Reddit mentions of The Battle for God

Karen Armstrong did an excellent book on this called "The Battle for God":
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-Karen-Armstrong/dp/0345391691

Essentially, fundamentalism becomes predominant in very specific conditions, which are also guaranteed to cause anxiety and uncertainty.

There is no such thing as Dark Ages, you know. That terms is been used to describe an era after fall of Western Rome Empire where there is so little written recorded history of Europe, hence "Dark Ages".

And to show you how completely wrong you are, just read [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Battle-God-Karen-Armstrong/dp/0345391691) book. It is not as simply as you think. I've read two Karen Armstrong book to reach this conclusion. Go on. Read the book.

I would recommend Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God.

That is unfortunate. I think there are lessons to be learned from that comparison.

Karen Armstrong wrote a great book about fundamentalist movements in all three Abrahamic religions that is very helpful in understanding the similarities and causes. The title is "The Battle for God".

>Is there anyone on here who would genuinely identify as an Independent Fundamental Baptist, or Christian Fundamentalist that would be willing to talk about their perspective on how they view certain things?

I read Karen Armstrong's history of fundamentalism in various religions *The Battle for God where the origin of the phrase "fundamentalist" was first used to describe what we would today be called "Bible believing." So in that sense I am a fundamentalist. I would use the flair "fundamentalist" to slightly troll people and try to reappropriate the word which largely only exists as a slur today. But I thought it would mostly just get in the way. Even going by Evangelical has sometimes lead to people only seeing the title.

I'm pessimistic about how likely you are to read this, but I would highly recommend The Battle For God, by Karen Armstrong. She very skillfully traces the origins of modern day fundamentalist (and aggressive and violent) movements in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Her argument is, obviously, complex and nuanced. But one of the themes she mentions is that the fundamentalism we see today is a very modern approach to religion, and is a direct reaction to modernity. Ideas such as bringing about the end times rather than waiting for it, participating in earthly politics rather than separation and new interpretations of old ideas are all modern ideas, and came from modern sources.

Even if you disagree with her argument (tough to do, since that book is sourced like crazy), her book provides a valuable and informative look at the history of all those movements. In the end, she would probably say that the the vast majority of Islam is not what you are talking about, but the fundamentalist minority. And that fundamentalist minority IS the reform in the face of the modern world.