Rod, thanks for taking the time to read my articles on Christian Fundamentalism and to comment on them (see Rod Heggy’s comments, “Fundamentalism: Is It a Name or a Slur?”). Christian Fundamentalism in America history is a rich field of study, rooted in events which took place a century ago and which continue to reverberate in many significant ways in both the churches and the politics of modern culture.

In the three brief articles I have written so far, I have touched on some of the key points of that history. Article 1 provides a brief account of the original Fundamentalist Movement; Article 2 describes the relationship of Fundamentalism to Premillennialism; and Article 3 describes its relationship to Prohibition. I have outlined at least four subsequent articles, covering the relationship of Fundamentalism to racism and the Ku Klux Klan; the role of anti-intellectualism in Fundamentalist history; what emerged as the predominant tenet of Fundamentalists after 1930: separatism; and explaining what “new evangelicalism” is.

Rod, the questions you raise about my first three articles give me a welcome opportunity to fill in a few blanks. I think the best way for me to explain some of the issues you ask about is to address them in the form of Q & A.

(1) DID THE FUNDAMENTALIST MOVEMENT EVER EXIST?

Rod, you write that you are “not so sure ‘fundamentalism’ existed.” There is certainly no question among historians or theologians that the Fundamentalist Movement existed and continues to exist, both in the U.S. and in other countries. That is simply a matter of history.

To quote the scholar you referenced in your comment, Larry Eskridge of Wheaton College:

Fundamentalism was a movement that arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries within American Protestantism reacting against “modernist” theology and biblical criticism as well as changes in the nation’s cultural and social scene. Taking its name from The Fundamentals (1910-1915), a twelve-volume set of essays designed to combat Liberal theology, the movement grew by leaps and bounds after World War I.

Most historians define the time period of the original Fundamentalist Movement as approximately 1880-1930. The movement was emerging by the late 1800s in direct response to the three forces I described in my first article: higher criticism, evolution, and the social gospel. It was not until the early 1900s that this growing movement gelled and gave itself a name: Fundamentalism.

By the time of the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, fundamentalism was a clearly defined movement on the American religious and political scene. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State in the Wilson administration, a three-time presidential candidate himself, and a Presbyterian preacher from Nebraska, was a well-known fundamentalist spokesman. Bryan was contracted by the World Christian Fundamentalists Organization to go to Tennessee and assist in the prosecution of teacher Scopes. Defense attorney Clarence Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert witness on fundamentalist views about evolution and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Darrow’s questioning of Bryan became so pointed that Bryan complained that his purpose was “ridiculing every Christian who believes in the Bible.” Darrow responded, “We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States.”

The Scopes trial was an international event, covered on the front pages of the New York Times and other newspapers around the world. H.L. Mencken, the cynical secularist newspaper columnist (“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind”), went to Tennessee to cover the trial, and provided the world a very lopsided report of what transpired. The effect of the trial was a strong reaction against fundamentalism and the rapid decline of the movement. Thus, most historians see the Monkey Trial as marking the end of the original phase of Christian fundamentalism in America.

Those with an interest in learning more about this movement of profound importance in American history might be interested in these books:

• Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George Marsden, professor of history at Notre Dame. Mardsen’s book includes Ch. 1: “The Protestant Crisis and the Rise of Fundamentalism: 1870-1930.”

• Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925, also by George Marsden.

• Fundamentalism, by Fisher Humphreys, professor of theology at Beeson Divinity School, including a chapter titled “The Original Fundamentalism.”

An accurate and helpful summary of Protestant Fundamentalism is offered on Catholic.com’s Catholic Answers page:

The history of Fundamentalism may be viewed as having three main phases. The first lasted a generation, from the 1890s to the Scopes “Monkey Trial” of 1925. In this period, Fundamentalism emerged as a reaction to liberalizing trends in American Protestantism; it broke off, but never completely, from Evangelicalism, of which it may be considered one wing. In its second phase, it passed from public view, but never actually disappeared or even lost ground. Finally, Fundamentalism came to the nation’s attention again around 1970, and it has enjoyed considerable growth.

Did the movement exist? Yes, of course…and it continues to exist in its “third wave” today.

(2) DID ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM HAVE A CLEARLY DEFINED SYSTEM OF BELIEFS?

Rod, in the first sentence of your comments, you wrote, “I’m not so sure ‘fundamentalism’ existed, much less had an organized system of beliefs.”

Actually, the only thing that defined original fundamentalism was its system of beliefs, due to the fact that it arose specifically for the purpose of creating and defending such a system of beliefs. The original fundamentalists arose in many parts of the U.S. as well as in other countries, and came from a variety of denominations. The one thing that united them was the fundamental beliefs they held in common.

The most popular delineation of those original fundamentals was the “Five Points of Fundamentalism.” I listed these beliefs in the first article of this series. The Five Points were adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1910, as members of that denomination had its own debate of traditional vs. modern theology. The original Presbyterian “Five Fundamentals” were:
1) Divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures
2) Christ’s virgin birth
3) Christ’s substitutionary atonement
4) Christ’s bodily resurrection
5) Christ’s miracles

(An excellent article on the Five Fundamentals is available here).

A much more detailed elaboration of the views of fundamentalists was hammered out in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, a series of 94 essays published from 1910 to 1915, written by 64 American and British Protestant theologians. Lyman Stewart, an oil tycoon, distributed three million copies of those essays throughout the world to propagate the fundamentalist cause.

However, most fundamentalists were satisfied with the Five Fundamentals as an easy explanation of what distinguished their thinking. As others duplicated the original list of Five Fundamentals, two changes were adopted by most fundamentalists: Point 2 was expanded to include Christ’s deity, and Point 5 was substituted with belief in the imminent, premillennial Second Coming of Christ.

(3) DID THE ORIGINAL FUNDAMENTALIST MOVEMENT HAVE AN IDENTIFIABLE MEMBERSHIP?

Rod, you write, “I am sure it never had an identifiable membership.” Well, you are right, Rod, that there was no central bureaucracy that maintained an official roll of fundamentalists. But the membership was identifiable, because those who subscribed to the Five Fundamentals were eager to identify themselves as such. Obviously, the 64 theologians who wrote The Fundamentals were so identified, as well as thousands of churches and preachers and millions of church members who happily proclaimed their fundamentalism.

As the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches explains on the history page of its website:

Significantly, neither the five points nor The Fundamentals were distinctively Presbyterian. In fact, their appeal crossed over familiar denominational lines. People who identified themselves with any of a variety of traditions, as diverse as Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Roman Catholics, could heartily affirm every one of the five points. But there were also persons in each of these traditions who were concerned about the fundamentals. By the close of the 1920s, the labels “fundamentalist” and “modernist” carried greater meaning for classifying an individual Christian than denominational labels such as Methodist, Episcopalian, or Presbyterian. Many who called themselves “fundamentalists” sensed a deeper kinship with fellow fundamentalists in other communions than with non-fundamentalists within their own.

Rod, I will answer other questions raised in your comments in a second Q&A post.