fundamentalism, conservative Christianmovement in American Protestantism arising out of the millenarian movement of the 19th century and emphasizing as fundamental to Christianity the literal interpretation and absolute inerrancy of the Scriptures, the that arose in the late 19th century in reaction to theological modernism, which aimed to revise traditional Christian beliefs to accommodate new developments in the natural and social sciences, especially the advent of the theory of biological evolution. In keeping with traditional Christian doctrines concerning biblical interpretation, the mission of Jesus Christ, and the role of the church in society, fundamentalists affirmed a core of Christian beliefs that included the historical accuracy of the Bible, the imminent and physical Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the and Christ’s Virgin Birth, Resurrection (see resurrection), and Atonement (see atonement). Fundamentalism came into its own became a significant phenomenon in the early 20th century in opposition to modernist tendencies in American religious and secular life. In the late 20th century the movement was represented by numerous church bodies, educational institutions, and special-interest organizations. See also evangelical church.Origins.The roots of fundamentalism are found in the history of the American millenarian movement. In the 1830s and ’40s, much excitement was generated in the United States by expectations of the Second Advent of Christ and an ensuing thousand years of peace (“the millennium”). The initially scattered interest in the subject was concentrated and built into a movement largely through the Niagara Bible Conferenceand remained an influential movement in American society into the 21st century. See also Evangelical church.

Fundamentalist worship practices, which are heavily influenced by revivalism, usually feature a sermon with congregational singing and prayer, though there can be considerable variation from denomination to denomination. Although fundamentalists are not notably ascetic, they do observe certain prohibitions. Most fundamentalists do not smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, dance, or attend movies or plays. At most fundamentalist schools and institutes, these practices are strictly forbidden.


During the 19th century, major challenges to traditional Christian teachings arose on several fronts. Geologic discoveries revealed that the Earth was far older than the few thousand years suggested by a literal reading of the biblical book of Genesis. The work of Charles Darwin (1809–82) and his colleagues established that human beings as a species had emerged over millions of years through a process of evolution, rather than suddenly by divine fiat. Social scientists and philosophers influenced by Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) advocated a parallel theory of progressive social evolution that refuted the traditional religious understanding of human sin, which was predicated on the notion that, after the fall from grace, the human condition was corrupt beyond repair. Meanwhile, some ministers in various denominations ceased to emphasize the conversion of individuals to the religious life and instead propounded a “social gospel” that viewed progressive social change as a means of building the kingdom of God on Earth.



As the theologians at Princeton developed their new approach, John Nelson Darby, one of the earliest leaders of the Plymouth Brethren (a British free church movement emphasizing biblical prophecy and the Second Coming of Christ), introduced a very different theological perspective, called dispensationalism. First taught to the Brethren in the mid-19th century, dispensationalism maintained that history is divided into distinct periods, or “dispensations,” during which God acts in different ways toward his chosen people. The present period, according to dispensationalism, was one of expectant waiting for the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Dispensationalists believed in an apocalyptic millennialism that foretold the Rapture (the bodily rescue of the chosen by God) and the subsequent cataclysmic events of the Last Days, such as the persecutions by the Antichrist and the Battle of Armageddon (see also eschatology).

Although most Protestant churches rejected the broad teachings of the Plymouth Brethren, many accepted the “premillennialism” of Darby’s followers. They believed that the next important event in human history would be the coming of Christ to justify and redeem his people and establish them in leadership over a millennial (thousand-year) kingdom.

Singular interest in the Second Coming—an issue promoted by William Miller (1782–1849) and the Adventist churches in the 1830s and ’40s—inspired a popular movement through the Niagara Bible Conference, held every summer at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Initiated by James Inglis, a New York City Baptist minister, shortly before his death in 1872, the conference continued under James H. Brookes (1830–97), a St. Louis, Missouri, Presbyterian minister and editor of the influential millenarian millennial periodical The Truth. Other early millenarian millennial leaders included George C. Needham (1840–1902), a Baptist evangelist (1840–1902); William J. Erdman (1834–1923), a Presbyterian minister noted for his skill as a biblical expositorexegete; and William R. Nicholson (1822–1901), who left the Episcopal church Church in 1873 and later became a bishop in the Reformed Episcopal denomination.Toward the close Church (see Episcopal Church, USA). Near the end of the century, the millennial movement attracted other prominent leaders, such as the prominent Boston Baptist minister Adoniram J. Gordon (1836–95), a Baptist minister in Boston; and Maurice Baldwin (1836–1904), the bishop of Huron in the Church of England in Canada.

The group held annual summer conferences, which generally met at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, until 1899. The millenarians associated with the Niagara Conference also sponsored public conferences in major cities beginning in 1878, such as the Bible and International Prophetic Conference Conferences in New York City.

Development of fundamentalist views.

The millenarian movement began to grow within America when confidence in America’s destiny first began to wane among some Protestant leaders, faced as they were with labour unrest, social discontent, and the rising tide of Roman Catholic immigration. During the late 1880s and ’90s the challenges posed by the rise of liberal Biblical criticism also won many converts to the millenarian movement.

As the century drew to a close, the Protestant Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) provided in his Northfield conferences an influential platform for millenarian expression. Millenarians supported foreign-missions work and influenced the surge of missionary zeal millennial expression in his Northfield, Massachusetts, conferences. Millennialists were also active in the late 19th-century missionary revival that was eventually institutionalized as the Student Volunteer Movement. Also, they found within the Princeton Theological Seminary at Princeton, N.J., a group of scholars interested in defending the authority and inspiration of the Bible.

Millenarians invited the Princeton professors to their conferences and adopted their arguments in defense of the Bible. Virtually none of the Princeton faculty adopted millenarianism, and some opposed it strongly, but both parties appreciated each other’s support on the issue of biblical authority.

The high point of millenarian influence upon the conservative
tradition within evangelical Protestantism occurred when millenarians cooperated with other defenders of the inerrancy of the Bible in founding the American Bible League in 1902 and in writing a series of 12 pamphlets entitled The Fundamentals. The pamphlets attacked the current Doctrinal and institutional development
The late 19th to the mid-20th century

During the last years of the 19th century, the millennial movement was divided over issues of prophetic interpretation, but Brookes managed to hold the dissident factions together. Within a few years of his death, however, the Niagara Conference was abandoned.

Even before Brookes’s death, tensions between millennialists and modernists had reached unprecedented levels. In the 1890s several liberal ministers and professors were subjected to church trials on charges of heresy and apostasy; the most famous such trial involved Charles A. Briggs (1841–1913), a minister of the Presbyterian Church who had denounced the idea of verbal inspiration in an address at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1891. Briggs was convicted of heresy and suspended from the ministry in 1893. In response, the seminary dropped its official connection to the Presbyterian Church, and Briggs became an Episcopalian. Briggs’s colleagues Henry Preserved Smith (1847–1927) and A.C. McGiffert (1861–1933) suffered similar experiences, prompting them to join Congregationalist churches (see Congregationalism).

Continuing conservative militancy led to the founding of the American Bible League in 1902 and the subsequent publication of The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth (1910–15), a series of 12 booklets comprising articles by conservative leaders from across the country. The series, which would eventually give the conservatives their name, attacked modernist theories of biblical criticism and reasserted the authority of the Bible,

using the arguments developed at the Princeton Theological Seminary. The series was a summary of the previous generation’s attempt to oppose biblical criticism and modernism through argument.

Almost all the leaders who had founded the Niagara Conference had died by 1914. The new generation of leaders were not as firmly attached to their denominations as were their predecessors. And their defense of the millenarian cause was more militant and uncompromising. During the last years of the 19th century, disagreements over prophetic interpretation were expressed, but James H. Brookes held the dissident factions together. Within a few years of his death, however, the Niagara Conference was abandoned, and shortly thereafter a paper war broke out between the two leading millenarian periodicals, Watchword and Truth and Our Hope, that deeply divided the movement.

The fundamentalist-modernist controversy. At the end of World War I, the millenarians, alarmed by the growth of liberalism and disturbed over what they conceived to be social degeneracy, held a number of

affirming all the theological principles that conservatives felt were being denied by modernist spokespersons. Financed by two wealthy Presbyterian laymen, The Fundamentals was freely distributed to millions of pastors throughout the world.

After a hiatus during World War I, conflict between conservatives and modernists was renewed in 1918. A number of conservative conferences in New York City and Philadelphia

that were successful enough

led to


the formation of a larger and more comprehensive organization in 1919, the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association.

As a result of this conference, the millenarian movement changed its name without changing its basic character. Furthermore, the

The 1919 conference placed planks in a platform on which the


fundamentalist movement would stand for

the next 30

years to come.


Conservative-fundamentalist leaders reiterated the creedal basis of the movement


and called for the


rejection of modernism and

all its associated demons (especially evolution), practically abandoned the universities and

related trends, especially the teaching of the theory of evolution. They turned away from the universities (almost totally controlled by administrations and faculties hostile to the fundamentalist position) and placed their faith in the more recently founded Bible institutes. Finally, they denounced the unitive and cooperative spirit exemplified in the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America

, Within a few decades, however, evidence for the new understanding of the Bible mounted and a new generation of seminarians had joined the liberal cause. By 1914, among the Episcopal, Methodist,

and threatened schism if this type of spiritual decline persisted.

In spite of vigorous leadership, however, the association never prospered.

During the late 19th century, the liberal faction in the church had numbered only a few men, most of them professors in seminaries or universities. Their acceptance of higher criticism was viewed with apprehension by parishioners, the clergy, and officials of their denominations. Where legal machinery existed to examine the new teachings, as it did in the Presbyterian denomination, the verdict was given against the innovations of liberals.

By this time, the modernist position had gained a foothold in Episcopal, Congregational, Methodist Episcopal, American Baptist, and Presbyterian denominations in the North

, liberalism had gained many adherents. The battle to prevent the reception and spread of these new views had been lost. During the 1920s it only remained to be decided whether the liberals

. The stage was set for major confrontations during the 1920s, and it remained to be seen only whether the modernists could be forced out of


their denominations.

Not every Protestant denomination was affected by intellectual controversy during the 1920s, of course. In some, such as the Southern Baptist


Convention and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, modernism had not


become prominent. In

others, such as


, modernism had gained many adherents; but the opposition did not become well enough organized to bring the issue to a focus.Serious controversy did erupt, however, among the northern Baptists and the Presbyterians in the northern states. Within the Presbyterian church, conservatives had, with the help of the millenarians, imposed a set of essential

by the 1920s, because a large block of theological conservatives had left those churches in the late 19th century to form the Holiness churches and the Reformed Episcopal Church, respectively. Other denominations, such as the Congregationalists, were so loosely organized that decisions on theological controversies were difficult to legislate.


The most serious phase of the conservative-modernist controversy erupted among the Presbyterians. Conservatives had imposed a set of doctrines upon the denomination in 1910, declaring that the Christian faith required belief in the inerrant inspiration of the Bible,


Christ’s Virgin Birth

of Christ

, and


his Atonement

(redemptive activity)

, Resurrection, and miracle-working power

of Christ necessary to the Christian faith

. In 1922

, when

a New York minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick

, soon to become a leading modernist spokesman,

(1878–1969), protested the activities of


conservatives in foreign-mission fields in a widely reproduced sermon


titled “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”


The conservatives

and millenarians

in the denomination

were able to force

forced Fosdick,

who was

a Baptist

, out of his position as pastor of

serving the First Presbyterian Church of New York City

.A withdrawal of the liberals had been the solution desired by millenarians and conservatives. To avoid a schism within the Presbyterian church in the United States


a Commission of Fifteen was appointed to work


a compromise. The report of the commission took the position that the Presbyterian denomination had traditionally tolerated a diversity of opinion and rejected the right of the General Assembly to determine which were the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. The report virtually destroyed the conservatives’ position.

The focus of discord within the northern Baptist denomination was in their annual convention, which functioned much like the convention of a political party. Beginning in 1920, a group of Baptists calling themselves the National Federation of Fundamentalists began holding annual preconvention conferences on Baptist fundamentals. Thus organized, they attempted to carry their views into the convention. When the tactics of the National Federation failed to make immediate progress, some of the more militant Baptist fundamentalists founded the Baptist Bible Union. Among the Baptists, however, as among the Presbyterians, divisions among the fundamentalists caused their defeat.

Displeasure with the teaching of evolution, as well as anxiety over the spread of biblical criticism, gained momentum in the 1920s.

of his pastorate. He was soon reestablished in the independent Riverside Church.

In the midst of these debates, an event in the Deep South made visible the intense division that had entered American religious life. Fundamentalists, believing that the Bible could not be reconciled with

the view of the origin of life put forward by Charles Darwin, opposed evolution; but not every opponent of evolution was a fundamentalist. Antievolution crusaders lobbied for legislation to prevent

Darwin’s theory of evolution, lobbied their state legislatures to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools; they were joined in this effort by many others who were not fundamentalists. The state of Tennessee passed such a statute, which was challenged in the courts in 1925 at the instigation of the American Civil Liberties Union. John T. Scopes (1900–70), a science teacher in the small town of Dayton, offered to serve as the defendant against the charge of having taught evolution. Two of the foremost


figures of that decade, William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925), a Presbyterian fundamentalist and three-time Democratic presidential candidate, and Clarence Darrow (1857–1938), a defense counsel in notable criminal trials,

made headlines

served as the assistant prosecuting attorney and the lead defense attorney, respectively

.Institutional development.During the 1930s and 1940s, fundamentalists gradually withdrew from conflict and from the national spotlight. During this period the institutional structure of modern fundamentalism developed. Some fundamentalist Presbyterians and Baptists broke away from their denominations to form new churches, such as the Presbyterians, led by J. Gresham Machen, who in 1936 formed the Presbyterian Church in America, or the Baptists, who left the Northern Baptist Convention to establish the General Association of Regular Baptists. Some remained within congregations of the larger denominations. But most fundamentalists joined a congregation of one of the smaller sects that had remained faithful to the creed of biblical literalism and premillennialism, such

(see Scopes Trial). Scopes was found guilty and fined, though his conviction was later overturned on the technicality that the fine had been excessive. The law forbidding the teaching of evolution in Tennessee was upheld in 1925 and repealed in 1967.

By the end of the 1920s, fundamentalists had lost control of the major denominations and had given up hope of recapturing them, at least in the foreseeable future. Although most remained in their denominations, some broke away to form their own churches. In 1932 a number of Baptists left the Northern Baptist Convention and established the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches; four years later, the Princeton theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) headed a group of fundamentalists that created the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Other fundamentalists joined one of the smaller churches that preached biblical literalism and premillennialism—such as the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Plymouth Brethren, and the Evangelical Free

Church, or

Church—or one of the many independent Bible churches

and tabernacles

that arose during that period.


Having also lost control of the

structure of modern fundamentalism is provided by

denominational seminaries, the fundamentalists regrouped around a set of independent Bible institutes and Bible colleges. Many of these schools, such as the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago

, Ill. or

and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles

, Calif., in addition to teaching their students, publish

(now Biola University), not only provided instruction to their students but assumed many of the duties formerly performed by denominational institutions. They published periodicals, broadcast from their own radio stations,


held conferences, and


maintained a staff of extension speakers.

They operate very

There is also a series of organizations for fundamentalists paralleling the professional and business organizations of American society. Doctors, scientists, athletes, social workers, historians, businessmen, nurses, students, and others may join groups designed especially for their interest or vocational area. Chapters of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ exist on hundreds of university and college campuses to provide religious support similar to that provided by organizations of the major Protestant denominations and Roman Catholics. The American Scientific Affiliation holds meetings and publishes a journal in which the compatibility of science with the Bible and with a Christian worldview is emphasized.

Paralleling the ecumenical bodies of Protestantism are the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) founded in 1941 and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) founded in 1942. The ACCC was (until 1969) virtually the voice of one man, Carl McIntire, who spoke against larger ecumenical bodies, such as the National Council of Churches, and against the alleged dangers of communism. The NAE operates as a coordinating body for its members but implements no programs of its own.

The most significant influences upon the fundamentalist and evangelical churches in America since World War II have been the prosperity of the postwar decades, the religious revival of the 1950s, and the alleged threat of communist subversion. The new public image of the fundamentalist during this period was perhaps best exemplified by the evangelist Billy Graham.

The issue of communism that preoccupied the American public during the 1950s closely resembled the traditional concerns of fundamentalism—namely, biblical criticism and evolution—which fundamentalists believed came from abroad, seemed to spread uncontrollably and subversively, and tended to undermine Christianity. The anticommunist activities of the mid-20th century virtually duplicated the history of the antievolution crusade of the 1920s. The evolution controversy itself resurfaced in the 1960s when creationists (those accepting literal interpretations of the biblical Creation account in Genesis), dismayed by the emphasis on evolutionary theory in biology textbooks,

Indeed, they operated much like a denominational headquarters, providing a bond between otherwise isolated congregations.

In the arts and sciences the strongest bastion has long been Wheaton College, a scholarly college in a suburb of Chicago.

The establishment of new fundamentalist denominations in the 1930s brought to the fore long-standing divisions within the fundamentalist movement that had been held in check while they concentrated on a common enemy. One of the most divisive issues for Presbyterians was the question of premillennialism and postmillennialism. While Machen defended the more conventional postmillennialism of the Princeton theology, the opposite view was taken by New Jersey minister Carl McIntire, who later founded the rival Bible Presbyterian Church.

McIntire was the focus of a second divisive issue: separatism. He argued that fundamentalists must not only denounce modernist deviations from traditional Christian beliefs but also separate themselves from all heresy and apostasy. This position entailed the condemnation of conservatives who chose to remain in fellowship with more liberal members of their denominations. In 1942 McIntire gathered the independents who accepted his position into the American Council of Christian Churches.

The fundamentalists’ denunciation of modernist theology and their censure of church-related institutions of higher learning often led them to reject contemporary education; this in turn contributed to the impression of many outsiders that fundamentalism was essentially anti-intellectual. At the same time, the fundamentalists’ withdrawal from larger denominations and their decrying of certain trends in contemporary society conveyed the impression that they were opposed to science and culture. By the end of the 1930s, the largest segment of the fundamentalist movement, believing that a conservative restatement of faith, representing the best of conservative scholarship, was compatible with contemporary intellectual culture, distanced itself from the separatists. They dropped the fundamentalist label, which they left to the separatists, and formed the so-called “neo-Evangelical” movement. Christianity Today was founded as their major periodical. Their new intellectual centre, Fuller Theological Seminary, was opened in Pasadena, California; many of the schools formerly identified with fundamentalism, such as the Moody Bible Institute, also moved into the Evangelical camp. A new ecumenical organization, the National Association of Evangelicals, was organized in 1942.

The mid-20th century to the present

Although fundamentalism was pushed to the fringe of the Christian community by the new Evangelical movement, it continued to grow as new champions arose. The Baptist Bible Fellowship, formed in 1950, became one of the largest fundamentalist denominations; Jerry Falwell, subsequently a prominent televangelist, emerged as the movement’s leading spokesperson in the 1970s. Liberty University, founded by Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1971; Bob Jones University, founded as Bob Jones College in College Point, Florida, by Bob Jones, Sr., in 1927 (the school relocated to Cleveland, Tennessee, and then to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1947); and Regent University, founded by the televangelist Pat Robertson in 1978, were the movement’s main intellectual centres. Television, which provided direct access to the public, assisted the careers of a number of fundamentalist religious leaders; in addition to Falwell, they included Tim LaHaye, head of a pastorate in San Diego and coauthor of a popular series of novels based on the Revelation to John.

In the 1960s, religious conservatives and fundamentalists became involved in a renewed controversy over the teaching of evolution in the public schools. Defending the doctrine of creationism—the view that the account of the Creation presented in Genesis is literally correct—they sought again to ban the teaching of evolution

in the public schools. In the 1970s creationists campaigned for the mandatory

or to require the teaching of the Genesis


account wherever evolutionary theory was taught.

This was followed by an attempt to mandate

Some fundamentalists also attempted to require the teaching of so-called “creation science,” or “scientific creationism,” which presumed to present

creationism and evolutionary theory as alternative scientific models. All of these movements were successfully challenged in the U.S. courts on constitutional grounds. The fundamentalist creationists gained some ground in conservative areas, and the issue generated a broader controversy concerning the rights of parents to determine what their children are taught. Also during this period the so-called Moral Majority, a fundamentalist citizens’ organization under the leadership of Baptist minister Jerry Falwell of Virginia, crusaded against legalized abortion, homosexual rights, and the women’s Equal Rights Amendment and crusaded for school prayer, increased defense spending, and a strong anticommunist foreign policy.

Fundamentalist beliefs have not changed significantly since the time of the Niagara conferences. The greatest theological excitement in the history of modern fundamentalism was generated by the theology of Karl Barth, whose emphasis on biblical authority was seen by many to reflect fundamentalist concerns.

Though fundamentalists are not notably ascetic, they do observe certain taboos. Most fundamentalists do not smoke or drink alcoholic beverages and usually do not dance or attend movies and plays. At most Bible institutes and fundamentalist colleges, these practices are strictly forbidden. Worship practices may vary from denomination to denomination but are usually nonliturgical and heavily influenced by revivalism. A sermon with congregational singing and prayer are common elements of fundamentalist services

the Genesis account as a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution. In the 1990s some creationists advocated the teaching of a doctrine known as “intelligent design,” according to which the diversity and complexity of living things is impossible to explain except by positing the existence of an intelligent creator. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, creationists were elected to various local and state boards of education, some of which subsequently enacted measures requiring the teaching of intelligent design. In some cases the measures were blocked by the courts or were repealed, and some creationists lost their seats to emboldened defenders of evolution.

In 1979 Falwell founded the Moral Majority, a civic organization that crusaded against what it viewed as negative cultural trends, especially legalized abortion, the women’s movement, and the gay rights movement. It also lobbied for prayer in public schools, increased defense spending, a strong anticommunist foreign policy, and continued American support for the State of Israel. The Moral Majority led a new generation of fundamentalists beyond simply denouncing cultural trends and back into an engagement with contemporary life in the political arena. Falwell cooperated with nonfundamentalists on common secular causes but remained aloof from the major fundamentalist organizations. Meanwhile, the Evangelicals campaigned on many of the same issues, thus blurring the boundaries between the two movements.

By the 1980s fundamentalists had rebuilt all the institutional structures that had been lost when they separated from the older denominations. As early as 1941, fundamentalist groups had come together in the American Council of Christian Churches, and in 1948 they joined with like-minded Christians around the world to create the International Council of Christian Churches. In the late 1960s the American Council attempted to move beyond the leadership of Carl McIntire, who had dominated it for more than a quarter of a century. It withdrew from the International Council to help form the World Council of Bible Believing Churches. In the late 20th century, some fundamentalists even began to engage in discussions with conservative members of the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally regarded by fundamentalists as a non-Christian cult. Protestant fundamentalists and conservative Catholics found common ground on a variety of issues, including abortion and school prayer.

From the late 1980s, fundamentalists sought to build on the success of the Moral Majority and like-minded groups. In 1988 Robertson ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. Shortly afterward he founded the Christian Coalition, which succeeded the Moral Majority as the leading organization of the movement and became closely associated with the Republican Party. Fundamentalists were strong supporters of President George W. Bush and played an important role in the election of Republicans at all levels of government. They also continued to promote conservative positions on various questions of social policy.

At the start of the 21st century, fundamentalist teachings were not significantly different from what they were at the time of the Niagara Conference. Fundamentalists still believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible and rejected critical biblical scholarship and the many new translations of the Bible to which such scholarship gave rise. A significant percentage of the movement continued to use the King James Version of the Bible exclusively.

George W. Dollar, A History of Fundamentalism in America (1973, reissued 1983); and George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (1991), are important introductions to the history of fundamentalism. Jerry Falwell (ed.), The Fundamentalist Phenomenon: The Resurgence of Conservative Christianity (1981, reissued 1986), is a study of the movement by one of its leaders. Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875–1982, enlarged ed. (1983, reissued 1987), traces the influence of an apocalyptic doctrine on American religious life. Marla J. Selvidge (ed.), Fundamentalism Today: What Makes It So Attractive (1984), is a useful collection of essays. Bruce B. Lawrence, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age (1989, reissued 1995), examines fundamentalism in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Henry M. Morris, History of Modern Creationism, 2nd ed. (1993), is a survey of the movement. Clyde Wilcox and Carin Larson, Onward Christian Soldiers?: The Religious Right in American Politics, 3rd ed. (2006), examines the role of fundamentalist Christians in American politics.