. The "truth" is possessed beyond all rationality.

6. Use of apocalyptic language

It is very common for fundamentalist movements to resort to apocalyptic expressions, regardless of how religious they are.It is very common for fundamentalist movements to resort to expressions with an apocalyptic air, regardless of how religious the particular fundamentalism is. In the case of Catholicism, it is very common to treat liberalism as heresy, as a synonym for the rottenness of Western culture and the cause of God's wrath.

In the most ethnicist fundamentalisms, such as Serbian nationalism during the Yugoslav wars or that manifested by some xenophobic Spanish and pan-Catalanist currents, the idea of any cultural crossbreeding or tolerance of other languages being spoken is seen as the end of one's own culture, the end of "us" because of "them".

Bibliographical references:

• Arboleda-Martínez, M. (1929) El integrismo. Una masonería, Madrid.
• Aretin, K. (1970). The Papacy and the modern world, Madrid.
• Colldeforns, F. (1912) Datos para la historia del partido integrista, Barcelona.
• Urigüen, B (1985) Origen y evolución de la derecha española: el neocatolicismo, CSIC, Madrid.
• Velasco, F. (1995). Aproximación al fundamentalismo político católico actual, IgVi 178-179.