The Fundamentals

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The Fundamentals or The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth edited by A. C. Dixon and later by Reuben Archer Torrey is a set of 90 essays in 12 volumes published from 1910 to 1915 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. They were designed to affirm orthodox Protestant beliefs and defend against ideas deemed inimical to them. They are widely considered to be the foundation of the modern Fundamentalist movement.

The essays were originally financed by Lyman and Milton Stewert, two wealthy Christian oil magnates, in 1909 to set out what they believed to be the fundamentals of Christian faith. These were to be sent free to ministers, missionaries, Sunday School superintendents and others active in Christian ministry.

The volumes defended orthodox Protestant beliefs and attacked higher criticism, liberal theology, Catholicism (also called by them Romanism), socialism, modern philosophy, atheism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Spiritualism, and evolutionism (an article by geologist George Frederick Wright).

[edit] Sources

  • The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, edited by R.A. Torrey (1910-15)
  • The Fundamentals edited by R. A. Torrey, Baker Books, 2003 (reprint of 1917 edition); online texts
  • Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George M. Marsden, Wm B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1991
  • Fundamentalism and American Culture by George M. Marsden, Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, 2006
  • Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalism around the World (The Fundamentalist Project), by Gabriel A. Almond, University of Chicago Press, 2003
  • The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism, by Ronald A. Numbers, University of California Press, 1992.


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