Oftentimes in research papers concerning fundamentalism two features of fundamentalism appear that function at the same time as a negative evaluation. Fundamentalism is said to be militant and raises absolute claims. But in the face of the fact that even democratic states use founding and conserving violence, reflection on the themes violence and absolute claims is needed, if you want to mark-off yourself from fundamentalism on the one side, and on the other side, if you do not want to follow

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... e principle "might is right" or fall victim to relativism. For reflection this work will focus on Kierkegaard, Derrida and H. Putnam. All three reject fundamentalistic violence, but they are not in principle against violence. Under certain circumstances they even think it's legitimate. Hence, one question in this paper is, whether and how they manage to differ themeselves from fundamentalism. A second question, on which the main focus will be concentrated, is: How do Kierkegaard, Derrida and Putnam avoid absolutist and relativistic positions? And which role religion does play in here? This leads back to the question of violence, because the ethical question concerning violence will not stay untouched by it.