The last few years have seen the world wide web do a number on fundamentalism. I speak particularly of the independent fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement, and the influence of blogs like Sharper Iron (SI).
Jason Janz, SI’s founder, published his young fundamentalist survey, and soon thereafter Phil Johnson (of Pyromaniac fame), delivered his speech “Dead Right: The Failure of Fundamentalism“. A maelstrom of web action, interaction and reaction ensued which has yet to calm down. The fundamentalist blogosphere has been a place for theological critique and development, and has been the occasion for a slow exodus from the IFB movement.
Some, like myself, left the IFB from other considerations. Others were awoken to errors in extreme fundamentalism (IFBx) through the web. For all, the availability of conservative evangelical materials produced by John Piper and John MacArthur and others, has given a greater intellectual freedom to many as they can see what life outside IFB (or IFBx) halls looks like.
With the winds of change blowing strong, and with the emergent movement and other bleak theological developments on the horizon, many a fundamentalist leader and institution has taken a skeptical view of the web and of Sharper Iron and other fundamentalist blogs. This should not be surprising.
The reactions have not all been so stick-in-the-mud-like, however. Many fundamentalist leaders are jumping into the fray and being honest and open about the problems they see. Leaders like Dr. Dave Doran and Dr. Kevin Bauder and other contributors at Sharper Iron, give hope to fundamentalism as a willingness to change is displayed. The idea and merits of fundamentalism are being clearly put forth, and many a young man stays within the IFB ship hoping to play a part in righting it and seeing fundamentalism play a part in helping wider evangelicalism see the errors of its way (and there are many).
Now that I’ve brought you up to speed, let me encourage you to read this fundamentalist self-critique by Kevin Bauder. He has just started a series that will detail a history and critical examination of fundamentalism. His posts come first as essays in his online publication In the Nick of Time, from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis. Then they are showcased at Sharper Iron. Andy Naselli tipped me off to the article being available, and I’m sure this week SI will be publishing it there. You can read it now here (pdf). [Update: here’s the link for the article on SI]. Let me add an excerpt or two from it to entice you to read the whole thing. Part 1 is also available here.
…Because they are cut off from the Christian past, fundamentalists have little sense of the extent to which they have truncated the whole counsel of God. While they rightly insist upon the necessity of confessing certain fundamentals, they have little patience for careful doctrinal exploration and articulation, even when the doctrines under consideration are fundamental. They profess to love the Bible as an object, but even in the better neighborhoods of fundamentalism it is not difficult to find people who despise the attempt to understand biblical teaching in any depth.
Fundamentalists are all about defending the faith. Too often, however, all that they are willing to defend is a truncated faith of slogans and clichés. Even the most important areas of doctrine are reduced to rather pat formulae. Non-fundamental areas of the faith may be left completely unexplored.
Comparing Fundamentalist faith and practice to the faith and practice of historic Christianity is like comparing a hamburger to a filet mignon. The two obviously have something in common, but it would be misleading to say that everything in the steak is also in the hamburger.
Kirsopp Lake said that Fundamentalism is the “partial . . . survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians.” To the extent that he is correct, Fundamentalists should probably be a little less enthralled with his description. And I think that he is right.
I like your blog, have you investigated N.T. Wright?
First, have been a fundamentalist 20 yrs now as well as a believer in LKordship salvation and about 14 yrs in Calvinism which never caused me to do less “Soul winning” I think for a lot of us quite a few see a couple different things. First, anti-intellectualism-especially holding up the likes of Riplinger. Quite often I was content to having ,my views and staying silent but now there is so much going on that if I breathe the word Calvinist I am the biggest heretic in the world despite the fact King James was the one who called the council that came up with TULIP. Really, a lack of consistancy an so easily see through the facade given to us-they don’t have good preachers and expect us to wet ourselves over some preacher. I remember one meeting Hyles was supposed to be at and got snowed in and when we went this p0rteacher(southern California) started telling everyone to come to ythe altar and yada yaa whatever-I never scratched where it never itched and never went down the aisle unless I felt the Lord was working me over something so about 4 of us-three Marines and one who should have been a Marine basically got pointed out for not walking the aisle and we just scoffed at him.
For me when at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College-did not put these two things together for years-I became a Calvinist and then saw much that was going on though technically right with the Lord-I saw nothing but flesh feasts and over the yrears until recently figuroing out-did one(Calvinism) have anything to do with the other (Perceptions changed)
As I see it, too much pride, too much anti-intellectualism an basically treating people normally where quite often when a preacher walks by-well I feel fainte-not. I appreciate a man of God who wants to lift a congregation to his level of knowledge and spirituality as opposed to seeing us as minions. I could write another ten thousand pages.
Thanks, Dave for reading and commenting. Let me know if there is any other way I can help you. Glad to hear of your growth and journey in the faith. God be praised.
In Christ,
Bob