Separation and the Lack Thereof

The ultimate marker of the fundamentalist mindset, as described by Strozier et al. in their eponymous collection, is the “radical dualism” that permeates both the individual and group consciousness.  Certainly, the Manichean tendency of polarizing reality as good or evil is emblematic of how many fundamentalist movements – self-proclaimed and historical – have interacted with their world.  But what the essayists neglect to mention (thus far, at least) is just how prevalent dualism is in our world, and how deep it often runs; not only amongst fundamentalists of all stripes, but across all spheres of society and history.  Perhaps, in the apocalyptic scenario they diagnosed as having three distinct motivations, there lies a fourth, seemingly contradictory vein: the longing for unification of self and world, space and time, and God and his creation; the apocalypse as a bridge between subject and object.  To reconcile and be one with the whole of existence has forever been the heart-task of humanity.  Though the fundamentalist mindset relies on dualism to fill in the moral, spiritual, and psychological gaps that exist in the world as is, they look ahead to an existence free from all separation, united with their God.