Malise Ruthven "Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford Very short Introduction)

"Fundamentalism" is often translated into Japanese as "genri-shugi", which literally means "principle-ism". Anyone who would not converse with those who do not share his belief is deemed "genri-shugisya" or "principle-ist". So "genri-shugi" has a broader meaning than "fundamentalism". We can talk about "democracy-genri-shugi" or "open-source-genri-shugi".

Well, here "fundamentalism" is a strictly religious term, has nothing to do with above mentioned dogmatisms or technical analysis. Sects deemed "fundamentalists" exist in many religions and they are all somewhat alike. The author's approach is religious sociology, and fairly easy to follow. A lot of fascinating insights are there. This is a short book, but contains too much interesting thinking for me to summarize here.

ファンダメンタリズムというのはテクニカル分析の反対ではなくて、日本語ではたいてい「原理主義」と訳される。日本語訳がこの訳を避ける意味が分からないが、日本語の「原理主義」だと少し広すぎるのかもしれない。今ではイスラム教こそが原理主義の最たるものみたくなってるけど、基本は合衆国のプロテスタントだ。正直なところ、平均的な日本人としては「宗教は怖いなあ」くらいの感じだけど、世界的な潮流としては、原理主義は伸びているんだよな。世俗化、脱神話化が進むはずの現代社会で、なぜそんなことになるのか等の考察がこの本では繰り広げられる。鋭い社会学的考察が満載で簡単には紹介できない。