From Rallying Cry to Pejorative

F undamentalism" is an overused word with an unclear and contested meaning, often used pejoratively toward religious groups and persons seen as extreme; yet some scholarship suggests that fundamentalism is also an area for interreligious work.According to Peter A. Huff, research should focus on dialoguing with rather than demonizing fundamentalisms, since they are the final frontier for interfaith work. 1 This, however, is difficult, since fundamentalists are typically opposed to ecumenical efforts, and demonization impedes dialogue, thereby perpetuating fundamentalisms.This tension is best illustrated by the very term with which fundamentalists are identified -a term often perceived as abusive.According to Alvin Plantinga, "fundamentalist" is a label comparable to English curse words.When someone employs the term's emotive use, they mean that a fundamentalist is "a stupid sumbitch whose theological views are considerably to the right of mine." 2 Originally, the term was a rallying cry for twentieth century American evangelicals defending their faith from modernism and liberal Christianity.This original, historic fundamentalism was (and remains) a subset of evangelicalism, 3 which is itself a complex and difficult-to-define movement, understood as a subset of Protestantism. 4 Fundamentalism, as a term, has 1.According to Huff, opening a dialogue with fundamentalisms will "revolutionize ventures in interreligious dialogue."See Peter A. Huff, What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms?(New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2008), 8-9. 2. Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford UP, 2000), 244-245.3. See Frances Fitzgerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (London: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 5. 4. Evangelicalism is typically defined using D. W. Bebbington's quadrilateral definition, which locates conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism as unifying aspects of the evangelical umbrella.See D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Abingdon: Routledge, 1989), 5-10.Still, as with fundamentalism, debate From Rallying Cry to Pejorative v 123 its evolution towards global fundamentalism.Finally, I will present several taxonomical and lexical problems associated with both global fundamentalism and fundamentalism in general, followed by a rebuttal by Bruce B. Lawrence.My aim is to dispel assumptions regarding fundamentalism and to facilitate dialogue between fundamentalists and their opponents. A Brief Etymology & History of FundamentalismFundamentalism's etymology and history demonstrate the term's lexical and taxonomical evolution.Though the term was coined in 1920, the early movement began in the 1800s through Princeton theology and pre-millenarianism.The term itself is simple, deriving from the word "fundamental," referring to something's core, base, or essential nature."Fundamental" comes from the French fondamental and the Latin fundamentum and fundamentalis, both deriving from the Latin word fundus, meaning "bottom."8 Fundus is rooted in a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "bottom" and relates to the English verb "fund" and the French "fond," suggesting a source or wellspring from which a supply comes.In essence, a fundamental is a thing's foundation.9 For early evangelical fundamentalists, these foundations were core tenets or dogmas upon which other tenets or dogmas rest.This simple definition is what Curtis Lee Laws meant when he coined the term "fundamentalist" in the summer of 1920.Writing for The Watchman-Examiner, Laws defines fundamentalists as "those who still cling to the great fundamentals and who mean to do battle royal for the fundamentals."10 Laws -a self-described fundamentalist -did not specify what these fundamentals are.11 Other fundamentalists, however, have identified them as the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, substitutionary atonement, and the authenticity of miracles.12 Of these, iner-8.English Oxford Living Dictionaries, s.v."Fundamental," accessed

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