Fanaticism is a diseased state, blind faith in some idea and imposing it on others. Fanaticism has been and remains today a complex and controversial socio-historical phenomenon that has always aroused keen interest among philosophers, theologians, politicians, cultural figures, and ordinary people. The religious fanaticism of one person can do more harm than the efforts of twenty criminals united together.

Introduction

Fanaticism is a diseased state, blind faith in some idea and imposing it on others. Fanaticism has been and remains today a complex and controversial socio-historical phenomenon that has always aroused keen interest among philosophers, theologians, politicians, cultural figures, and ordinary people. In diverse forms and varieties, fanaticism manifests itself in almost all spheres of the life of society and man.

Religious fanaticism as historically the first form of fanaticism occupies a special place among its other varieties. It is potentially contained in any religion, can develop under certain historical conditions, and can be used by various religious and political groups as a means to achieve their socio-political goals.

At its core, religious fanaticism is a special interpretation of the religious worldview and a special warehouse of religious feelings. The increased danger of religious fanaticism lies in the fact that it can be used as a factor in manipulating the consciousness and behavior of believers.

1. General part

Religious fanaticism is an extreme degree of enthusiasm for religious activity with the creation of a cult out of it, worship and dissolution in a group of like-minded people, this is the ideological basis of extremist activity.

A religious fanatical ideology is a perverted fantastic program for overcoming an acute conflict between the interests of a certain religious group and its social opponents, an inadequate form of resolving the intolerable, historical social position of a certain group of believers.

Religious fanaticism turns into extremism when there are no other "holding" forms of identification:

National, civil, tribal, property, clan, corporate.

"Pure religiosity" requires the purification of the external world, this is how religious extremism is born.

Dependent individuals who are unable to take responsibility for their lives and feel confident only in a group led by a strong leader become members of religious fanatical groups. The more they lose their individuality, the more they need to identify with the leader and the group in order to gain a sense of omnipotence. Such individuals can easily become a victim of a psychological leader conducting mass trainings.

Financial pyramids such as MMM, organized crime, totalitarian state regimes, international mafia clans and religious and terrorist associations have an even larger impact.

Religious fanatical groups are most easily attracted to those engaged in intense spiritual search, striving for the "Absolute Truth", often understood as simple and unambiguous answers to complex questions.

2. Types of religious fanaticism

Religious fanaticism is found among believers of many religions and provokes them into conflicts both with representatives of their own and with followers of other faiths. The main types of fanaticism are:

1) racial;

2) nationalistic (chauvinism);

3) political (fascism, totalitarianism);

4) religious (religious intolerance);

5) ritual - adherence, reaching superstition, to the external form of worship and customs;

5) puritanism - the severity of morals and rules in everyday life, turned into an end in itself;

6) proselytism - attraction to religion in intrusive, insinuating and crafty ways;

7) religious expansion - the desire for world domination of any religion with the use of insidious and violent means.

World history, unfortunately, is full of cases of religious hatred, which pushed states and peoples into religious wars (civil and international) and inhuman persecutions. But the religious history of peoples is also full of heresies, schisms, persecutions and excommunications, which was most clearly expressed in the Islamization of the peoples conquered by the Arabs and Turks, the inquisition of the Western Church, the iconoclasm of several Byzantine emperors, etc.

3. Causes of religious fanaticism

The main causes of religious fanaticism are:

1) political: politicians, inciting religious fanaticism among the people, have long exploited the power of religion and use it either to strengthen their power, or as a pretext for expansion;

2) psychological: psychological studies show that fanaticism is a manifestation of mental ill-being, a refuge for neurotic personalities who try to hide from themselves and others, resorting to fanaticism, their internal emotional conflict and the aggressiveness, inferiority complex and selfishness resulting from it;

3) religious: the erection of fanaticism into the rule of some religions (for example, in Islam, the spread of faith by "fire and sword") or the exaggerated exactingness of believers towards their neighbors, which comes from a misunderstanding of the commandments.

4. Consequences of religious fanaticism

The consequences of religious fanaticism for people, society and religions themselves are very diverse. Religious bigotry:

1) creates in the believer the illusion of spiritual self-sufficiency and guaranteed salvation, lulling his conscience and instilling in him a Pharisaic consciousness;

2) distorts faith, because it deprives it of a precious quality - love for one's neighbor, without which faith is dead;

3) suffocates the freedom of the individual by coercion, persecution, threats, punishments, violence;

4) pushes its victims to destroy other human lives and civilizations in religious wars;

5) arouses antipathy among religiously indifferent people or those of little faith, inclining them to atheism, since they are convinced that religions, instead of ennobling a person, kindle hatred in him and induce bloody conflicts.

5. Religious fanatics

The main sign of a religious fanatic, which distinguishes him from a very religious person, is the belief that only through their favorite organization and teaching can one come to God, and those who disagree with this belief go straight to hell.

A religious fanatic is arrogant, intolerant, aggressive towards other spiritual paths and schools. Such a person cannot be called spiritual. Often such people are completely unreceptive not only to wisdom, but even to logic, to facts and common sense. They may know by heart thick religious works, occupy a high position in their organization and at the same time have no elementary understanding of the basics of spiritual philosophy. Religious fanatics can be divided into two groups:

1) Religious fans for the idea (their church is the coolest, their teaching is the most advanced, only they receive real revelations from God, only they truly worship, only they have the most correct understanding of Scripture, and so on);

2) Religious fans of their religious leader, who often becomes for them an apostle, a prophet, and a father of all times and peoples.

The religious fanatic derives pleasure not from his activity, but from the very fact of the existence of an ideal or idea. He dissolves in his predilection, wants to experience passions and emotions. He is not self-sufficient, that's why he creates an idol for himself - from an idea or some strong and bright personality. He finds something paramount for himself outside of himself.

Imitating a bright religious leader, a religious fan seems to become a part of this successful personality, he reflects the radiance of a person who has achieved something, ascended to a pedestal. The religious fanatic transfers responsibility for himself into the hands of his idol and subordinates his whole self to someone else's idea. He is vain, but unsure of his strengths and capabilities. It is easier for him to live by the reflected light of his idea or his ideal.

A religious fanatic has a need for like-minded people and like-minded people. He is looking for his own fans, among whom he feels like among his own, speaks the same language with them, they “savor” their idea or their hero and understand each other perfectly.

The environment of a religious fanatic is a kind of mental association of people, electrified by a common feeling, which grows in the circle of its own and can reach unknown values.

Religious fanaticism is aimed at destroying someone else's culture, religion, value system. Considering his idea to be the most correct and his leader to be the most "advanced", the religious fanatic aggressively subverts other ideas and the authority of other leaders. This is done as proof of love for their leader. Because only his idol is true and his church is the best! Often religious fanaticism is a teenage disease. Many outgrow it, but not all. In adolescence, a person begins to reject former idols and authorities. Neither parents nor teachers can satisfy his spiritual and moral aspirations anymore. They need to feel like part of a group.

The religious fan himself, by and large, is of no interest. Religious fanaticism impoverishes a person as a person. Religious fanatics are easy to manipulate and control.

The stronger religious fanaticism, the more a person is drawn into what is happening. Some unfamiliar energy begins to overwhelm him. In this strange state, he disconnects from himself, begins to sincerely rejoice, grieve, and wait for a miracle along with everyone else.

However, one should not confuse the concepts of religious fanaticism and dogmatism. The religious dogmatist scrupulously adheres to his beliefs, traditions and faith. He, like religious fanatics, may admire a religious leader and often considers representatives of other religions as heretics.

However, the goal of a religious dogmatist is to follow his faith, he enjoys his own activities, he remains whole for himself. Admiration for someone does not go beyond the reasonable for a dogmatist, does not impoverish his personality, but only complements it.

Conclusion

Religious fanaticism is a disease that brings grief and disaster through delusion, insanity, inability to hear and understand others. And they are infected with this disease through human passions and predilections, developed to one degree or another in every person.

Therefore, to guard oneself in passions, to struggle with them, to be a strict self-criticist - this is the way to protect oneself from religious fanaticism. It's all about us, and we need to start only with ourselves, but not with protection from others.

Fanaticism as a personality trait is a tendency to blindly, unconsciously, without recognizing any arguments, to follow certain ideas and beliefs without alternative; show extreme intolerance towards any other worldviews .

If you want to comprehend the truth, go-oh-oh-he to those rocks, - the Teacher showed in the distance with his hand. - And check what is stronger - a stone or your heads. A few days later, the disciples returned from their exhausting journey. To those who came with a blank expression, the Master said angrily: - Leave, you do not obey me. You have not reached the rocks. For those who came enlightened, the Teacher only smiled, keeping silent. For those whose foreheads were bloodied and their eyes burned with fanatical fire, he asked quietly: - Did I really ask you about this?

The human mind performs a number of functions - understanding the truth, the ability to remember, err and doubt. Doubt is the conscience of the mind, forcing it once again to return to the understanding of a particular issue, to analyze it from all sides. The search for truth is fraught with doubt. Her favorites know for sure that everything needs to be questioned before giving the go-ahead for consent, while not making an exception for themselves. When information enters the mind of an impressionable, emotional, insecure person that greatly excites his mind and feelings, and the function of doubt is atrophied in the mind, he blindly accepts it. In such an algorithm, fanaticism is born, as insanity, madness, exceptional enthusiasm, stupid gullibility and blind worship. Like any mind neutralizer, fanaticism steadily leads a person to degradation.

The fanatic is an invalid of the mind, whose function of doubt is atrophied, and, due to this circumstance, he blindly follows any idea that stirs and agitates his impressionable, emotional mind. The trouble with fanaticism lies in the absence of an inquisitive mind and a doubting mind, in laziness and unwillingness to seek the truth. He was told: “The Caucasians are to blame for all your misfortunes,” the thought excited the inexperienced mind with its simplicity and clarity, and he believed without analyzing, without checking, without doubting. The fanatic says: “Let the horse think - it has a big head. I have nothing to think about and everything is clear.” This is how laziness and unwillingness to seek the truth work when the function of the mind is amputated for doubt. The fanatic is to be pitied, for he is as blind as an indabat, and becomes a victim of this disease of his. Andabates in ancient Rome were called gladiators, whose face was covered with a shield with narrow slots, which is why the warrior saw almost nothing. Desperately brandishing his sword, the andabat tried to make up for this shortcoming, but most often hit the air, while the enemy who crept up threw a net and inflicted a mortal wound on him.

So, the algorithm of fanaticism is simple: the receipt of incoming information (irritant) - impressionable, emotional perception without a shadow of doubt in its truth, gullibility - acceptance as a guide to action - aggravation of the reaction - looping. In the last two stages, fanaticism receives an energy charge. A person repeatedly passes the same idea through the mind, only in different interpretations, a chain reaction occurs when the brain keeps returning to the same thought. Hitler was incapable of not talking about the Jews for more than ten minutes. An insecure person, armed with fanaticism, for example, having created an idol for himself, finds in him a kind of compensation for his insecurities.

The fanatic is constantly under the pressure of stress. In a normal person, the mind can skip tens of thousands of thoughts in a day. "Chatter of the mind" is accompanied by a free flight of thoughts. A fanatic is a person of one dominant thought. He is forced by the circumstances of life to switch for a second from the dominant thought to the current needs of the day, but he does this mechanically, half asleep, without losing contact with the fanatical idea. No wonder the word "fanaticism" comes from the Latin fanaticus - "frantic." And then, in turn, from fanum - “temple”. In ancient Rome, fanatics were called temple priests, who showed special religious zeal.

Fanaticism should not be confused with religiosity. It's not about religion, it's about how a person believes. The fanatic, unlike the believer, says: "My God is better" and is aggressive towards representatives of other spiritual traditions. Religion does not teach him hatred of non-believers. If it teaches, then it is not a religion, but a sect. Remember the lieutenant from Dostoevsky's "Demons": he broke all the icons, put out all the candles and immediately hung out portraits of atheist philosophers in the red corner and ... reverently lit the candles again.

Paradoxically, the fanatic doesn't care what cult he serves. There would be a cult, but there will be fanatics. A fan gets a “high” not from an idol, but from serving him. That is, an idol is a screen of fanaticism, he really appreciates not Presley, Marilyn Monroe or Alla Pugacheva, but his “disinterested” service to them. In other words, fanaticism is the self-service of an impressionable mind with pleasure from the process of serving an idol or some idea.

Fanaticism is eternally dissatisfied and dissatisfied with the outer world. Confessing the principle: "We should not bend under the changing world, let it bend under us," he, with youthful maximalism, seeks to shake up the political situation in his country. It is no coincidence that the "dark fellow traveler" of fanaticism awakens during periods of transition for the country. This is a golden time for rabid fanatics, when you can destroy a public building to the ground, and others will rebuild. Fanaticism is always destruction, grief, tears and blood. This is a contagious disease for distrusted and dehumanized individuals, catching them on the hook of purposefulness and sincerity. Oscar Wilde rightly remarked: "The most unforgivable thing about a fanatic is his sincerity." The die-hard youth looks enviously at the sparkle in the eyes of a fanatic, he is captivated by conviction and sacrifice, desperate determination and romance of his life. In an effort to imitate the idol, he replenishes the army of fanatics.

The fanatic's inner world is painted black and white. No halftones. If the enemy does not surrender, he is destroyed. Those who are not with us are against us. Fanaticism needs an enemy like a drug addict needs a dose. As Nikolai Berdyaev wrote, “fanaticism always divides the world ... into two hostile camps. This is a military division. Fanaticism does not allow the coexistence of different ideas and worldviews. There is only the enemy. This terrible simplification facilitates the struggle ... Like a jealous man, he sees only one thing everywhere: only betrayal, only betrayal, only violation of fidelity to one - he is suspicious and suspicious, everywhere he opens conspiracies against his favorite idea.

It must be understood that a fanatic, having a mind incapable of doubt, experiences a state of childish helplessness. He needs a “mom”, and even better, along with a dad and powerful brothers who will “show” everyone if someone plans to offend him. When there is no "family" support, an insecure person with low self-esteem is worried about his defenselessness in the surrounding hostile world. So he reaches under the wing of the flock, trying to climb under the roof of the powerful of this world. Mikhail Veller writes: “When the exuberant energy of youth is concentrated at one point, a terrible penetrating force develops. Fanatics, sometimes reaching peaks, are obtained precisely from children who are deprived of something by nature: timid, weak, ugly, poor - all their desire for self-affirmation takes a single direction in which they can surpass others, compensating for their inferiority. In the accursed days of coups, the fanatic experiences, according to E. Erickson, a keen desire “to succumb to the totalitarian and authoritarian illusion of integrity, set in advance, with one leader at the head of a single party, with one ideology that gives a simple explanation for all nature and history, with one unconditional an enemy that must be destroyed by one centralized punitive body - and with the constant direction of the impotent fury accumulating in this state against an external enemy.

Fanaticism and love are as far apart as good and evil. Love prefers unity, secrecy, the merging of kindred souls. The third superfluous and other peeping to her to anything. Fanaticism is a herd feeling, it “loves” an idol collectively and publicly. The main thing is to get lost in the caudle, to assert oneself due to the mass character, and the idol and ideas are up to the lampada. It is no coincidence that all sorts of scum stick to football fans, which does not even know the rules of the game. There is a fan anecdote: “The kid tells an experienced fan that he and his homies decided to organize a fan group. "And how many of you?" the fan asks. - "Twenty. Only half of football to the light bulb!

Fanaticism is the exaltation of an abstract opinion, divorced from life, an undoubting mind, to the detriment and destruction of the concrete lives of innocent people. Political and religious fanatics neglect the lives of those around them. And this is already the most serious problem that humanity has faced in the face of "ideological" terrorists. Whatever they call themselves, the essence is the same - fanatics. Exploring the psychology of fanatics on the example of the murderer of the German Foreign Minister W. Rethenau (this incident occurred in 1922) Kern, E. Fromm cites the following statement of his: “I would not be able to bear it if the defeated fatherland, split into pieces, was again reborn into something great … We do not need “the happiness of the people”. We are fighting to make him come to terms with his fate... To the question of how he, a Kaiser officer, could survive the day of the revolution, he replies: “I did not survive it. I, as honor commanded me, put a bullet in my forehead on November 9, 1918. I am dead, what remains alive in me is not me. I no longer know my "I" from this day ... I do what I have to. Since I had to die, I die every day. Everything that I do is the result of one single powerful will: I serve it, I am completely devoted to it. This will wants destruction and I destroy ... and if this will leaves me, I will fall and be trampled, I know it. E. Fromm notes: “We see in Kern's reasoning a pronounced masochism, which makes him an obedient instrument of higher power. But the most interesting thing in this regard is the all-consuming power of hatred and the thirst for destruction, he serves these idols not for life, but for death. … And when we analyze the psychic reality of such people, we are convinced that they were destroyers… They not only hated their enemies, they hated life itself. This can be seen both in Kern's statement and in the story of Solomon (one of Kern's associates - V.I., M.K.) about his feelings in prison, about his reaction to people and to nature itself. He was completely incapable of a positive reaction to any living being."

Petr Kovalev 2013

I have always been sure that a person with my intellect cannot become a fanatic. When they call me a fanatic for going to church twice instead of once a week, you think: I wish I had more such “fanaticism”.

And here on one Orthodox forum they touched on the topic of fanaticism, and someone gave an original interpretation by an unknown priest. According to him, a fanatic is one who thinks: "Everyone will perish, I alone will be saved." But the Orthodox think differently: “The commandments are for me alone, and the Lord will have mercy on the rest.”

If so, I have noticeable signs of bigotry. Walking down the street, I see only the dying. God! I thank You that I am not like other people (Luke 18:10). I meet a good person and immediately belittle him in my eyes: can he be good if he rejects Christ? There are not so many Orthodox people around. Yes, and among them, many scare me away with the non-canonicity of their Orthodoxy.

There are fewer and fewer friends left. What can they tell me wise or new?

The only meaning is if someone convicts. One said not so long ago: “You have recently become a terribly disgusting type. It became impossible to communicate with you." He probably meant that feeling of superiority with which I smash his Buddhist-Hindu arguments and declare that the truth is only in Orthodoxy. There are very few such honest people. And as for this friend - I can not agree that Hinduism is just another path to truth, equivalent to Christianity? He is a good guy, but where will he go with such reasoning?

So, I'm a fanatic.

And as soon as I discovered fanaticism in myself, several events happened to me almost simultaneously.

First. I responded to a notice posted in our church calling for blood donation for little patients in a children's hospital. Donated blood. The idea came up to write an article about this initiative group that puts up advertisements, writes about children in newspapers, maintains a website, receives hundreds of donor calls and, as a result, uninterruptedly provides the hematology department, where children are sick with leukemia and they need blood every day. The example in our merciless society is all the more instructive because, as always, it is set by the Orthodox.

No sooner said than done. I came to the hematology department, talked to the mothers, took pictures of their children. In the face of death, everyone becomes better - both children and their mothers living at the department, and you, even looking at all this through the lens. Many people seemed almost holy to me. Including those about whom I decided to write. All young, selfless. It can be seen that they have become members of a single family, in which all mothers are like sisters, and the children, therefore, are nephews, including donors.

And God blessed their work with obvious miracles. First, He independently invested a desire to help the hospital to two girls who worked in the same commercial firm - Tanya and Lena. Secondly, He gave these girls, who had never written, an amazing gift of words and helped them to break through literally all large-circulation Moscow publications with essays about children, burning in strength. In those same ones - yellow, commercial, which, they say, cannot be brought into the temple.

But here's the surprise. It turned out that Tanya is an atheist, Lena is a Catholic. Announcements in churches are hung by their Orthodox assistant Sasha, but these two "non-Orthodox" are still the locomotive of a good deed.

What, according to the holy fathers, should be the motives of good deeds? Either in fulfillment of the will of God, or to cultivate mercy in oneself. And these girls have pity for children and a desire to eliminate the injustice of fate towards them. Pity is wonderful, but as far as justice is concerned, it is, of course, a mistake, you cannot accuse God of injustice and imagine that you are more merciful than Him. I did not hesitate to tell my heroines about this. The interview turned into an argument. It seemed that he spoke correctly, but his heart was getting heavier ...

Second. Wanting to get rid of some of the Orthodox books I had read (according to the principle “On You, God, what is not good for me”), I found Victor through the Internet in Riga, who is engaged in missionary work with prisoners. Handed over books, communication continued by e-mail. True, Victor's tone seemed to me somehow a little enthusiastic, not Orthodox. I dug deeper. It turned out that he was Orthodox, and in the Church for almost as many years as I have been on earth. But with deviations. Instead of relying in everything on the holy fathers, he puts the Old Testament above all else on the basis of a revelation personally given to him by God. You understand - a clear charm, which I soon announced to him. And since he resisted, did not want to accept my hints, I became more and more irreconcilable with each letter. And although he persisted, he remained with me patient and benevolent. And after all, in the end, I only gave away the unnecessary, and he spends time and effort helping those who need it so much. Correspondence became more and more difficult for conscience ...

An email dispute with Tanya, who ended up with her parents in America, took place at the same time. Every morning I turned on the computer, read the misleading letters of these two people and sent them my admonitions, trying to seem as tolerant as possible. (I hope you catch the sad irony of my words.) But the question that God knocked on my heart became more and more obvious. Why does my conscience convict me when I am outwardly right?

The site turned out - there is no more Orthodox. The creation was blessed by the hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, after the creation, blessings came from several priests, who really liked it. We even rejected in advance news about church life as vain things, distracting from prayer and struggle with passions. And, as befits an Orthodox site, it included a section on “Will the Gentiles Be Saved?” Of course, with a negative answer, confirmed by the holy fathers.

God's providence regarding my comrades, employees in the work on the site, was also confirmed by how well they worked and what kind of people they turned out to be. Olga, with whom she has to communicate more often, with her humility, always ready to help and joyful state of mind, is like an Orthodox nun, moreover, she has already succeeded. I don’t even know what makes me more happy - that the site was a success or that thanks to it I managed to get to know such people. Having no hesitation in Olga's religion, I congratulated her on church holidays, she me. But then one day, after two years of working together, congratulating her on the holiday, I suddenly heard: “You know, I'm not Orthodox. You have the right to remove me from work on the site.

I was hit on the head like a brick. The most pleasant thing is to find out how someone took a step towards salvation, and the hardest thing is to see that someone, as you thought, going to salvation, is actually going the other way. In order not to be even more upset, I did not even begin to specify what her faith was. But, listening to himself, he answered that it was not for me to dispute God's providence. She accepted my answer gratefully: "Thank you for sharing God's grace with me." And everything flowed as before, only I stopped congratulating her on our holidays.

And so, having begun to understand my fanaticism, I decided to ask her: “Who are you, Olga?” Turned out she was a Muslim! She and Valery are Russians, but they came to Moscow from Tashkent. Olga herself considers her involvement in this work a miracle. She had her first Ramadan in her life. And in Ramadan, you need to pay zakat (something like our tithing). There was no money. In this case, it is supposed to do something good for free. Olga asked God to send her some useful deed. And so her heart responded to the call to work on an Orthodox website. And at the first acquaintance with the texts of the site, she found the answer to an important question that worried her. Which I accepted as the voice of God.

There are not so many Russian Catholics and Muslims in Moscow. And if the Lord so often introduces me to them and shows me how good they can be, then He wants to tell me something. He wants to help me heal from the arrogance, from the bigotry that prevent me from loving.

May my comrades in misfortune, fanatics, not misunderstand me. I'm not going to praise someone else's faith, and even more so atheism. I just doubt more and more that I can judge people by belonging to one or another faith. If Tatyana, Elena and Olga have more love in their hearts than I do, which of us is more pleasing to Christ? In addition, “the end is the crown,” and it is not known what will happen to each of us in the end. It is much easier for a good person to become a Christian than it is for an evil person to become good,” someone said.

Once upon a time, the thought occurred to me as to why one becomes a fanatic. A person gradually realizes that he is no better than others, maybe even worse. But instead of coming to terms with this and starting to work on himself, he suddenly begins to extol such a quality that you don’t need to work on. And this is how you stand out from the crowd. For example, a nationalist begins to boast of his nationality. This is a psychological explanation. On the spiritual side: Satan, introducing into the human mind the idea of ​​the special significance of some human quality, kills two birds with one stone: he sows hatred between people and deflects them from repentance.

Our religiosity, belonging to a certain church really has a special meaning. But the trouble is that I forget: my belonging to Orthodoxy is determined not only by attending services and participating in the sacraments, but also by keeping the commandments. First of all - the commandments about love and the commandment protecting it about non-judgment.

How to belittle yourself in your eyes without belittling your faith? I would like to receive an answer from church authorities who know the answer to such questions.

So far I have decided the following for myself: since it is impossible not to measure people, let their love be my measure.

Emotionally self-sufficient, self-confident, positive-minded people live in harmony with the world around them. They do not need to defend their rightness, no matter what it may concern. Calmly interacting with others, they carry their point of view with dignity, without feeling the need for someone to share it without fail. However, another category of people is represented in the world, opposite to the one described above and called "fanatics".

Fanaticism... What is it?

However, not every manifestation of excessive interest in something can characterize a person as a fanatic. And vice versa.

Fanaticism is an excessive passion for any idea or person, expressed in the dedication to the object of worship of a significant part of one's life and its spiritual content, as well as in the implacable upholding of one's own view and imposing it on other people, often in an aggressive form. This phenomenon can be related to anything - morality, a famous person, a political trend, etc. However, religious fanaticism acts as its most dangerous form.

Origins of religious fanaticism

Religious fanaticism is a commitment to a particular religion and its traditions, which is combined with an intolerant, often aggressive attitude towards those whose point of view is different. From the moment when humanity acquired its first religion, and to the present, one and the same trend has been observed - adherents of one or another spiritual movement sooner or later elevate its postulates to the rank of indisputable truth. And despite the fact that most religions carry very similar truths, the so-called fanatics not only remain faithful to them, they try to make them a monopoly and impose them on as many people as possible. World history knows a lot of examples of religious fanaticism, which include the Inquisition, the Crusades, and mass self-immolation in the name of the old faith ... Moreover, at different times, the attitude of society towards this phenomenon was very different. In the above examples, there is both religious fanaticism in the highest circles, and pinpoint resistance to dissent. In either case, any bias in beliefs and faith towards emotions and intransigence carries a serious threat to the well-being of individuals and the state as a whole.

Religious bigotry today

In our time, examples of religious fanaticism can be found in all mass religions. Although the image of the most aggressive religion was acquired by Islam in connection with a significant number of terrorist acts, from which dozens of countries have been shuddering for many years. Nevertheless, the influence of fanaticism can be quite destructive without violence. For example, fanatical parents can raise their child contrary to the modern canons of human development and socialization. There are cases when illiterate children grow up in modern families attending religious sects, because the leaders of the spiritual movement to which the child's parents are committed consider it wrong to teach female children to read and write. The Catholic Church has a sharply negative attitude towards abortion and protection from unwanted conception. And although society has gradually developed a fairly tolerant, and sometimes approving attitude towards abortion, abortion is still prohibited in some countries or their individual regions, which is also considered to be a manifestation of religious fanaticism. Sometimes the extreme intolerance of people does not harm anyone but themselves. For example, ardent Buddhists do not impose their faith on others, do not argue, do not prove right. Their fanaticism manifests itself mainly in deep concentration, numerous and prolonged spiritual practices, which sometimes drive people to madness, since the tests to which they subject themselves are often unthinkable.

Attitude towards the fanaticism of the Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church treats this phenomenon with condemnation and rejection. Fanaticism is a sin, according to Orthodox clergy. Lack of love for all people, spiritual death, idle talk without reasoning cannot be encouraged by the Orthodox. Fanatical parents who bring small children with them to the service and do not notice the child's fatigue, his lack of understanding and rejection of the situation, instill in him not love for the church, but fear, irritation, unwillingness to come there again.

Reasons for fanaticism

Fanaticism is a phenomenon that does not arise from scratch. Like any other deviation, it has causes that go back, as a rule, very deeply. Fanatic people are most often aggressive, embittered, do not understand and do not accept someone else's point of view. Sometimes they become part of a community, faithfully follow its dogmas and try to transfer their view of faith to the closest social circle. And there is another category of fanatics - leaders who not only share and follow a philosophy or religion that is attractive to them, but through bright, charismatic actions involve a large number of people in it, not limited to the circle of relatives and friends. And if the former are generally harmless carriers of annoying information, the latter pose an extremely serious threat to society.

Every day, dozens and hundreds of people are involved in the life of sects of unknown origin, turn away from their families, spend huge sums of money to maintain and develop a congenial community, lose themselves in an effort to follow the postulates that have found a vivid response in their souls thanks to charisma, confidence and leader's oratory.

Ways to combat religious fanaticism

Life does not stand still, most of the states of the modern world are secular. Despite being very respectful, any power, as a rule, is not interested in extreme manifestations of religiosity. What measures are being taken in various countries to minimize the manifestation of fanaticism among believers? In some Asian countries, over the past twenty to twenty-five years, many bans have been introduced regarding the wearing of cult clothing for ordinary people who are not related to the priesthood. Sometimes such bans are caused not so much by the fight against violent fanatics as by security considerations. For example, a few years ago, France took the path of banning the wearing of hijabs. At the same time, this decision cost the country a lot, given the irreconcilable attitude of Muslims to clothing issues.

A lot of efforts aimed at combating religious fanaticism are being made in the field of education. They try to give children the opportunity to choose and protect their fragile consciousness from the onslaught of savvy religious fanatics. In many countries, the activities of certain organizations that have an ideology based on religion are prohibited by law.

national bigotry

No less terrible, destructive and ruthless is national fanaticism. This zealous worship of the exclusive superiority of this or that nation or race has speckled world history with many examples of bloody confrontations. One of the most striking manifestations of national fanaticism was Alfred Ploetz's idea of ​​dividing all people into superior and inferior races, which subsequently marked the beginning of World War II.

Another example is the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that consisted of a huge number of people who hated, deeply despised blacks.

The bitterness of the members of the KKK led to an unthinkable number of victims who died from the sophisticated cruelty of fanatics. Echoes of the activities of this organization are periodically heard at the present time.

The psychological nature of fanaticism

Fanaticism that develops on a large scale, as a rule, has reasons of a social or political nature. An extreme display of faith is always beneficial to someone other than the rabid adherents. But what makes a particular person such? Why does one become a fanatic, and the other, in spite of everything, continues to follow his life path, not reacting to someone else's opinion and religious dogma.

As a rule, the reasons for becoming a real fanatic are rooted in childhood. Most often, fanatics are people who from an early age are accustomed to living in fear and misunderstanding. Mistakes in education made by their parents, at a conscious age, turn into a desire to join a group and become part of it in order to feel safe and confident. However, a person cannot find peace just because there are people with similar views. He will continue to worry, worry, look for a threat in any manifestation of dissent, fight with convincing everyone and everything that his truth is the first. This is how fanaticism manifests itself. What does it mean? Anyone who thinks otherwise threatens his hard-won peace. Therefore, interaction with a fanatic is not so easy.

How to deal with manifestations of fanaticism in a loved one

Fanaticism... What is it? What to do if a person close to you is among the fanatics? Any manifestations of extreme intolerance and blind worship, whether it be selfless love for a star, or an aggressive desire to share one's faith with other people at all costs, are signs of an unhealthy psyche.

According to many researchers, fanaticism is a disease. Relatives and friends of such a person should seriously approach the solution of such problems. And if it is no longer possible to correct the mistakes made many years ago, then support, understanding, elimination of the causes for fears and anxieties, timely access to psychologists, motivation for self-development and strengthening of the psyche will help to overcome this phenomenon.

The main sign of obsessive adherence to the idea is considered intolerance towards other religions. Undisguised hatred and contempt for heterodoxy gives rise to aggression, which sometimes manifests itself in the most disgusting forms. By itself, a fanatic does not pose a great threat to society, but the association of such people in groups may sooner or later result in open clashes between representatives of different faiths. Mass fanaticism is also dangerous because not only the fanatics themselves, but also little-religious and non-religious groups of citizens will suffer from such actions.

The declassified archives in the case of the execution of the royal family revealed the deep roots of Jewish orthodox fanaticism. The ritual murder was committed on the eve of "Av 9" - the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's temple.

Another sign of religious fanaticism is orthodox religious fundamentalism, which does not accept anything new. The fanatic perceives his idea as an absolute truth, not subject to criticism in any of its manifestations. Even if the criticism is fair and justified, an ardent follower of a religious idea is not able to deal constructively with objections. Often, the fan considers her a personal insult and is able to bring the argument to a fight, in which he quickly enters into a state of passion. At the same time, realizing that he can be defeated, he perceives what is happening as his fight against evil, and is ready to either kill his opponent or accept "" death.

Fanatics like to be the first to label, loudly pronouncing: "", "sectarian", "", etc. Putting a person in an uncomfortable position, the main task of such a frenzied one is to make the opponent retreat and get confused. At the same time, the main goal is victory in a verbal or hand-to-hand combat, and not ideological questions from the series “whose god is more correct”.

Examples of religious fanaticism in history

Religious struggle in the ancient world was present on the territory of many modern countries. The most famous persecutions on religious grounds are the extermination of the followers of the religious reform of Akhenaten in Ancient Egypt, the persecution of Christians during the heyday of the Roman Empire.

But perhaps the most famous victim of dissent was Jesus Christ and almost all of his apostles. For their ideas and "heretical" sermons among the Jewish population, each of them accepted a terrible martyr's death.

Mass religious fanaticism in medieval Europe resulted in crusades, destroying foreign cultures, and "witch hunts". Entire generations of such fanatics saw paganism and dissent as a threat to their spiritual world and tried to physically exterminate everyone who did not fall under their true believer.

Giordano Bruno, Joan of Arc, Jan Hus and many others died at the hands of fanatics. Those scientists, thinkers, philosophers who could not be burned at the stake were forced to give up their ideas by force: Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus.

Bartholomew's Night is a terrible massacre of the Huguenots (French Protestants), provoked by the ardent Catholic Catherine de Medici in August 1572. According to some sources, more than 30,000 people died that day, all of them were branded with the word "heretic".

The reverse side of the medal was anti-religious fanaticism during the formation of Soviet power. He expressed himself in the fight against prejudice, the persecution of the church, religion and militant atheism. In fact, the same "witch hunt", just the other way around.

Religious fanaticism in the modern world

In the modern world, religious fanaticism is most often associated with the Islamic world - terrorism, jihad, Sharia courts, etc. In particular, the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in the United States, the massacre of Christians by Muslims in Indonesia in 2000, modern religious clashes in India, as well as individual terrorist attacks around the world are given as an example. However, very often, under the guise of religious fanaticism, certain political and financial forces actually operate, the goals of which are very far from Islam in particular and faith in general.