Page 283 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1584 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Further Reading discrete and/or formerly separate traditions. Most studies
Armstrong, K. (2000). The battle for God. New York: Knopf. of syncretism focus on the blending of religion and
Antoun, R.T., & Hegland, M. E. (Eds.). (1987). Religious resurgence: Con-
temporary cases in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Syracuse, NY: myths from different cultures. Viewed positively, syn-
Syracuse University Press. cretism seeks underlying unity in what appears to be mul-
Bjorkman, J.W. (Ed.). (1986). Fundamentalism, revivalists, and violence tiplicity and diversity. It is common in many aspects of
in South Asia. Riverdale, MD: Riverdale Company.
Caplan, L. (Ed.). (1984). Studies in religious fundamentalism. Albany: society and culture, including language, literature, music,
State University of New York Press. the arts, technology, politics, social organization and
Dollar, G.W. (1973). A history of fundamentalism in America. Greenville,
SC: Bob Jones University Press. kinship, and economics. Robert D. Baird asserted that the
Falwell, J. (Ed.). (1981). The fundamentalist phenomenon:The resurgence term syncretism contributes little to our understanding of
of conservative Christianity. New York: Doubleday.
Hodgson, M. (1979). The venture of Islam: Conscience and history in a world religions since what it seeks to describe is nearly
world civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. universal. He suggested that the term “syncretism” should
Juergensmeyer, M. (2000). Terror in the mind of God:The global rise of reli-
gious violence. Berkeley: University of California Press. be replaced by the term “synthesis.” Other scholars—
Kepel, G. (1994). The revenge of God. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. most notably anthropologist Richard Werbner—have
Lawrence, B. B. (1989). Defenders of God: The fundamentalist revolt suggested that anthropologists restrict their use of the
against the modern age. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Lustig, I. S. (1989). For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in term to the study of religions. Werbner has since
Israeli. New York: Council on Foreign Relations. rescinded his position. Still other social scientists—
Marsden, G. M. (1980). Fundamentalism and American culture:The shap-
ing of twentieth-century evangelicalism, 1870–1925. New York: notably Peter Beyer and Jonathan Friedman—have sug-
Oxford University Press. gested that the term syncretism may prove extremely use-
Marty, M. E., & Appleby, R. S. (Eds.). (1991) Fundamentalisms observed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ful for understanding many aspects of culture and society,
Marty, M. E., & Appleby, R. S. (Eds.). (1993). Fundamentalisms and soci- including social organization, material culture, and pro-
ety. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Marty, M. E., & Appleby, R. S. (Eds.). (1993). Fundamentalisms and the cesses of localization and globalization.
state. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Viewed negatively, syncretism is a contentious concept
Marty, M. E., & Appleby, R. S. (Eds.). (1994). Accounting for fundamen- that has undergone many transformations. To religious
talisms. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Marty, M. E., & Appleby, R. S. (Eds.). (1995). Fundamentalisms compre- leaders, syncretism often implies impurity and/or con-
hended. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. tamination and is associated with—but is not identical to
Piscatori, J. P. (1991). Islamic fundamentalisms and the Gulf crisis. Chicago:
Fundamentalism Project, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. —“eclecticism.” It is unlikely that any contemporary
Sandeen, E. (1970). The roots of fundamentalism. Chicago: University of scholar or theologian would argue that processes of syn-
Chicago Press.
Sivan, E. (1985) Radical Islam: Medieval theology and modern politics. cretism do not exist. Disagreements center on the word
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. itself and on the history of its applications.
Sprinzak, E. (1986). Gush Emunim:The politics of Zionist fundamentalism
in Israel. New York: American Jewish Committee.
Watt, W. M. (1988). Islamic fundamentalism and modernity. London: Classical Greek and Roman
Routledge. Concepts of Syncretism
The Ancient Greek prefix syn- means “with” and the
word krasis means “mixture.” Thus, the term synkrasis
meant “a mixture or compound.” The Greek words
Religious synkretismos and synkretizein do not appear in classical
literature until the time of Plutarch (c. 46–after 119 CE).
Syncretism Plutarch utilized a political meaning of the term in an

essay entitled “On Brotherly Love” (Peri Philadelphias),
yncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate—and which appeared as a chapter in his Moralia. In searching
Ssometimes opposed—beliefs and practices. It repre- for the origin for the word “syncretism,” Plutarch claimed
sents a blending of schools of thought and is often asso- to have found an example of syncretism in the Cretans
ciated with establishing analogies between two or more who reconciled their differences and came together in an