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To approach our general theme of fundamentalism, I have decided to invoke for you a certain kind of materialism that I consider to be my own, the materialism of Enlightenment philosophy and of Darwinism; but also the need for the divine within the human, as a counterpoint to man's capacity for crime, for violence or abjection. I will speak of the gods of Ancient Greece, and of heroes, that is to say those demi-gods capable of giving their life for the polis, accepting the ‘good death’, like Achilles, for example. Finally, I will also touch on monotheism, the three religions of the Book, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, of which I am only familiar with the first two.
I will start by telling you about my personal journey through classical culture and the two kinds of monotheism that have left their mark on me.
Christians consider me to be a Christian since I have been baptised, received communion and been brought up within the Catholic religion. I do mean religion rather than faith, although I have to say that I cannot define myself as a ‘Christian’. I am not really such: I have no faith; I haven't even lost it since I have never possessed it. Moreover, subjectively, I do not feel myself to be a Christian.
But, on the other hand, I am also not at all certain of being Jewish although, in the eyes of many Jews, I would appear a Jew, not by adhering to Judaism, but through ‘identity’ or ‘belonging’. Whether I like it or not, I am part of that very particular people, the ‘Godless Jews’, to whom