Who are the fundamentalists? What do they stand for?
As far as I can judge, fundamentalists are Bible believers who:
* Hold a high view of Christ and scripture,
* Insist the Bible be taken "literally"
* Believe the interpretation of scripture is obvious, at least to any spiritual person (though differences of viewpoint are not tolerated).
According to the late John Stott, characteristics of fundamentalists include:
* Suspicion of scholarship and science (verging on or drifting into anti-intellectualism)
* mechanical-dictation view of biblical inspiration
* fondness for the KJV translation
* literalistic interpretation, with no appreciation of the distinctions of biblical genre (poetry, parable, narrative, apocalypse, etc)
* separatism [usually with sectarianism], and typical lack of engagement with society
* premillennialism.
The term came to be applied to certain Bible believers sometime after the publication of The Fundamentals (1910-1915), and nowawadays is not normally a compliment.
So whereas all fundamentalists are Bible believers, it is unfair to categorize all Bible believers as fundamentalists. I for one am certainly not one. Though I strive to hold to the fundamental teachings of Christ, I cannot go along with many of the fundamentalists' doctrines, and reject their methodology as hopelessly simplistic and even arrogant (as in "we have nothing to learn from theologians, scientists, and other educated persons").
For more, listen to this 44 minute podcast on 'Why I Am Not a Fundamentalist'.
