fundamentalism

fundamentalism, deriving from The Fundamentals (1910–15), a twelve‐volume, multi‐authored, theological protest against trends in modern religion and society published in the USA. The use of the term fundamentalism has changed over time and admits of no easy definition. Described as ‘militantly anti‐modernist Protestant evangelicalism’, fundamentalism is regarded by some as a term of abuse and by others as a proud badge of theological orthodoxy. The word itself came into common currency in the USA in the 1920s. It is in that decade also that it came to have some significance in Irish religious life. The populist evangelist W. P. Nicholson has been described as a militant fundamentalist who contributed a hard edge to evangelical orthodoxy. Meanwhile the Revd James Hunter orchestrated a campaign against theological professors in the Presbyterian College in Belfast, culminating in the charge of heresy brought against J. E. Davey and the secession, following his acquittal, of the Irish Evangelical (later the Evangelical Presbyterian) church.

Many of the issues surrounding this split within Presbyterianism were rehearsed in modified forms twenty‐five years later with the founding of the Free Presbyterian church over which Ian Paisley, who thought of himself as the heir of the fundamentalists of the 1920s, quickly established control. To most outsiders Paisley, with his well‐maintained connections with strands of American conservative Protestantism, is the embodiment of fundamentalism in Ulster Protestant culture, but in fact fundamentalist attitudes are not confined within the boundaries of the Free and Evangelical Presbyterian churches. This then raises the problem of how exactly fundamentalism should be defined, given that its advocates are not easily separated from hotter forms of evangelicalism. There is no easy answer to this difficulty, but suffice to say that fundamentalism is usually associated with anti‐Catholicism, anti‐modernism, anti‐liberalism (both theological and ethical), anti‐ecumenism, and anti‐Darwinism. Such a world‐view is not merely the product of rational theological disputation, but has its roots in contests for cultural, political, and religious power. Fundamentalism is therefore as much a cohesive frame of mind as a theological position.

David Hempton