George Marsden Understanding Fundamentalism Summary
Critical Book Review of Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism George Marsden, University of Notre Dame Professor of History and noted authority on American Fundamentalism, provides a salient series of essays divided into a historical survey of American Fundamentalism to include key events and personalities on the movement, in particular the years 1830 through the late 1980s as well as interpretative essays of the movement focusing specifically on the themes of “politics and views of science.”[1] The overall strength of this work can be observed in Marsden’s apt historical overview of fundamentalism, its continual critique and battles against modernism and theological liberalism, while its only weakness arguably resides in
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Marsden rightly notes the “central symbol organizing fears over the demise of American culture became biological evolution”[4] to include its connection with World War I Germany. While other fundamental issues such as those espoused in the Five Fundamentals of 1910 were vitally important for fundamentalist, beliefs which Marsden also makes repeated mention of and rightly so, to a large degree, the confrontation over evolution became one of the more public aspects of the Fundamentalist fight against modernism and theological liberalism. To that end, Marsden appropriately focuses much of his discussion on the engagement of fundamentalism with evolution and science. Moreover, he reveals the often divisive nature of evolution particularly in regards to noted fundamentalist scholars such as B. B. Warfield and Charles Hodge with their affirmations of some aspects of evolution while still maintaining adherence to such fundamental doctrines such as the historicity of scripture, the virgin birth, and the
Marsden rightly notes the “central symbol organizing fears over the demise of American culture became biological evolution”[4] to include its connection with World War I Germany. While other fundamental issues such as those espoused in the Five Fundamentals of 1910 were vitally important for fundamentalist, beliefs which Marsden also makes repeated mention of and rightly so, to a large degree, the confrontation over evolution became one of the more public aspects of the Fundamentalist fight against modernism and theological liberalism. To that end, Marsden appropriately focuses much of his discussion on the engagement of fundamentalism with evolution and science. Moreover, he reveals the often divisive nature of evolution particularly in regards to noted fundamentalist scholars such as B. B. Warfield and Charles Hodge with their affirmations of some aspects of evolution while still maintaining adherence to such fundamental doctrines such as the historicity of scripture, the virgin birth, and the