1. In the first place, it is a word that combines the vaguest conceptual meaning with the strongest emotional flavour. ‘Fundamentalist’ has long been a term of ecclesiastical abuse, a theological swear-word; and the important thing about a swear-word, of course, is not what it means but the feelings it expresses. It seems as discourteous as it is confusing to refer to Evangelicals as ‘Fundamentalists’ and so invoke against them all the contemptuous overtones that have gathered round the title. ‘Give