The new book 'The Radical Redemption Model. Terrorist Beliefs and Narratives' by Beatrice de Graaf with Oxford University Press was published last week.
It is a mixed method study, based on fieldwork (interviews in the Netherlands and Indonesia), historical analysis, insights from social psychology and from religious studies, and contributes a new approach in the field of extremism and terrorism studies. Often enough, when looking for motives for extremism and terrorism, reference is made to the "three Rs" (Louise Richardson): Revenge, Fame and Reaction. Beatrice has added a fourth R to this triad: the R of Radical Redemption. Based on Lorne Dawson's psychological concept of the "redemptive self" and Arie Kruglanski's ideas about "the search for meaning," Beatrice has developed a narrative approach that revolves around the concept of redemption. This is a core extremist belief that functions as a moderator in processes of radicalization and triggers specific forms of orthopraxy (a combination of beliefs and behaviors).
For the book, click here.
