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[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Religious Studies – III. Systematic Theology – IV. Social Sciences – V. Practical Theology I. Terminology The term fundamentalism was used originally as a self-description by a coalition of conservative Protestant groups that emerged in the 1870s in the USA. In 1919 this coalition united to form the World's Christian Fundamentals Association. The first written attestation of the term was in the title of a series published in the USA between 1909 and 1915 entitled The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth. Citing the verbal inspiration an…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Terminology. Like the equivalent German term Aberglaube, the word superstition is pejorative in tone and so is inherently critical and polemical: to speak of superstition as a perverted belief implies that the speaker is doing so from the perspective of correct belief or knowledge. 2. Semantic history. The normative, judgmental character of the term shaped its semantic history. In ancient Rome, superstitio was used to describe an exaggerated religious anxiety, just as Greek δεισιδαιμονία/ deisidaimonía meant anxious servility toward …