Christian fundamentalism

== History ==
The movement has its origins in 1878 in a meeting of the "Believers' Meeting for Bible Study" ([[Niagara Bible Conference]]) in the United States, where 14 fundamental beliefs were established by evangelical pastors.<ref>Gary J. Dorrien, ''The Remaking of Evangelical Theology'', Westminster John Knox Press, USA, 1998, p. 15</ref>

Fundamentalism draws from multiple traditions in British and American theologies during the 19th century.<ref>Sandeen (1970), ch 1</ref> According to authors Robert D. Woodberry and Christian S. Smith,
{{Blockquote | Following the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], tensions developed between Northern evangelical leaders over [[Darwinism]] and higher [[biblical criticism]]; Southerners remained unified in their opposition to both. ... Modernists attempted to update [[Christianity]] to match their view of science. They denied biblical miracles and argued that God manifests himself through the social evolution of society. Conservatives resisted these changes. These latent tensions rose to the surface after [[World War I]] in what came to be called the [[Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy|fundamentalist/modernist split]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1 =Woodberry|first1 =Robert D |last2= Smith |first2=Christian S.|year=1998|title=Fundamentalism et al: conservative Protestants in America |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |volume= 24|issue =1 |pages =25–56|via=AcademicOne File |doi=10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.25}}</ref>}}

However, the split does not mean that there were just two groups: modernists and fundamentalists. There were also people who considered themselves neo-evangelicals, separating themselves from the extreme components of fundamentalism. These neo-evangelicals also wanted to separate themselves from both the fundamentalist movement and the mainstream evangelical movement due to their anti-intellectual approaches.<ref name=":0" />

From 1910 until 1915, a series of essays titled ''[[The Fundamentals|The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth]]'' was published by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago.<ref>Randall Herbert Balmer, ''Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism: Revised and expanded edition'', Baylor University Press, USA, 2004, p. 278</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6528/fundcont.htm |title=''The Fundamentals A Testimony to the Truth'' |access-date=25 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030101082327/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/6528/fundcont.htm |archive-date=1 January 2003 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Northern Presbyterian Church (now [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America]]) influenced the movement with the definition of the [[Fundamentalist–modernist controversy#The Doctrinal Deliverance of 1910 (the Five Fundamentals)|five "fundamentals"]] in 1910, namely
# The [[Biblical inspiration|inspiration]] of the [[Bible]] by the [[Holy Spirit]] and the [[biblical inerrancy|inerrancy]] of Scripture as a result of this.
# The [[Virgin birth of Jesus|virgin birth]] of Christ.
# The belief that Christ's death was an [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] for sin.
# The bodily [[resurrection of Christ]].
# The historical reality of [[Miracles attributed to Jesus|Christ's miracles]].<ref>George M. Marsden, ''Fundamentalism and American Culture'', Oxford University Press, UK, 1980, p. 20</ref><ref>Luc Chartrand, ''La Bible au pied de la lettre, Le fondamentalisme questionné'', Mediaspaul, France, 1995, p. 20</ref><ref name="Sweeney-2005-165">{{cite book |last1=Sweeney |first1=Douglas A. |title=The American Evangelical Story: A History of the Movement |date=2005 |publisher=Baker Publishing Group |page=165 |isbn=978-0-8010-2658-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_-Ic_tFoTIC&dq=5+fundamentals+%22The+Five+Point+Deliverance%22&pg=PA165 |access-date=11 December 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Princeton Theological Seminary.jpg|thumb|Princeton Seminary in the 1800s]]
The [[Princeton theology]], which responded to [[higher criticism]] of the Bible by developing from the 1840s to 1920 the doctrine of inerrancy, was another influence in the movement. This doctrine, also called biblical inerrancy, stated that the Bible was divinely inspired, religiously authoritative, and without error.<ref>Marsden (1980), pp 109–118</ref><ref>Sandeen (1970) pp 103–31</ref> The [[Princeton Theological Seminary|Princeton Seminary]] professor of theology [[Charles Hodge]] insisted that the Bible was inerrant because God inspired or "breathed" his exact thoughts into the biblical writers (2 Timothy 3:16). Princeton theologians believed that the Bible should be read differently than any other historical document, and they also believed that Christian [[modernism]] and [[liberalism]] led people to [[Hell]] just like non-Christian religions did.<ref name="Kee 1998 484">{{cite book|last=Kee|first=Howard Clark|title=Christianity: A Social and Cultural History|year=1998|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|isbn=0-13-578071-3|pages=484|author2=Emily Albu |author2-link= Emily Albu |author3=Carter Lindberg |author4=J. William Frost |author5=Dana L. Robert }}</ref>

Biblical inerrancy was a particularly significant rallying point for fundamentalists.<ref>{{cite book| first=George M. |last=Marsden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uufvZyG-hjEC&pg=PA33 | title=Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism | page=118 | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8028-0870-7 }}</ref> This approach to the Bible is associated with [[Conservatism|conservative]] evangelical [[hermeneutics|hermeneutical]] approaches to Scripture, ranging from the [[historical-grammatical method]] to [[biblical literalism]].<ref>[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=97803346 ''Beyond Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy: Conservative Protestants and the Hermeneutic Interpretation of Scripture''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420055859/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o |date=20 April 2010 }}, John Bartkowski, Sociology of Religion, 57, 1996.</ref>

The [[Dallas Theological Seminary]], founded in 1924 in [[Dallas]], would have a considerable influence in the movement by training students who will establish various independent [[Bible College]]s and fundamentalist churches in the southern United States.<ref name="Samuel S. Hill 2006, p. 77">Samuel S. Hill, ''The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 1: Religion'', University of North Carolina Press, USA, 2006, p. 77</ref>

In the 1930s, fundamentalism was viewed by many as a "last gasp" vestige of something from the past<ref>{{cite book| last = Parent| first = Mark| author-link = Mark Parent| title = Spirit Scapes: Mapping the Spiritual & Scientific Terrain at the Dawn of the New Millennium| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=W1tfx6Y46s0C| year = 1998| publisher = Wood Lake Publishing Inc.| isbn = 978-1-77064-295-9| page = 161| quote = By the beginning of the 1930s [...] fundamentalism appeared to be in disarray everywhere. Scholarly studies sprang up which claimed that fundamentalism was the last gasp of a dying religious order that was quickly vanishing.}}</ref> but more recently,{{When?|date=March 2024}} scholars have shifted away from that view.<ref name="DOCA 1990" /><ref>{{cite book| last1 = Hankins| first1 = Barry| editor1-last = Harper| editor1-first = Keith| title = American Denominational History: Perspectives on the Past, Prospects for the Future| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qgwJeUn-GKkC| series = Religion & American Culture| volume = 68| year = 2008| publisher = University of Alabama Press| isbn = 978-0-8173-5512-8| page = 196| chapter = 'We're All Evangelicals Now': The Existential and Backward Historiography of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism| quote = [...] in 1970 [...] Ernest Shandeen's ''The Roots of Fundamentalism'' [...] shifted the interpretation away from the view that fundamentalism was a last-gasp attempt to preserve a dying way of life.}}</ref>

In the early 1940s, evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians began to part ways over whether to separate from modern culture (the fundamentalist approach) or engage with it.<ref name="split-beliefnet">{{cite web |title=The Fundamentalist-Evangelical Split |url=https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/2005/06/the-fundamentalist-evangelical-split.aspx |website=Beliefnet |access-date=13 December 2023}}</ref> An organization very much on the side of separation from modernity was the [[American Council of Christian Churches]], founded in 1941 by Rev. [[Carl McIntire]]. Another group "for conservative Christians who wanted to be culturally engaged" was the [[National Association of Evangelicals]] (NAE) founded in 1942, by [[Harold Ockenga]].<ref name="split-beliefnet"/>