All monotheistic religions contain a return-to-the-source revolutionary impulse

Evidence

A major tendency within this massive web of derivations from the Koran (most of which have had whole institutions, in some cases societies, built out of them) is what Rodinson has called “a return to the source.” This means the impulse radically to get at the pristine spirit of things Islamic, and it is this impulse which Rodinson likens to a “permanent revolution” within Islam. What he does not say, however, is that all of the monotheistic religions and most ideological movements have this impulse within them; whether Islam is more consistently revolutionary in this regard than the others is very difficult to tell. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Maxine Rodinson’s ‘return to the source’ — parallels the Protestant sola scriptura impulse and secular ideologies’ nostalgic restorationism.