Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Origin of Fundamentalism

Here is some of what I have discovered while studying the origins of fundamentalism:

The movement of fundamentalism was born in the early twentieth century, and it defended several core doctrines:
1. The inerrancy of the Bible
2. The virgin birth of Christ
3. Christ's substitutionary atonement
4. Christ's bodily resurrection
5. The authenticity of Christ's miracles.

Here is the "Doctrinal Deliverance" of 1910, which spells out the original 5 fundamentals of the faith:

http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/deliverance.html

Some articles which explain fundamentalism and the fundamentalist-modernist controversy:

http://www.fpcnyc.org/fundamentalism.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Christianity

An online resource that includes the "The Fundamentals: A Testimony of the Truth" put together by R.A. Torrey:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6528/fundcont.htm

The controversial sermon given by Harry Fosdick entitled "Shall the Fundamentalist's Win?":

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5070/

A copy of "Shall Unbelief Win?", which was Clarence Edward MacArtney's response to Fosdick's sermon:

http://www.bju.edu/library/collections/fund_file/unbelief.html

I find this response by MacArtney especially intriguing, because MacArtney himself shied away from the term "fundamentalist", because already in 1922 the movement had begun to be known for more than the original 5 fundamentals of the faith. It had now added the "pre-millenial" imminent return of Christ.

Many denominations were pulled into the struggle along the way, but the debate probably raged fiercest amidst Presbyterians and Baptists. Here is an article on how Fundamentalism took over among the Southern Baptists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBC_Conservative_Resurgence/Fundamentalist_Takeover

Fundamentalism as a movement has come a long way from its original roots. The questions that beg to be answered are: "Does the label "fundamentalist" even resemble what it meant when the movement first began? And if not should it be abandoned?
That is one of the reasons this blog was created - to explore and discover answers to these questions.

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