Fundamentalism

Brief history A number of evangelicals in the 19th century prepared the way for the movement. American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) and British preacher and father of dispensionalism John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) among others propounded ideas and themes carried into fundamentalist Christianity. There is no single founder of fundamentalism. The term fundamentalist, in the context of this article, derives from a series of (originally) twelve volumes entitled The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth. Among this publication's 94 essays, 27 of them objected to higher criticism of the Bible, by far the largest number addressing any one topic. The essays were written by 64 British and American conservative Protestant theologians between 1910 and 1915. Using a $250,000 grant from Lyman Stewart, the head of the Union Oil Company of California, about three million sets of these books were distributed to English-speaking Protestant church workers throughout the world. Important early Christian fundamentalists included Baptist pastor William Bell Riley, the founder and president of the World Christian Fundamentals Association, who was instrumental in calling lawyer and three-time Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to act as that organization's counsel in the famous Scopes Trial. Moody Bible Institute had mainstream appeal, through its presidents R.A. Torrey and James M. Gray. The views of theologian Cyrus I. Scofield represented fundamentalism's antagonism to figurative interpretation, especially as it was used by fundamentalism's liberal opponents to deny basic elements of the Christian faith, such as the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection of Christ, and it was through his Scofield Reference Bible that dispensationalism gradually gained strong adherence among fundamentalists. The rise of dispensationalism is an important development distinct from the roots of the movement. In particular, dispensationalism played no part in the Old-time religion, as typified by the likes of southern Methodist revivalist Samuel Porter Jones, an elder associate of Bob Jones, Sr., founder of Bob Jones University, who later adopted dispensationalism. B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen were key players in the fundamentalism-modernist controversy but wrote against dispensationalism from the standpoint of the Princeton theology, which many regard as the intellectual roots of the movement before it came under the influence of dispensationalism. As the movement developed, premillennialism, dispensationalism, and separatism began to overwhelmingly characterize the most popular leaders, which also had an effect on the way that evangelicals as a whole were perceived by outside observers. Dispensationalism's literal approach to the Scriptures was increasingly seen as a main protection against the gradual degradation to theological modernism. The original formulation of American fundamentalist beliefs can be traced to the Niagara Bible Conference (1878–1897) and, in 1910, to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which distilled these into what became known as the "five fundamentals": Inerrancy of the Scriptures The virgin birth and the deity of Jesus The doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God's grace and human faith The bodily resurrection of Jesus The authenticity of Christ's miracles (or, alternatively, his premillennial second coming) In particular, fundamentalists reject the documentary hypothesis—the theory held by higher biblical criticism that the Pentateuch was composed and shaped by many people over the centuries. Fundamentalists assert that Moses was the primary author of the first five books of the Old Testament. Some fundamentalists, on the other hand, may be willing to consider alternative authorship only where the Biblical text does not specify an author, insisting that books in which the author is identified must have been written by that author. Fundamentalists differ from Pentecostals in their strong insistence upon "correct" doctrine and often advocate separatism (which often also divides fundamentalists from each other) as opposed to the experiential emphasis of Pentecostals. Fundamentalists also criticize evangelicals for a lack of concern for doctrinal purity and for a lack of discernment in ecumenical endeavors in working co-operatively with other Christians of differing doctrinal views, even though some fundamentalists had been accused by their critics for doing the same (esp. embracing doctrines such as dispensationalism, King James Onlyism, the rapture, etc. that critics argue have no biblical basis). American evangelist Billy Graham came from a fundamentalist background, but many Christian fundamentalists repudiate him today because of his choice, early in his ministry (1950s), to co-operate with other Christians. He represents a movement that arose within fundamentalism, but has increasingly become distinct from it, known as Neo-evangelicalism or New Evangelicalism (a term coined by Harold J. Ockenga, the "Father of New Evangelicalism"). No individual or institution speaks for all of Christian fundamentalism, which is a religious orientation, rather than an organized movement. Drawing on their belief in an inerrant Bible and dispensational-literal hermeneutic, many fundamentalists adhere to young earth creationism and universal flood geology and ardently oppose alternate approaches such as old earth creationism and non-theistic evolution, commonly known as Darwinism. Consequently, some fundamentalists have been active in the debate over teaching multiple viewpoints of the origin of humans in science classrooms of public schools in the United States. Additionally, fundamentalists have aligned themselves with the Christian Right, advocating prayer in public school and Christian messages in other public forums, such as displaying the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in public spaces. Their failure to achieve their goals in the public schools has prompted some to take up homeschooling for religious reasons. Because fundamentalism began as a reaction to views coming out of the academic community, some fundamentalists have become anti-intellectual to the point of looking down on those with higher education from secular institutions, though this is certainly not true of all. As an example of this, some point to what they call the King-James-Only Movement, referring to fundamentalists who speak strongly in favor of the King James Version of the Bible and reject both modern translations and more recently discovered Bible manuscripts because, for instance, those manuscripts do not contain a reference to the Trinity in 1 John 5:7 and the scholars who produced the newer translations omit the Trinitarian part of the verse, which they believe to be corrupted  - along with many other evidences of corruption, they allege. In contrast, many other conservative Christians believe that a high view of the Bible's authority leaves them free to consider old earth creationism, or even theistic evolution. Fundamentalists are often criticized by fellow Christians, for attaching spiritual significance to things which are indifferent in themselves, such as old-fashioned standards of clothing, hairstyles, and recreations. The charge of legalism is frequently heard, when cultural scruples are perceived as being elevated to principles of godly living or defacto requirements for recognition as a Christian. Additionally, other Evangelicals usually adopt modern translations of the Bible on the basis, first, that they are in vernacular and therefore understood more accurately by laymen than the antiquated English of the King James Version; and second, that the new versions incorporate recently discovered manuscripts, which some scholars have used to reconstruct what they believe to be a more accurate version of the Bible than was available to the translators of the King James Bible.