Blood at the root

If you were talking to a group of particle physicists and mentioned the word ‘fundamentalism’, they would assume that you were referring to Isaac Newton (who kept his belief in alchemy a well-guarded secret). To stem-cell researchers fundamentalism would mean going back to Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of blood. Post-Darwinians wouldn’t pass the time of day with Creationists.

Over six millennia of civilisation, fundamentalism was not only not a dirty word; the concept was the plinth, the fundamental basis, the trunk of the tree on which a system of beliefs was built and from which other branches grew. Saul of Tarsus, post-Damascus, was accused of violating the fundamentals of Christ’s teaching, but it was St Paul, not Jesus nor the upside-down- crucified Peter, who established the Catholic Church as we know it today.

Marx turned Hegelian fundamentalism (dialectics) on its head and no one batted an eyelid. Communism, while it flourished, was a religion in all but name.