The religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all today undergoing a transformation known generically as ‘fundamentalist’. Although this term is impossible any longer to define precisely, and although there are obvious differences between the movements to which the label is attached, numerous common features, including the original defining feature of fundamentalism – namely the idea of the inerrancy of a sacred text – remain. Together, these considerations justify an interpretation of contemporary religious transformations in a common framework of analysis, especially when account is taken of their global character.
