The term Fundamentalist

[rwoehmke]

From whence comes the term Fundamentalist? Isn’t it the name applied to a movement that started in the past couple hundred years? Seems like it gets tossed at almost anyone who reads and upholds the “plain meaning” of Scripture, but I seem to recall it has a more limited application.

 

[BrianH]

wikipedia

The term fundamentalist was perhaps first used in 1920 by Curtis Lee Laws in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner, but it soon became widely accepted as a common term identifying anyone who believed in and actively defended the traditional doctrines of Christianity. For example, in the 1920s the Baptist John Roach Straton called his newspaper The Fundamentalist. The Presbyterian scholar J. Gresham Machen disliked the word and only hesitatingly accepted it to describe himself, because, he said, the name sounded like a new religion and not the same historic Christianity that the Church had always believed.

 

[mommyof4]

Look here in the CA library.

 

[NotWorthy]

wikipedia

The term fundamentalist was perhaps first used in 1920 by Curtis Lee Laws in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner, but it soon became widely accepted as a common term identifying anyone who believed in and actively defended the traditional doctrines of Christianity.

Why, you’ve just described Catholics!!!

Hey, I’m Fundamentalist and I didn’t even know it!

 

[dacoobob]

NotWorthy:
Why, you’ve just described Catholics!!!

Hey, I’m Fundamentalist and I didn’t even know it!

By “traditional doctrines of Christianity” they meant the traditions of nineteenth-century American Protestantism, as over against modernism/liberalism.

 

[lak611]

A fundamentalist is one who believes the following:

The five Fundamental points are: 1. The inerrancy of the Bible; 2. The virgin birth of Christ; 3. Christ’s substitutionary atonement; 4. Christ’s bodily resurrection; 5. The authenticity of Christ’s miracles.

(from this website)

 

[NotWorthy]

By “traditional doctrines of Christianity” they meant the traditions of nineteenth-century American Protestantism, as over against modernism/liberalism.

Ah, so by saying "anyone who believed in and actively defended the traditional doctrines of Christianity…," they simply mean the Man-made traditions of 19th century Christianity. I thought they meant the Sacred Traditions of 1900 centuries ago.

My bad.

 

[SpiritMeadow]

The origin of the term occurred in 1909-1915 when a 12 booklets were published entitled “Fundamentals.” The brainchild of two oil millionaires, about 3 million were distributed nationwide. At that time they encompassed a very narrow view of Protestantism. The term was coined in 1920 to describe the adherents to this sect’s philosophy. It was felt that the term conservative was not nearly strong enough to convey their beliefs.

It is widely considered a mental and emotional condition and there is a fairly well known list of attributes of those who become insnared within it. It has thus come to encompass people who are certainly not Christian but exhibit the same mental characteristics. These are:

Fundamentalism rejects the human freedoms which have opened up in the aftermath of the western Enlightenment, and is committed to combat secular humanism and all other aspects of the modern world which it regards as injurious to the spiritual condition of humankind.
Fundamentalism asserts that humans must submit to the authority of the Divine Being, whose divinely revealed truths and absolute commands they believe to have been permanently revealed –– in the Torah for the Jew, in the Bible for the Christian, and in the Qur’’an for the Muslim.
Fundamentalism consequently leads people to think in terms of black and white. Everything is either true or false, good or bad; there are few shades of grey, little uncertainty, and no area for debate and dialogue.
Fundamentalism is distrustful of human reason. It does not enter into open dialogue but dogmatically proclaims. It is wary of democracy, the assertion of human rights and the equality of the sexes. It favours strong, male, charismatic leadership, both in religion and in society.
Fundamentalism seeks to exercise control by establishing theocratic societies which conform to the (divinely revealed) absolutes. Hence Israel must be a Jewish state, Iran must be an Islamic state, while American fundamentalists are committed to making the United States a more truly Christian state.

Fundamentalism is not supported by the Catholic Church. Benedict has referred to it as “intellectual suicide”

There is a fine list of books and journal papers on this subject in full at religion online. This was taken from a book by Lloyd Geering a Presbyterian minister. Look on my blog right column under “online books” Religion-online…and then on their extreme right column…under fundamentalism.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

I associate the term with this set of books,

The term fundamentalist, in the context of this article, derives from a series of (originally) twelve volumes entitled The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth. Among this publication’s 94 essays, 27 of them objected to higher criticism of the Bible, by far the largest number addressing any one topic. The essays were written by 64 British and American conservative Protestant theologians between 1910 and 1915.

…

The original formulation of American fundamentalist beliefs can be traced to the Niagara Bible Conference (1878–1897) and, in 1910, to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which distilled these into what became known as the “five fundamentals”:

Inerrancy of the Scriptures

The virgin birth and the deity of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14)

The doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God’s grace and human faith (Hebrews 9)

The bodily resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28)

The authenticity of Christ’s miracles (or, alternatively, his pre-millennial second coming)[2]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Christianity

 

[deb1]

Fundamentalism asserts that humans must submit to the authority of the Divine Being, whose divinely revealed truths and absolute commands they believe to have been permanently revealed –– in the Torah for the Jew, in the Bible for the Christian, and in the Qur’’an for the Muslim.
.

Just seeking clarification. I thought that fundmentalist wanted every one to be fundamentalists?

 

[foundthelight]

Just seeking clarification. I thought that fundmentalist wanted every one to be fundamentalists?

Yes. And their theme song is “I Did It My Way”.

They all claim to be guided by the Holy Spirit and are dangerously militant.

Most “Fundamentalist” Christians I have met (and I in my shame used to be one) believe Catholics are agents of the anti-Christ.

Sorry if I am off topic.

 

[graceandglory]

encompass people who are certainly not Christian but exhibit the same mental characteristics. These are:

Fundamentalism rejects the human freedoms

Fundamentalism asserts that humans must submit to the authority of the Divine Being,

Fundamentalism consequently leads people to think in terms of black and white.

**Fundamentalism is distrustful of human reason. It does not enter into open dialogue but dogmatically proclaims.
**
It favours strong, male, charismatic leadership, both in religion and in society.

Fundamentalism seeks to exercise control by

Fundamentalism is not supported by the Catholic Church. Benedict has referred to it as “intellectual suicide”.

Thank you, Spirit Meadow. I already knew that the reason I married (has since been declared null) was due to “false teaching.” Now I know what the false teaching was. (I married the fundamentalist preacher’s kid)

I didn’t have a choice in the matter. It was basically “revealed” that I would marry him, and I just followed through, ultimately wanting God’s will, and believing that He would reveal His will to me through my husband. No one let me know I could have a say in it or that I could think for myself.

“Intellectual suicide.” Wow.
Your post really helps me understand what I got myself into when I married outside of the Church. Getting away from that family was like leaving a cult. It was a terrifying ordeal.

Thanks again. I needed to read this.

 

[graceandglory]

Just seeking clarification. I thought that fundmentalist wanted every one to be fundamentalists?

Not to be mistaken for true Christians. We are all called to evangelize and bring others to Christ.

 

[dove51]

Yes, fundamentalism was a movement that started to counter the growing liberalism in Christianity in the United States. It started around the 1950s.