ABSTRACT
How do fundamentalisms actually work? What brings them their continuing success? Leadership plays an important role. Today's leaders act out a symbolic and performative function, and fundamentalist leaders are no exception. They personify the ideal believer, providing a prototypical model. But they also have to meet the needs of their followers, initiating necessary strategic changes. This constitutes a balancing act between the maintenance of the ideal and adaptation to external change. Examples of successful and failed leaders are cited. Leadership in fundamentalisms is always attributed to men, in a patriarchal reaction against modernity.
