Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

By Leslie J. Hoppe

Fundamentalism is a twentieth-century development within American evangelical Protestantism. Its most distinguishing feature is its militant opposition to modernist, liberal theology and the cultural change associated with it. In particular, fundamentalism opposes biblical criticism, the social gospel movement, and the secularization of social and political institutions.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, most American Protestants were evangelicals. As such, they accepted the atoning work of Jesus Christ for their salvation, professed complete confidence in the Bible, and sought to lead others to accept Jesus as their savior. Mass meetings called "revivals" were the practical means used to lead people to Christ.

1. Characteristics

Two characteristics of evangelical revivalism became hallmarks of fundamentalism: biblicism and religious individualism. Biblicism is the belief that the Bible alone is the believer's guide to faith and life. Essential to this belief is inerrancy, the doctrine that the Bible is free from any error, scientific, historical, or religious. Fundamentalism assumes that divine revelation could not come by way of a book that contained any errors. The Bible, therefore, must be inerrant. The fundamentalist doctrine of inerrancy was a response to historical criticism of the Bible that rejected the Bible as a source for the reconstruction of ancient Israel's history or the life of Jesus.

Fundamentalism was also a response to a profound spiritual and cultural crisis that many evangelicals experienced at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were certain that the dominant culture in America was openly turning away from God. What made this crisis even more acute for fundamentalists was their conviction that Christian denominations were cooperating in the death of Christian civilization. The fundamentalists spurned liberalism and modernism, which they saw as misguided attempts to adapt religious ideas to secular humanist values. In particular, fundamentalism rejected the social gospel movement that arose at this time.

Proponents of the social gospel wanted to enlist Christians in the transformation of society which would bring about the reign of God. Fundamentalists repudiated the identification of human progress with the coming of God's reign. The myth of human progress prevented people from seeing their true state before God. Fundamentalism also rejected the modernist assertions that the only test of truth was action and that faith in Christ was irrelevant except as an inspiration to moral action — more specifically, social action.

Fundamentalists are individualist, soul-saving evangelists. What they regard as crucial is the regenerating work of Christ that saves souls. Compared to this, the aims of the social gospel movement were inconsequential. The goal of every Christian is to lead people to Christ through witnessing to the power of salvation. Trying to reform society diverts believers' time and energies from confronting people with the gospel. In any case, this world is passing away. Why bother trying to reform it?

The theory of evolution appeared to provide a scientific basis for liberalism's belief in the myth of human progress. Also, fundamentalists saw the theory of evolution as contradicting biblical teaching in the Book of Genesis. Opposition to this theory became a symbol of the fundamentalist rejection of modernism and liberalism.

It is important to note that fundamentalism did not emerge as a rural, southern phenomenon. It was the result of philosophical and theological debates that occurred within mainline churches in major urban areas. The rejection of biblical criticism was made by conservative theological faculties of major universities. The conflict between the evangelicals and the modernists was played out as they contended for control of major Protestant denominations.

Fundamentalism lost the battle against evolution and, more importantly, the battle for control of the Protestant churches in America. Fundamentalists then developed their own educational institutions such as Bible colleges, publishing houses, and missionary boards. These were independent of mainline denominational control. Fundamentalists gathered in their own local congregations and developed a religious subculture with distinctive mores and social connections. They consciously separated themselves from the dominant religious and secular ethos that they deemed to be anti-Christian.

2. Principal Themes

Fundamentalism derived its name from a series of booklets called The Fundamentals written between 1910 and 1915. Conceived and financed by a wealthy layperson, these booklets were a compendium of conservative, evangelical beliefs. To ensure the widest possible distribution the booklets were sent free of charge to Protestant religious leaders throughout the English-speaking world.

The publication of The Fundamentals had little immediate impact. Neither theological journals nor popular religious periodicals gave the booklets more than a passing notice. But the project did have some long-term effects. The Fundamentals became a reference identifying the doctrines of the emerging fundamentalist movement. It is important to note that this work was moderate in its approach and represented a transitional stage from evangelicalism to full-blown fundamentalism.

At the same time, another important fundamentalist work appeared: the Scofield Reference Bible. The interpretive notes in this Bible were the work of C. I. Scofield. He popularized dispensationalism, the most distinguishing doctrine of fundamentalist biblical interpretation. Dispensationalism divides history into seven distinct epochs. Each of these represents a different "dispensation" through which God governs the world and tests human obedience.

The current dispensation is the "dispensation of grace" or the "dispensation of the church." In this dispensation that began with Jesus' death, God requires only one act of obedience from human beings: the confession of sin and acceptance of the atoning death of Jesus. Nothing else can merit salvation. That is why it is essential to confront people with the gospel — so that they can make a decision for Christ.

One effect of dispensationalism is to deny that the moral teaching of Jesus has any relevance to salvation. Jesus lived in the dispensation of the law. His words were directed to Jews whose salvation depended on the observance of this law, but this dispensation has passed. That is why the letters of Paul are more decisive in formulating fundamentalist theology than the Gospels.

Fundamentalists are not certain how long the present dispensation will last. They believe that the Second Coming of Christ is imminent and look forward to the final dispensation — that of the reign of God. It will begin with "the rapture" in which all those who have accepted Christ go to heaven. There they will escape seven years of tribulation that will conclude with the battle of Armageddon. Following the defeat of the powers of evil, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth will begin. At the conclusion of the millennium, the final judgment will occur. Those who have accepted Jesus will go to heaven. All others will be condemned to eternal hellfire. This scenario developed from a fundamentalist reading of biblical texts about the eschaton, principally Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation.

These books are particularly attractive to fundamentalists because of their pessimism about the possibilities of the present. Fundamentalists see themselves as a misunderstood and persecuted minority. They also believe that this world carries the seeds of its own destruction. Circumstances will get worse until Jesus returns. When he does return, however, true Christians will be vindicated. In contrast, liberalism's view of this world is optimistic. Christians can transform this world and inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth.

Fundamentalism, in part, arose as a reaction against the optimism of theological liberalism, but the crisis went deeper. At the beginning of the twentieth century, conservative, evangelical Christianity was no longer the dominant influence in American society as it once was. Fundamentalists were horrified by what they considered the secularization of American culture. What appalled them even more was that the churches themselves were abetting this secularization through the social gospel movement and their acceptance of modern biblical criticism. The secularization of American culture was another stimulus for fundamentalism's basic pessimism.

In the last twenty years, evangelicals and fundamentalists have made significant attempts to reverse the process of secularization. Strengthened by their growth in numbers and their political power, fundamentalists have developed a political agenda that opposes what they call "secular humanism." Among items in this agenda is the inclusion of "scientific creationism" in public school curricula, the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, passage of an antiabortion amendment, and the enacting of laws to allow prayer in schools.

Except for the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the fundamentalists have not been successful in promoting their agenda. Some fundamentalist leaders have decided to leave the political arena and return to the pulpit. Still, fundamentalists and religious conservatives have had a significant impact on the American political scene. Courting the evangelical and fundamentalist voting bloc caused a serious rift within the conservative political movement in the United States.

3. Fundamentalism outside the United States

Fundamentalism, then, is one religious response to a major change in society: the secularization of American culture. Similar changes have taken place in other cultures, and these have occasioned similar religious responses. This has led to the application of the term "fundamentalism" to movements in other cultures that attempt to reverse secularization.

The secular character of modern Israeli society has been a shock to many religious immigrants to Israel. These pious Jews expect to come to a country where observance of Jewish law will be universal. Instead they find that about 80 percent of Israeli Jews are nonobservant. The label "Jewish fundamentalism" has been applied to the haredi movement, which rejects the values of secular Israeli society and attempts to impose its patterns of religious observance on modern Israeli society.

A similar phenomenon is going on in the Islamic world. Colonialism and the oil economy led to the introduction of Western values and the development of secular political and social institutions in Islamic countries. Islamic fundamentalism is a reaffirmation of the foundational principles of Islam and an effort to reshape society in terms of those principles. This movement is marked by a literally interpretation of Islam and a rigid and even violent pursuit of social and moral reconstruction.

By law, India is a secular state, but its Hindu majority has produced religious activists who are not satisfied with the traditional Hinduism of temple priests and ritual. Hindu fundamentalists want to replace the secular state with a nation based on Hindu law and traditions. This has led to violent clashes with the Muslim and Sikh minorities that threaten the institutions of Indian democracy.

Fundamentalist movements have risen within the Sikh, Buddhist, Confucian, and Shinto traditions. The fundamentalist impulse has emerged every time traditional religions have encountered the social and political movements of the twentieth century. Fundamentalists of any religious stripe are not at home in the twentieth century. They live by the myth of a "golden age" when religious perspectives supposedly shaped the institutions and values of a people.

For American Protestant fundamentalists that golden age was the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Christian values shaped America. For the Hindu fundamentalists, it was the legendary rule of Ram, the perfect king who upheld Hindu law on earth. Each fundamentalism has its own golden age.

The fundamentalist impulse is not satisfied with a nostalgic gaze at the past. Every fundamentalism is committed to the restoration of its golden age. Fundamentalists are ready to take militant action to accomplish that restoration. Forms of militancy vary from the bombing of an abortion clinic in the United States to the stoning of cars being driven on the Sabbath in Israel. Political assassinations and armed battles have also been tools of some fundamentalisms. Fundamentalism's most characteristic and dangerous feature is its militancy in its program of religious restoration.

In the United States, the militancy of Protestant fundamentalism expresses itself primarily in energetic proselytizing. Converts are sought not only among non-Christians but also from mainline churches. Fundamentalists have been so successful that in the last twenty years the only Protestant denominations that have experienced growth are those with a conservative or fundamentalist bent. Simultaneously, mainline denominations have lost membership. In a typical fundamentalist congregation converts comprise about 50 percent of the community. Fundamentalist congregations also engage in missionary endeavors outside the United States; in those places their aggressive proselytizing and the simplicity of their message combine with great success.

Source: Dictionary of Mission, Nov 01, 1997, pp. 167-171.