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Title: Fundamentalism and American Culture by George Marsden ISBN: 0-19-503083-4 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1982 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best history of fundamentalism
Comment: Prior to more recent historiography, most mainstream commentators and historians portrayed fundamentalists as rural, uneducated people, who lived in the West and the South, and who would not display such resistance to modernity if they lived in urban areas and were well-educated.
In the last thirty years, however, this consensus was challenged by a number of historians. The two most influential monographs were written by Ernest Sandeen and George Marsden. In his "Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Milleniarianism 1800-1930", Sandeen rejects the primacy of sociological interpretations, emphasizing the importance of theology. He views Fundamentalism primarily as a combination of premillenialism (particularly dispensational premillenialism) and the theology of Biblical inerrancy defended by Princeton Theological Seminary, with leadership of the movement located primarily in Northeastern urban areas.
Marsden agrees to some extent with this perspective, but he believes that Sandeen's interpretation ignores other important contributions to the Fundamentalist movement. Marsden argues that a proper methodology will begin by examining Fundamentalism in 1925 and then will trace Fundamentalism back to its sources, instead of beginning with British and American millenarianism in 1800 and charting how the Fundamentalist movement grew out of them. Marsden asserts that Fundamentalism should be defined as "militantly anti-modernist Protestant evangelicalism."
Marsden believes that Sandeen's analysis is important, and that is a helpful corrective for an excessive focus on the sociological roots of Fundamentalism. Certainly, premil-lenialism and biblical inerrancy are two very important "roots" of Fundamentalism. The problem with Sandeen's analysis, Marsden argues, is that "he mistook the roots he uncovered for the source of the entire movement." Marsden asserts that "what was called 'fundamentalism' in the 20s sprang from equally complex and tangled roots in nineteenth-century tra-ditions of revivalism, evangelicalism, pietism, Americanism, and varied orthodoxies."
Marsden overemphasizes the extent to which Common Sense Realism buttressed the Princeton Theology. His analysis tends to make the Princeton Theologians appear more rationalistic than they really were. Also, it seems likely that someone like Warfield would be much more heavily influenced by his immersion in the Reformed tradition and his intense study of Augustine and Calvin than by Common Sense Realism. Finally, while Marsden does not go as far as does Sandeen in describing "inerrancy" as a nineteenth century innovation, his analysis tends to focus too much on Common Sense Realism as the source of inerrancy. There have been many inerrantists throughout the history of the church who have held to different epistemologies.
These, however, are a few minor complaints about an obviously superior piece of historiography. Although Sandeen's "The Roots of Fundamentalism" helped correct an excessively sociological emphasis in the study of Fundamentalism, it, along with every other account of Fundamentalism, has been surpassed by Marsden's "Fundamentalism and American Culture." It is es-sential reading for anyone interested in the past and the fu-ture of American evangelicalism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Account of Important American History
Comment: I read this book for a class on the history of Fundamentalism in America. The book was an excellent resource, and it often provided interesting theories about the development of Christian Fundamentalism in America. I found the history parts to be fascinating, and the interpretation of the history to be not as fascinating. Marsden's opinions about the facts were helpful at times, but confusing at other times. As a conservative Christian, this is a history account from an insider's view. Of the three books that I am reading on the subject, this book is the best of the three.
Rating: 5
Summary: Objective, Fair, and fearless
Comment: The thesis of this book parallels that of George Marsden's similar book on American culture, Religion and American Culture, that Fundamentalism shaped and was shaped by the surrounding culture. Marsden builds upon the work of earlier historians of Fundamentalism, namely that of Ernest Sandeen's book The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism. Sandeen's thesis is that Fundamentalism is the outgrowth of the "millenarian" movement that developed in late nineteenth-century American, especially through Bible institutes and conferences concerning the interpretation of biblical prophecies. Sandeen's thesis, according to Marsden, has much to commend it in connecting millenarianism and Princeton theology to the movement; however, it does not deal adequately with the militant anti-modernistic slant of the movement. Fundamentalism can briefly be defined as militant anti-modernist Protestantism that took on its own identity as a patchwork coalition of representatives of other movements.
Overview of the Book
Marsden divides his book into three sections (these sections are different in intent than the above themes. Marsden uses these sections to expand on his themes), Evangelicalism before Fundamentalism, the Shaping of Fundamentalism as a Movement, and the Crucial Years in which it gained popularity and its subsequent exodus of public life. In understanding the rise of Fundamentalism at the end of the nineteenth-century one must understand the backdrop from which it arose-nineteenth-century evangelicalism.
Conclusion
Marsden concludes the book by re-emphasizing his definition of Fundamentalism as a militant anti-modernist conservative force. For Marsden this should be the starting point for defining the movement. Militant anti-modernism applies to all types of Fundamentalism and any definition that goes beyond this must have qualifiers so that false stereotypes are not applied to the wrong group. As an Evangelical I enjoyed this book as I saw where the mind-set of conservatives and liberals developed. I also learned to what extent my own beliefs were influenced by this movement. I suggest that this book be read alongside another book on the shaping of American Christianity for a full understanding. I would also like to see an analysis of Fundamentalism from a more mainline perspective, although I believe Marsden is objective in this work. My main qualm with this book is in Part Three. In discussing the peak and soon-to-come fall of Fundamentalism, Marsden tried to put too many ideas into too few words. To keep up with him I had to re-analyze several chapters. However, due to the length of the book already, I can understand his attempt to save space. I would recommend this book to people of all political and religious persuasions so that they may have a fair understanding of this branch of early twentieth-century American religion.
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Title: Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George M. Marsden ISBN: 0802805396 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch ISBN: 0300050607 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada by Mark A. Noll ISBN: 0802806511 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $38.00 |
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Title: Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism by Joel A. Carpenter ISBN: 0195129075 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark A. Noll ISBN: 0802841805 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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