Fundamentalism Article Review

Article Review
“A Thriving Movement”
Joel A. Carpenter

For this assignment I have found it best to describe Fundamentalism as I see it first then go into more depth of what the chapter “A thriving Moment”.
The term `fundamentalism' has its origin in a series of pamphlets published between 1910 and 1915. Entitled "The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth," these booklets were authored by leading evangelical churchmen and were circulated free of charge among clergymen and seminarians. By and large, fundamentalism was a response to the loss of influence traditional revivalism experienced in America during the early years of the twentieth century. This loss of influence, coupled with the liberalizing trends of German biblical criticism and the encroachment of Darwinian theories about the origin of the universe, prompted a response by conservative churchmen. The result was the pamphlets. In 1920, a journalist and Baptist layman named Curtis Lee Laws appropriated the term, `fundamentalist' as a designation for those who were ready "to do battle royal for the Fundamentals."
The Bible is the sacred text of the Christian Fundamentalists. Indeed, if there is one single thing that binds Fundamentalists together, it is their insistence that the Bible is to be understood as literally true. Further, Fundamentalists see themselves as the guardians of the truth, usually to the exclusion of others' interpretation of the Bible. Fundamentalism in other faith traditions similarly proclaims guardianship of truth.
The Book by Joel A. Carpenter, Revive us Again, in his important work on the history of fundamentalism, gives us a clue as to how fundamentalism ended up with the doctrineand theology which is prominent in many of its churches today.
As heirs of the American revival tradition, fundamentalist’s greatly valued being able to reach the masses and to communicate their message in a popular attractive way. They were, in other words, intensely audience-conscious, market-driven, and concerned to see immediate returns from their efforts. A strong streak of anti corrupt ruling class, coupled with democratic appeals to popular opinion, also ran through the movement. Fundamentalists inherited most of these values directly from the evangelistic drive, spearheaded by Dwight L. Moody in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.


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Moody’s partners in this new wave of popular outreach were a group of gifted and respectable urban pastors such as Presbyterians A. T. Pierson of Philadelphia and A. B. Simpson of New York, and Baptists A. J. Gordon of Boston and A. C. Dixon of Baltimore. These ministers mortified their own higher class tastes and values and revamped their congregations to reflect the popular, revivalistic style of the urban evangelists. In order to prepare tightly knit group of zealot religious workers quickly for new evangelistic offensives, they formed Bible and missionary training schools. Therefore, even though most of these early leaders were well-educated and culturally refined their movement quickly lost touch with the nation’s intellectual currents.
Carpenter’s perspective certainly differs from the perspective as found in __The Life of Dwight L. Moody__ by Wm. R. Moody (his son). ©1900 by Fleming H. Revell Company.
When I read of Moody’s walk with God in private, his character when alone and at home with those who knew him best, how he would often interrupt his own conversation on rides through the countryside, “…and reining in his horse, pour out his heart in praise to God for His mercies, or unburden his soul in a simple prayer for guidance and relief. The very spontaneity of such prayers revealed the atmosphere of his life, which was one of constant communion with God. It was not surprising, then that he should seldom have long seasons of agonizing prayer such as some have esperienced, for his closeness to God was not limited to special seasons, but was a continuous and unterrupted experience.” (p 508) I for one am inclined to trust the Almighty’s assessment of the man’s life and work to be the final word.

Still, there’s much to criticize about American fundamentalism, More recently other evangelicals have criticized fundamentalist failings:

Historian George Marsden has called fundamentalism 'militantly anti-modernist Protestant evangelicalism.'
Joel Carpenter describes it as 'a crabbed and parochial mutation of Protestant orthodoxy', and talks about the movement's 'cultural alienation, sectarian behaviour, and intellectual stagnation.'
And Richard Mouw, the current Fuller provost, has frequently written about fundamentalism's tangled legacy.

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Carpenter criticized fundamentalism for its many flaws, but he also acknowledged its accomplishments. In The Smell of Sawdust, Richard Mouw mourns the fact that fundamentalism has left the evangelical movement with three common defects: anti-intellectualism, otherworldliness, and a separatist spirit.

However Carpenter’s quote struck me as a hit piece against Fundamentalism, which seems all too prevalent in a lot of theology in New Zealand and around the world today. It’s not a perfect movement by any stretch, but it is the heritage we have come into as Bible-believing separatists, and I think it should be critiqued carefully, as well as appreciated for what it has been, and continues to be.


I feel that what these men (the fundamentalists) who forged on through times when it seemed that the world was closing in on them, are enormouse men of God. They have single handedly, through every man made obstacle stood their ground. I believe very strongly that with out them, we would have a very much watered down version of the Bible and probably our ministers and Lecturers wouldn’t take the word of God seriousely and teach us what the Lord wants us to hear and not what they think is what we should learn. I am very proud to be known myself as a Fundamentalist, and wish that more people would be called this because in the end it means that I stick to the Word of God for all my decisions and trust only in Christ. I am not fully convinced that the early church fathers did everything right, But if they wouldn’t have at least tried we wouldn’t be here today studying at Carey.















Bibliography




The Life of Dwight L. Moody by Wm. R. Moody1900 by Fleming H. Revell Companyhttp://books.google.co.nz/books?id=anpF-BdAEFQC&pg=PA116&ots=zuhsia72wv&dq=The+Life+of+Dwight+L.+Moody+H.+Revell+Company&sig=xA5niTRMEhJSrqucZKpUdAKeVUg

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity & Liberalism (1923). http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=WVBgg00gJLcC&pg=PP5&ots=76rcaAly5D&dq=%C2%B7%09J.+Gresham+Machen,+Christianity+%26+Liberalism+(1923).&sig=NozAjYLTQMyl_MkexMk6sryHb10#PPP8,M1

Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947, 2003). http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=2WVu5YK20HUC&pg=PR19&ots=6TW2jCQGTk&dq=%C2%B7%09Carl+F.+H.+Henry,+The+Uneasy+Conscience+of+Modern+Fundamentalism+(1947,+2003).&sig=BulriiyQKlyh_9Yzc2eRKdgvDTI

Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again: the Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (1997).
Richard Mouw, The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage (2000).http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=4miy8fECCP4C&pg=PP1&ots=9NlqWwM6Hf&dq=%C2%B7%09Richard+Mouw,+The+Smell+of+Sawdust:+What+Evangelicals+Can+Learn+from+Their+Fundamentalist+Heritage+(2000).&sig=0BOcRsvk6HE7uhOvENXLG12H05o





Bibliography


George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (1980); http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=9swPktfLJigC&pg=PA244&ots=yS1wIZxB1g&dq=%C2%B7%09George+M.+Marsden,+Fundamentalism+and+American+Culture:+The+Shaping+of+Twentieth+Century+Evangelicalism,+1870-1925+(1980)%3B&sig=PEFdFiiNkzOfx3PaNEsqAY6hnT4


Books I studied to get a better understanding of what I needed to cover but did not quote in my Review are as follows.

Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994).http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=J2fmHHqc-vIC&pg=PA217&ots=Cv286VrRip&dq=%C2%B7%09Mark+Noll,+The+Scandal+of+the+Evangelical+Mind+(1994).&sig=5rL4Nd9I8VxNiQVKpUq4pAGg51s

Alan Wolfe, "The Opening of the Evangelical Mind," The Atlantic Monthly, Article October 2000.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/letters.htm
Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, The Glory and the Power: The Fundamentalist Challenge to the Modern 1992.
Jeffery L. Sheler, Believers: A Journey Into Evangelical America (2006).
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1001/excerpt.html