The Fundamentals Explained

The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth (generally referred to simply as The Fundamentals) is a set of ninety essays published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago. It was initially published quarterly in twelve volumes, then republished in 1917 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles as a four-volume set. Baker Books reprinted all four volumes under two covers in 2003.

According to its foreword, the publication was designed to be "a new statement of the fundamentals of Christianity".^[1] However, its contents reflect a concern with certain theological innovations related to liberal Christianity, especially biblical higher criticism. It is widely considered to be the foundation of modern Christian fundamentalism.^[2]

The project was conceived in 1909 by California businessman Lyman Stewart, the founder of Union Oil and a devout Presbyterian and dispensationalist. He and his brother Milton anonymously provided funds for composing, printing, and distributing the publication. The project had three successive editors: A. C. Dixon, Louis Meyer, and Reuben Archer Torrey. The essays were written by sixty-four different authors, representing most of the major Protestant Christian denominations. It was mailed free of charge to ministers, missionaries, professors of theology, YMCA and YWCA secretaries, Sunday school superintendents, and other Protestant religious workers in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Over three million volumes (250,000 sets) were sent out.^[3]

The volumes defended classical Protestant doctrines and attacked the Roman Catholic Church ("Romanism"), higher criticism, liberal theology, socialism, modernism, atheism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Millennial Dawn (whose members were sometimes known as Russellites, but which later split into another group, adopting the name Jehovah's Witnesses), spiritualism, and what it called evolutionism.

The Fundamentals essays

Arrangement of the original 12-volume set:

• Volume I:
  • The Virgin Birth of Christ - James Orr
  • The Deity of Christ - Benjamin B. Warfield
  • The Purposes of the Incarnation - G. Campbell Morgan
  • The Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit - R. A. Torrey
  • The Proof of the Living God - Arthur T. Pierson
  • History of the Higher Criticism - Dyson Hague
  • A Personal Testimony - Howard A. Kelly
• Volume II:
  • The Testimony of the Monuments to the Truth of the Scriptures - George Frederick Wright
  • The Recent Testimony of Archaeology to the Scriptures - Melvin Grove Kyle
  • Fallacies of the Higher Criticism - Franklin Johnson
  • Christ and Criticism - Robert Anderson
  • Modern Philosophy - Philip Mauro
  • Justification by Faith - Handley Carr Glyn Moule
  • Tributes to Christ and the Bible by Brainy Men not Known as Active Christians
• Volume III:
  • Inspiration of the Bible—Definition, Extent, and Proof - James M. Gray
  • The Moral Glory of Jesus Christ a Proof of Inspiration - William G. Moorehead
  • God in Christ the Only Revelation of the Fatherhood of God - Robert E. Speer
  • The Testimony of Christian Experience - E. Y. Mullins
  • Christianity No Fable - Thomas Whitelaw
  • My Personal Experience with the Higher Criticism - James J. Reeve
  • The Personal Testimony of Charles T. Studd
• Volume IV:
  • The Tabernacle in the Wilderness: Did it Exist? - David Heagle
  • The Testimony of Christ to the Old Testament - William Caven
  • The Bible and Modern Criticism - F. Bettex
  • Science and Christian Faith - James Orr
  • A Personal Testimony - Philip Mauro
• Volume V:
  • Life in the Word - Philip Mauro
  • The Scriptures - A. C. Dixon
  • The Certainty and Importance of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead - R. A. Torrey
  • Observations of the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul - Lord Lyttleton (analyzed and condensed by J. L. Campbell)
  • A Personal Testimony - H. W. Webb-Peploe
• Volume VI:
  • The Testimony of Foreign Missions to the Superintending Providence of God - Arthur T. Pierson
  • Is There a God? - Thomas Whitelaw
  • Sin and Judgment to Come - Robert Anderson
  • The Atonement - Franklin Johnson
  • The God-Man - John Stock
  • The Early Narratives of Genesis - James Orr
  • The Person and Work of Jesus Christ - John L. Nuelsen
  • The Hope of the Church - John McNicol
• Volume VII:
  • The Passing of Evolution - George Frederick Wright
  • Inspiration - L. W. Munhall
  • The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves - George S. Bishop
  • Testimony of the Organic Unity of the Bible to its Inspiration - Arthur T. Pierson
  • One Isaiah - George L. Robinson
  • The Book of Daniel - Joseph D. Wilson
  • Three Peculiarities of the Pentateuch - Andrew Craig Robinson
  • Millennial Dawn: A Counterfeit of Christianity - William G. Moorehead
• Volume VIII:
  • Old Testament Criticism and New Testament Christianity - W. H. Griffith Thomas
  • Evolutionism in the Pulpit - Anonymous
  • Decadence of Darwinism - Henry H. Beach
  • Paul's Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin - Charles B. Williams
  • The Science of Conversion - H. M. Sydenstricker
  • The Doctrinal Value of the First Chapters of Genesis - Dyson Hague
  • The Knowledge of God - James Burrell
  • "Preach the Word" - Howard Crosby
  • Mormonism: Its Origin, Characteristics, and Doctrines - R. G. McNiece
• Volume IX:
  • The True Church - Bishop Ryle
  • The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch - George Frederick Wright
  • The Wisdom of this World - A. W. Pitzer
  • Holy Scripture and Modern Negations - James Orr
  • Salvation by Grace - Thomas Spurgeon
  • Divine Efficacy of Prayer - Arthur T. Pierson
  • What Christ Teaches Concerning Future Retribution - William C. Procter
  • A Message from Missions - Charles A. Bowen
  • Eddyism: Commonly Called Christian Science - Maurice E. Wilson
• Volume X:
  • Why Save the Lord's Day? - Daniel Hoffman Martin
  • The Internal Evidence of the Fourth Gospel - Canon G. Osborne Troop
  • The Nature of Regeneration - Thomas Boston
  • Regeneration—Conversion—Reformation - George W. Lasher
  • Our Lord's Teachings About Money - Arthur T. Pierson
  • Satan and His Kingdom - Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis
  • The Holy Spirit and the Sons of God - W. J. Erdman
  • Consecration - Henry W. Frost
  • The Apologetic Value of Paul's Epistles - E.J. Stobo
  • What the Bible Contains for the Believer - George F. Pentecost
  • Modern Spiritualism Briefly Tested by Scripture - Algernon J. Pollock
• Volume XI:
  • The Biblical Conception of Sin - Thomas Whitelaw
  • At-One-Ment by Propitiation - Dyson Hague
  • The Grace of God - C. I. Scofield
  • Fulfilled Prophecy A Potent Argument for the Bible - Arno C. Gaebelein
  • The Coming of Christ - Charles R. Erdman
  • Is Romanism Christianity? - T. W. Medhurst
  • Rome, The Antagonist of the Nation - J. M. Foster
• Volume XII:
  • Doctrines that Must be Emphasized in Successful Evangelism - L. W. Munhall
  • Pastoral and Personal Evangelism, or Winning Men to Christ One-by-One - John Timothy Stone
  • The Sunday School's True Evangelism - Charles Gallaudet Trumbull
  • Foreign Missions or World-Wide Evangelism - Robert E. Speer
  • What Missionary Motives Should Prevail? - Henry W. Frost
  • The Place of Prayer in Evangelism - R. A. Torrey
  • The Church and Socialism - Charles R. Erdman
  • The Fifteen Books Most Indispensable for the Minister or the Christian Worker

Online texts

• The Fundamentals, in the 12-volume scheme:
  • Volumes I-VII: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume IV-IX: page images at HathiTrust
  • Volume X: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume XI: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume XII: page images at HathiTrust
• Torrey's 4 volume set (downloadable PDFs) at Northwestern Theological Seminary. Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4

Further reading

• Book: Almond, Gabriel A.. Strong Religion: the Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World. R. Scott Appleby. Emmanuel Sivan. University of Chicago Press. 2003. 0-226-01497-5. Chicago. 50562054. Gabriel Almond.
• Book: Gloege, Timothy. Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business, and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism. University of North Carolina Press. 2015. 978-1469621012. Chapel Hill. 162–192.
• Book: Marsden, George M. . George Marsden . Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism . . . 1991 . 0-8028-0539-6 . 22710248.
• Book: Marsden, George M. . George Marsden . The Fundamentals . https://books.google.com/books?id=9swPktfLJigC&pg=PA118 . Fundamentalism and American Culture . . . 2006 . 118–123 . 0-19-530047-5 . 61445933.
• Book: Numbers, Ronald A.. The Creationists. Alfred A. Knopf. 1992. 0-679-40104-0. New York City. 24318343. Ronald Numbers.
• Book: Sandeen, Ernest R.. The Roots of Fundamentalism. University of Chicago Press. 1970. 0226734676. Chicago and London. 188-207.

External links

• The Fundamentals on Theopedia

Notes and References

1. Book: The Fundamentals. Testimony Publishing Company. 1910. Chicago. 4.
2. Book: Khatab, Sayed . Understanding Islamic Fundamentalism: The Theological and Ideological Basis of al-Qa'ida's Political Tactics . 2011-12-15 . American University in Cairo Press . 978-977-416-499-6 . 10.5743/cairo/9789774164996.003.0002.
3. Book: Marsden, George M.. Fundamentalism and American Culture. Oxford University Press. 2006. 0-19-530047-5. Oxford. 118–119. 61445933. George Marsden.