Origins of Fundamentalism

         "The term Fundamentalist originated in the context of late-19th and early-20th-centuary Christianity. As many Christians endeavored to adapt traditional beliefs to the new academic and scientific understandings of the world, others recoiled in the face of modernism and sought to defend Christian doctrines against such heresies. This segment of the Christian community focused on what they described as “the fundamentals,” including belief in the inerrancy of the Bible. For fundamentalists, the Bible offers an accurate description of science and history as well as clear guidance on morality and religious life. Their belief in the perfection of the Bible led them to reject a good deal of modern scientific thinking, most notably the theory of evolution. They maintained that a literal reading of Genesis mean the world was less than 10,000 years old. the clash between “fundamentalists” and “modernists” was dramatically played out during the famous 1925 Scopes trial in Tennessee, but it continues to live on today in places such as the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

       Most fundamentalists in the 19th centaury and today embrace the doctrines of premillennial dispensationalism, an interpretive framework that dissects Bible literally, premillennialists find all kinds of hidden meanings, hints, clues, messages that unlock prophetic secrets not readily obvious to uninitiated. This framework is constructed by selecting verses from various parts of the Bible-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, the Gospels, Paul’s letters, and the book of Revelation, most notably- and patching the verses together for a detailed map of the end of times. According to this view, we are now very close to the end of history as we know it. Soon, Jesus will return and “rapture”the faithful up into the heavens. The Tribulation, a nightmarish period of seven years, will follow the Rapture. During this time, Satan’s agent, the Antichrist, will reign supreme and large segments of the population will be decimated. At the end of seven years, Jesus will return to defeat the Antichrist at he Battle of Armageddon in northern Israel. Jesus will then establish a thousand-year reign of peace on the earth, where Isaiah’s vision of swords made into plough shares and the lion lying down with the lamb become reality.

          In the late 1970s and 1980s, when multiple religiously inspired and powerful political movements emerged globally, journalists and some academics referred to them as “fundamentalists,” even though the specifically Christian context that defines the term poses problems when it is applied loosely in a cross-cultural way. What does it mean to talk of Islamic or Jewish fundamentalists? Is a belief in scriptural inerrancy defining component of Jews and Muslims as it is for Christian fundamentalists? the pieces don’t fit neatly. In one sense, virtually every practicing Muslim affirms the Quran as the literal, inerrant Word of God. As is true with Jwes and Christians, the diversity of interpretations of sacred scriptures within Islam is enormous. Various theological, legal, and mystical schools share this affirmation about the Quran, but come to radically different conclusions about what it teaches and what their faith requires. Further, all Muslims acknowledge that passages in the Quran can convey both a straightforward literal meaning and mystical, hidden meaning, simultaneously."

-Charles Kimball