The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800-1930

by Ernest R. Sandeen

Ernest Sandeen’s Roots of Fundamentalism remains a landmark work in the history of religion. A National Book Award finalist, it was the first full-length study to present an intellectual historical critique of the Fundamentalist movement in America. Sandeen argues that our understanding of this movement has been grievously distorted by the Fundamentalist-Modernist debate of the 1920s, as symbolized by William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial. Rather than viewing Fundamentalism as a chiefly sociological phenomenon of the 1920s, Sandeen argues from a transatlantic perspective that the Fundamentalist movement “was a self-conscious, structured, long-lived dynamic entity” that had its origins in Anglo-American millenarian thought and movements of the nineteenth century.
         

"All historians need to face the issues [this book] raises. Serious theological discussion of Fundamentalism tends to be neglected because it is intellectually Mr. Sandeen shows that for the historian such neglect is a luxury he cannot afford.”—David M. Thompson, English Historical Review

 


“Sandeen’s ‘new approach to Fundamentalism’ eschews the common tendency to see the movement as parochially American, rurally based, and essentially a phenomenon of the twenties. . . . It is a highly valuable addition to American and—more singularly—to comparative theological history.”—William R. Hutchinson, Journal of American History 

Genres: History, Religion, Church History, Christianity, Christian History

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Andrew Emery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sandeen does a good job showing how the rise of millennialism and dispensationalism contributed to 20th century fundamentalism. He is thorough in tracing these movements and their main figures and is mostly fair while doing so. He leaves his biased wrath mostly for the Princeton theologians while discussing Inspiration and J. Greshem Machen and his split from the seminary. He comes off as condescending and his liberal colours shows through here.

[Taylor Sines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful history of the failures of historicism that led to the rise of futurism. Not so helpful for a biblical evaluation of these perspectives.