I wouldn't call the Puritans nuts. I do find their beliefs pretty alien, but they were not all that outlandish for the 17th century. And one can argue that in some ways, their interpretation of Christianity was more internally consistent than that of the established churches.

It is only possible to have Christian fundamentalism after Darwin. Before that, it simply didn't exist. This is not to say that you cannot trace the fundies back to the Puritans that came from Europe. However "nutty" the Puritans may have been, the nuttiness of the fundies is of an order of magnitude greater. The reason is that before the rise of modern science, it wasn't all that nutty to take the Bible literally.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns