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Christian fundamentalism
'The Fundamentals' 1910–1915· Belief or practice· Judaism, Christianity & Islam
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
An early-1900s American Protestant movement defending core doctrines, above all an error-free Bible, against modern scholarship and science.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
From 1910 to 1915 two California oil businessmen, Lyman and Milton Stewart, paid for 'The Fundamentals', 90 essays mailed free to pastors and students, about 3 million copies in all. In 1920 Baptist editor Curtis Lee Laws coined 'fundamentalist' for those ready to fight for them: an inerrant Bible, the virgin birth, Jesus's atoning death, his bodily resurrection and real miracles. After losing control of major denominations in the 1920s, fundamentalists built their own colleges and radio ministries, re-entering politics in 1979.
Why it matters
It shaped American religion and politics for a century and gave the world a word now applied, often loosely, to strict movements in other faiths.
Sources and history
The Fundamentals volumes themselves; records of the 1920s denominational fights; the 1925 Scopes trial transcript; and histories such as George Marsden's 'Fundamentalism and American Culture' (1980).
Questions and debates
Scholars debate whether 'fundamentalism' fits movements in Islam, Hinduism or Judaism, or imports a Protestant category where it does not belong.
Connections (3)
▸Christian fundamentalism emerged within Evangelicalism and the Great AwakeningsHistorical record
The connection
Fundamentalism grew out of conservative American evangelicals: Princeton's doctrine of biblical inerrancy, end-times teaching and Bible conferences. After losing 1920s battles with modernists in Baptist and Presbyterian churches, many separated. In the 1940s and 1950s moderates such as Harold Ockenga and Billy Graham called themselves 'evangelicals' to distance themselves from fundamentalist separatism.
When and where
US, 1870s–1940s; Niagara Bible Conferences, J. Gresham Machen, Curtis Lee Laws; the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942.
Historical evidence
The Fundamentals volumes, denominational records, and histories by George Marsden and Joel Carpenter.
Questions and debates
Where to draw the line between fundamentalist and evangelical is debated, and many people now use both words loosely or as insults.
▸Christian fundamentalism rejected Darwin's On the Origin of SpeciesHistorical record
The connection
Some early 'Fundamentals' authors accepted an old earth, but by the 1920s fundamentalists led campaigns to ban teaching human evolution. Tennessee's 1925 law produced the Scopes trial, where William Jennings Bryan defended the Bible against Clarence Darrow. Later came young-earth creationism and intelligent design, both rejected by US courts as science teaching.
When and where
Dayton, Tennessee, July 1925; John Scopes, Bryan and Darrow; Whitcomb and Morris's 'The Genesis Flood' (1961).
Historical evidence
Trial transcripts, state laws, Supreme Court rulings of 1968 and 1987, and Gallup polls tracking creationist belief.
Questions and debates
Historians note the popular image from 'Inherit the Wind' distorts the trial; why nearly 4 in 10 Americans still hold creationist views is studied.
▸Christian fundamentalism pushed back against Historical-critical Bible scholarshipHistorical record
The connection
German critical scholarship, which treated the Bible as a human historical document with multiple sources, reached American seminaries by the 1890s. Fundamentalists answered with inerrancy, the doctrine that the Bible is without error in its original manuscripts, and with essays in The Fundamentals defending traditional authorship and miracles.
When and where
Princeton Seminary, 1881 inerrancy essay by Hodge and Warfield; Presbyterians suspended Charles Briggs for heresy, 1893; Machen's 'Christianity and Liberalism' (1923).
Historical evidence
The Fundamentals' own essays, heresy-trial records, and later statements such as the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978).
Questions and debates
Whether inerrancy is historic Christian teaching or largely a 19th-century response to criticism is debated by historians and theologians.