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1 1 introduction Redefining Male Piety and Fundamentalism As a result of and in response to the challenges of modernity, male piety is now being reconsidered and reconstructed in the fundamentalist world. Piety has always been at the heart of religion and is expressed in a variety of ways: through abstinence and mourning, with a selective self-disciplined faithfulness, or via sexual renunciation or zealous attachment , all of which are ways of preparing the body to receive the spirit of God (Brown 1988, 68). Piety also is at the center of modern religiosity, especially as performed by fundamentalist groups. The encounter between religion and modernity, however, raises questions about the unique nature of piety in the context of modern religious experience. How is it shaped, institutionalized, or transformed? Students of fundamentalism usually describe models of piety as monolithic , especially the strict fundamentalist forms of men’s piety, which are usually regarded as holding power and thus as being static. Piety is often portrayed in the scholarly literature as a collection of religious practices used to protect and maintain the group’s boundaries (Almond, Appleby, and Sivan 2003; eisenstadt 2000; Marty and Appleby 1991). Throughout this book, i argue that piety is not a fixed model, that instead it is always shifting and constantly being revised, reinterpreted, and contested by the members of the fundamentalist group. to my surprise, while analyzing piety , i found that those who are seen as the strictest and most prestigious models of piety are often the ones who hold the most powerful positions in the community, who are most likely to resist accepted forms of piety and to try to change its nature. How is it, i wondered, that members of a fundamentalist elite would want to undermine their own position of superiority? while refracting various images of the religious persona, the characteristics of this piety—its configuration, power, and defiant nature—also reveal the possibilities of changing the structure of religious society and its politics. 2 Redefining Male Piety and Fundamentalism in the fundamentalist world, piety is composed mainly of devotion and self-restraint. The presence of these qualities in a person, either a man or a woman, leads the devotee to try to reclaim those spaces that have been or are in danger of being secularized and modernized. Underlying this pietistic activity is the assumption that the world has entered a final period of moral, religious, and ethical decline and that the secular world, always a source of danger, is now a greater threat than ever. in the fundamentalist view, piety, with its mastering body regime, is the only force capable of changing or restraining the secular and heretical nature of the world and thus perhaps of ensuring its future, if not present , redemption. Fundamentalist leaders also use piety as an ideological motive to convince members to become active, albeit with almost no visible rewards. indeed, piety is a political tool, used by fundamentalist authorities to control the enclave and its boundaries, as well as members’ relations with the state, politics, and civil society (Almond, Appleby, and Sivan 2003, 17; Sprinzak 1993). in order to persuade people to join and work for the group, the moral ideology must be all-embracing, implemented in all spheres of its members’ lives by creating a politics that persuades them that they are part of the “chosen.” This ideology defines devotees as elected by God, chosen to fulfill his missions on earth, for which all others are too frail, pitiful, and wretched. The “outside” is thereby polluted and demonized, whereas the “inside” is constantly purified by the sacred work of pious men and women (Harding 2000). The concept of piety in contemporary fundamentalism blends the traditional features of devotion, asceticism, and awe (see valantasis 1995) with the latest applications of communication , technology, science, and consumerism and with postmodern notions of the representation of the self. Sociologists studying fundamentalism contend that fundamentalist groups consist of educated, text-based, intellectual elite men, who are accepted in their communities as virtuosos of the canon (Antoun 2001, 3; riesebrodt 1993, 9). These men transmit ideas to the new generations in special institutions, and their duty is to use piety as a defense against the outer world. in sum, piety is a set of techniques used to constitute a model of the docile devotee, usually a man, to regulate members’ bodies, to form restrictions, and to enforce rules. Power and status are protected by these valorized devotees who are constantly performing, defending the...

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