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Baptists and Fundamentalism in Inter-war Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

D. W. Bebbington
D. W. Bebbington*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
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Extract

The history of Evangelicalism, as Professor Ward has taught us, is greatly illuminated by international comparisons. Britain and America in particular have shared a form of conversionist Protestantism with a common origin and many parallel developments. The study of popular religion in each sheds light on similar phenomena in the other. Comparison also helps our understanding of the differences between the two. Fundamentalism is a case in point. The assertive defence of the faith in inter-war America had echoes in Britain, but the echoes were much softer. The series of booklets called The Fundamentals (1910-15) that gave the movement its name had British as well as American contributors. Yet the militant temper, the polemic in defence of biblical infallibility, and the urge to save Christian civilization from decadence were much more salient in America. Fundamentalism of this kind did exist in Britain, but it was a much weaker force than in the United States.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 7: Protestant Evangelicalism , 1990 , pp. 297 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1990 

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