George Marsden currently is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Marsden’s book Reforming Fundamentalism is the premier monograph about the birth and demise of New Evangelicalism as a movement. Marsden surveys this movement by documenting the founding and early history of Fuller Theological Seminary (FTS) – the primary fountainhead of New Evangelicalism. The title, Reforming Fundamentalism, accurately reflects the ideals of the original founders of FTS. The division between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism did not happen until several years later (1957); thus, the original founders of FTS (founded in 1947) were themselves Fundamentalists and called themselves Fundamentalists (p. 10). In fact, it wasn’t until 1957 that Harold Ockenga popularized (but did not create) the term “New Evangelicalism” (p. 3).
Broader evangelicalism is a massive conglomeration of Protestant beliefs, and New Evangelicalism has influenced many of these beliefs. Every serious student of theology and every pastor should read Marsden’s work in order to appreciate and evaluate the recent conservative, American heritage they inherit. Reforming Fundamentalism is a fast paced read and will captive the attention like a good novel except Reforming Fundamentalism is thrillingly true.
Evaluation of Reforming Fundamentalism
Strengths:
- Mardsen seems to write from an unbiased, objective viewpoint on a controversial subject.
- Mardsen writes the early history of FTS as a narrative with plot rather than an institutional history book. Mardsen centers book on key people rather than strict chronological dates. The book develops theme of reforming fundamentalism rather than the mission statement of the school or raw history of FTS.
- Mardsen is careful to distinguish between Fundamentalism of the 1950s and narrower contemporary Fundamentalism (p. 300). Mardsen recognizes that broader Evangelicalism and New Evangelicalism are not the same rather New Evangelicalism as a movement was absorbed into broader Evangelicalism
Weakness:
- Marsden seems to associate the Fundamental-Evangelical (1950s Fundamentalism) cause with Dispensationalism (p. 76). Though the Dispensational macro-hermeneutic was typical of Fundamental-Evangelicals, Dispensationalism was not an issue that defined a Fundamental-Evangelical.
See Summary of Reforming Fundamentalism by D. Borkert for a brief survey of the contents of Reforming Fundamentalism.
