“Mania of the Foundations”: Psychological Aspects of Modern Fundamentalism

The article deals with some psychological aspects of modern fundamentalism. In research literature this phenomenon is traditionally understood as a reaction to secularization, secularism and modernism. However, as illustrated in this article, today it is rather a response to pluralism and relativism in search of “meanings” and “foundations” of being in the context of worldview uncertainty/ “new boundlessness” (J. Habermas). Due to this background and new tasks modern fundamentalism is substantially transformed. It does no longer emphasize the returning to the “foundations” of religion: sacred texts, theological basis of the doctrine (orthodoxy) or to the religious and civilizational foundations of unity. It desires restoration or a new creation of the “proper”, taken on faith, understanding of the reality after the relativization. Therefore it may not refer only to the religious movements but also to the secular ideologies. This new quality of the modern fundamentalism allows to interpret/understand it metaphorically as the “mania of the foundations”, which is an additional optics and a theoretical and methodological toolkit for studying religious fundamentalism in the context of transformation of religion in general.