ABSTRACT
The globalising world is a fruitful context for the development of fundamentalisms, challenging as it does so many local assumptions and affiliations, and creating uncertainty and threat for many (see Chapter 1). National or regional cultures, likewise, can provide the backdrop of civil religion from which fundamentalisms may emerge (Chapter 2). But to explain properly the growth, development, and historical course of fundamentalisms, we have to construe them as social movements, which all arise in response to their local religious and political contexts. Those changing contexts, and the effectiveness of fundamentalisms in shaping them and reacting to them, will determine their success or failure. This chapter owes a special debt to the Fundamentalism Project, the findings of which are summarised by Almond et al. (2003).
