Fundamentalism is vulnerable to criticism from a Newtonian worldview. It shares that worldview absolutely with atheists and the two ideologies therefore feed off each other. They fight over an impoverished 'God of the Gaps', narrowly conceived as a puppet to anyone's ideological agenda.
Both make an idol of belief; belief is what counts. You must believe our particular view of scripture or science or disbelieve it. The problem is that despite commonly being described as believers, Christians are not a people of belief but a people of faith.
Faith is sure in adversity because it is not based upon belief but upon doubt. God has allowed God's people the privilege of doubt. Belief is built upon shifting sands because what we are called upon to believe is subject to change.
Doubt is the rock upon which faith is built; to hold onto faith despite our doubts means we are living by what is important. What is important? Love - obviously. God's special mission to the marginalised - of course.
How can faith be based upon doubt? The problem is we tend to think our religion is something in our heads; if we get our beliefs in line, everything else will follow. But this is not as easy as it sounds because we are prone to self deception. Those who would argue religion is an affair of the heart have a similar problem, we can be infinitely self-deceptive.
Faith is what we do with our whole selves and pre-eminently our feet. Our faith is seen by others through where our feet are. Wherever the feet are, the head and the heart will follow. It is also to do with our eyes when we see the world from God's perspective, usually in glimpses, and our hands which can be open to heal or bless or give. When we do these things our heads and our hearts are forced to follow.
Many Christians believe faith and works are in opposition. In truth they are the same thing. What we do does not earn God's love but it is faith in action and deepens our trust in a God we cannot understand.
It is strange so many Christians seem to think that because scripture is fixed for all time, so are its interpretations. A single reading of scripture locks it into past, into the prejudices of a certain group of people. A recognition that readings of scripture, and all the traditions that are based upon them, are contextual allows us to live according to faith in every age.
Ecumenists are faced with a wide range of traditions from different contexts, adapting to the changing contexts of today. This is why structural unity is so difficult; to reconcile traditions in that way is to lose something of value from each tradition. Fundamental to this is our cosmology, the context shared by all Christians. There is no scriptural dictate as to what we might believe as there are several cosmologies in the Bible. The task for ecumenists is to work across traditions to agree a common cosmology. This will not only bring the traditions closer but open up the Christian faith to a new generation empowered to believe.
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