ABSTRACT
What is fundamentalism? In which different forms does it appear? What are the forces behind it? Such questions have been asked frequently, especially during the past decade or so, usually with Islamists in mind. We often forget, though, that the concept is far from a new one: fundamentalism as a term was born in the early twentieth century, originally referring to the Christian faith and, interestingly, even in the first part of the last century, there were scholars who aimed to explore the psychology of the fundamentalist.
