Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism

By Raymond F. Collins

The term is derived from the title of a series of booklets. The Fundamentals, published in the usa between 1910 and 1915. 'The fun­damentals' referred to central elements of the traditional Christian teaching, such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming, heaven and hell, and the inspira­tion and authority of the scriptures. Subse­quently the term was applied to a current of Christianity, existing alongside and within the traditional churches, commonly called evangelical, and characterized by a doctrine of personal salvation and a literal inter­pretation of the scriptures.

As a specific movement fundamentalism is, however, not so much characterized by the authority which it attributes to the Bible and a literal interpretation of the biblical texts as it is by its claim of biblical inerrancy. Fundamentalists hold that the Bible in its entirety and in each of its parts speaks the truth. Thus fundamentalist preachers often speak of the claims of the Bible as if the only acceptable response is assent, under­stood as assent to the truth, any other re­sponse being equated with disbelief. This approach to the scriptures does not take into consideration the variety of literary forms in which the 'biblical message' is phrased nor is it sufficiently attentive to the various modes of human discourse, principally the referential, the attitudinal and the performative.

Fundamentalism is basically an attitude whose major tenet is that the Bible is in-errant. The central tenet is supported by two others, namely the verbal inspiration of the scriptures at their origin, and the literal interpretation of the scriptures in their use. Since fundamentalists hold to the verbal inspiration of the scriptures, the scriptures are presented as the word of God. Faith in God is essentially assent to the 'truth' of the scriptures. Within this perspective the Scofield Reference Bible, whose text is that of the av/kjv but whose notes and textual divisions derive from the American C. I. Scofield, is particularly important insofar as it is claimed to convey the word of God. Although fundamentalists professedly hold to the literal interpretation of the scrip­tures, the literal sense is sometimes expanded metaphorically in order that the basic tenet of scriptural inerrancy be maintained. Thus the days of creation of Gen. 1 are often interpreted, metaphorically, as eras in which the various stages of creation took place. Moreover, the literary sense of the scriptures is often equated with the meaning of the scriptures exposited by such fundamentalist authorities as John Stott and K. A. Kit­chen.

Because of its insistence that the scriptures are the word of God, fundamentalism stands in radical opposition to Roman Cath­olicism, and the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, the former because of its insistence on 'human' tradition, the latter because it understands the scriptures as works of human literature. The roots of fundamentalism go back to the denomina­tional orthodoxies of the seventeenth cen­tury and the revivalist movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The conservative evangelicals or fundamentalists of the present era share with their forbears an apologetic mode of theology reflecting an historicist notion of truth as well as an insistence on the 'fundamentals', especially creation, sin and redemption, the second coming, personal salvation, the Virgin Birth and the divinity of Jesus, and a literalist interpretation of miracles. Their point of view is represented through preachers such as Billy Graham and Hubert Armstrong, as well as through the press, for example, Bibliotheca Sacra, the Evangelical Quarterly, and the publications of the Inter-Varsity Press.

Bibliography. 

James Barr, Fundamentalism, 1977; 'The Fundamentalist Understanding of Scrip­ture', Conflicting Ways of Interpreting the Bible, Concilium 138, ed. Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann, 1980, pp. 70-4; G. I. Packer, Fundamentalism and the Word of God, 1958.

Source: Richardson/Bowden, A New Dictionary of Christian Theology.