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I just finished reading George Marsden's Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and, as always, my brain exploded with understandings of my "O, so very interesting heritage." I grew up in the midst of a very sectarian group of "Bible Baptist" (heavily influenced by Peter Ruckman, Jack Hyles, et al.) fundamentalists who, like Marsden when describing fundamentalist, were a group of people who were "angry about something." The truth of this "anger" is testified by the very slogans of the yearly "Bible Conferences" (read: times where people gather for long-extended periods of time to hear preachers yell and scream so that the crowd bellows back, "AMEN! Brother!," "Preach it!," "That's Right!"). One year the slogan pins for the conference read "Bad Attitude Baptist Blow-out." No, really, I'm being serious. And we wonder why the non-confessing persons reject faith in God. Any way, enough of my mud-slinging. Thankfully, the church I grew up in realized the error of their way and has made mass improvements in "engaging" as "light and salt" rather than "Napalm and bitter coffee".

Now, back to Marsden. In my opinion, the highlights of the book are the chapters on "Evangelicalism Since the 1930s" and "The Evangelical Love Affair with Enlightenment Science." Both of the chapters shed significant light on both the stream of activity and stream of thinking within the Fundamentalist and Evangelical worlds. You will notice that the title ties the fundamentalist and the evangelical together in the same vein. At first I did not think this was fair, but upon reading the historical settings out which Evangelicalism arose there was no denying it. Fundamentalist and Evangelicals are kissing cousins, though both deny it. The true fundamentalist would never claim the evangelical as his friend since the evangelical has not separated from the world and the evangelical would never claim the fundamentalist for his sectarian, uncompromising attitude. Though, there are fundamentalists who get along with evangelicals and evangelicals who would more closely align with fundamentalists, but these are rare and unique situations. More interesting is the consistent sectarianism between fundamentalists. The relationship between Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College (both "separatists") is telling of the common phenomenon.

Nonetheless, the evangelical and the fundamentalists come from the same parentage. Dispensational Millenarianism was the common hermeneutic which bound the two forms of conservative Christianity. For the most part, both believe the same fundamental doctrines, but both disagree heavily on minutia. From my experience, the KJV controversy is one of those dividing minutia's. Interesting enough is the relationship between evangelicals and fundamentalist, but more interesting is the direction each takes in their interactions with their nemeses, the "liberals." The major controversy being the debate between "Creation-Science" and "Evolution."

I particularly enjoyed Marsden's view of the underpinning philosophies of fundamentalist and evangelicals. It was essentially modernism. Scientific views were adopted concerning the Bible, Doctrine, and History. So much so that the "rightness" and "wrongness" of the Christian faith came down to the "precise accuracy" of the Biblical witness concerning matters of History and Science. Thus, Christianity became "provable" and "apologetics" were developed to convince people of the "truth" of Christianity. The Bible was true because Science and History proved it. Thus, the doctrine of "Inerrancy" arose and still persists today. So, Genesis 1-11 is to be read as scientifically verifiable factual History (in the original autographs). Genesis Flood is telling of this type of thinking.

The second to last chapter deals significantly with the "Creation vs. Evolution" debates that escalated during the early to mid twentieth century. Reading this chapter sheds light on the attitudes and characteristics of the Fundamentalists who devoted so much time and energy to putting Evolution to bed, though they never succeeded.

Lastly, Marsden ends with a Chapter describing the uniqueness of J. Gresham Machen. His relationship to the movements and his sympathetic tendencies towards fundamentalism are interesting. Funny, I had to read Christianity and Liberalism in my "Church in the 20th Century" class at my Alma Mater, a fundamentalist Christian college. Catch the Spirit!... The spirit of historic Fundamentalism...

FYI: Interesting I just graduated with a Th. M. from the "Harvard of Evangelical Institutions." I guess now all I have to do is graduate from the real Harvard and I will have covered all of my American Christian bases; Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and Liberal. [Remember: Catholics aren't Christians. Ha.]

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