Peter J.S. Duncan,Russian Messianism: Third Rome,Revolution, Communism and After

Studies in East European Thought -     

Dichotomic Structure and the Possibility of the Third Mode in Muslim Theology

The method of dichotomization (division/classification process) has been used to formalize our maps of reality and to make predictions based on those maps. This method indicates the structure and nature of information processing within the human brain. Whether in forms of opposition or complementarity, dichotomies have performed an important function in Muslim theology as a method of producing concept, knowledge and thought. The method of dichotomization has contributed to the formation of a certain epistemology, ontology and methaphysic in Muslim theology. By using the dialectical method based on dichotomies, Muslim theologians have created a third term, or mode, or value, different from dialogical Aristotelian logic, thus overcoming the dichotomies and reaching a synthesis.     

The mettle of moral fundamentalism: a reply to Robert Baker

This article is a reply to Robert Baker's attempt to rebut moral fundamentalism, while grounding international bioethics in a form of contractarianism. Baker is mistaken in several of his interpretations of the alleged moral fundamentalism and findings of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. He also misunderstands moral fundamentalism generally and wrongly categorizes it as morally bankrupt. His negotiated contract model is, in the final analysis, itself a form of the moral fundamentalism he declares bankrupt.     

On perceived conflicts between religion and science: the role of fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism

Volunteers from fundamentalist churches and a Psychology of Religion class (N = 77) completed Altemeyer and Hunsberger's 1992 Fundamentalism Scale, Altemeyer's 1988 Right-wing Authoritarianism Scale, and answered questions about science, religion, and their relationship. Scores on the scales were highly positively correlated. Neither orientation correlated with seeing science as improving life, and both correlated with being troubled by newer developments in science such as organ transplants or genetic engineering. Partial correlations showed that both orientations favored religious beliefs over scientific data when there was a perceived conflict. Three subscales of right-wing authoritarianism clarified how authoritarianism correlated with other measures, thereby supporting a multidimensional conceptualization of right-wing authoritarianism.     

Religious revivalism in nineteenth-century Norway and twentieth-century Egypt: A critique of fundamentalism studies

The aim of this article is to challenge the idea that the current Islamist movements could fruitfully be considered to belong to a global category of fundamentalism. For this purpose it is necessary to criticize the most sophisticated attempts that have been made to argue for the existence of such a general phenomenon, with Islamism as one of its most prominent constituent parts.     

Right-wing authoritarianism,fundamentalism and prejudice revisited: Removing suppression and statistical artefact

This paper challenges a finding reported by several researchers, that fundamentalism could be associated with a reduction in racial prejudice after controlling for authoritarianism (RWA). We argue that the presence of fundamentalism in the construct definition of the conventionalism cluster of RWA leads to higher associations between fundamentalism and conventionalism than with other aspects of RWA. This creates a statistical artefact that distorts the results of multiple regression analyses that include both fundamentalism and RWA as independent variables. To test this hypothesis, 299 participants completed measures of prejudice as well as fundamentalism and the three RWA clusters (conventionalism, authoritarian aggression, and submission). In regression analyses using fundamentalism and the combined RWA scale we replicate previous findings that when RWA is controlled, higher fundamentalism leads to lower prejudice. After removing the overlapping method variance in the scales, this pattern is eliminated and the commonly observed positive relationship between fundamentalism and prejudice is found. We describe the statistical artefact, its antecedents, and its theoretical implications, and outline how investigations in this important area should proceed.     

The threat of nuclear war: Some responses

The possibility of nuclear holocaust threatens the very existence of the world community. Biologists, earth scientists, educators, lawyers, philosophers, physicists, physicians, and social scientists have addressed the problem from their special perspectives, and have had substantial impact on the public. Behavior analysts, however, have not as a whole contributed a great deal to the goal of preventing nuclear catastrophe. We argue that the threat of nuclear war is primarily a behavioral problem, and present an analysis of that problem. In addition, we address the difficulty of implementing behavioral interventions that would contribute to the survival of the World.     

Messianism and nationalism: Liberal optimism vs. orthodox anxiety

Confronting modernity, nineteenth century Jewish historians offered four different interpretations of the Jewish century that began in 1840: the liberal, the Orthodox, the nationalist, and the messianic. Exponents of the Wissenschaft school associated the year 5600 with the gospel of emancipation and the winds of cultural openness in western Europe; Orthodox historians viewed these change with suspicion and believed that the new century would usher in a period of twilight. Nationalist and the messianic interpreters saw the year 5600 as marking the start of the age of the redemption of Israel in its land: whether because the first buds of a Jewish national movement had appeared or because contemporary events were identified as heralds of the messianic redemption in the traditional sense. Unique was Rabbi Judah Alkalai, who sought to link traditional messianism with the liberal, optimistic interpretation of current events. He viewed progress, the Haskalah, and emancipation as positive signs of the messianic age and indicted traditionalists. Their rejectionist attitude toward modernity, he said, was delaying redemption. Today, narrowing differences between the traditionalist reaction to modernity and the religious nationalism have buried the memory of Alkalai's bold attempt.