“Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” by Emerson Fosdick

_ : Shall the Fundamentalists Win Shall the Fundamentalist Win is a sermon by Dr . Harry Emmerson Fosdick who is best known as a best Liberal protestant teacher . On the year 1922 . In this sermon he spoke out against the exclusion of modernist and their views . As a master preacher , he already wrote 47 books and was able to drew a huge congregation and radio audiences as well as a famous critics . As a baptist minister he rose to prominence and was known as the weekly preacher at New Yorks First Presbyterian Church . On

his works , he attracted national attention for his role in the fundamentalist-modernist controversy where politicians and churchmen attacked him after his sermon entitled Shall the fundamentalist win wherein he was removed being a presbyterian church minister in New York city (Miller , 1985

The sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win " contrasts the conservative and radical views on the virgin birth , the inspiration of the Scriptures , the atonement , and the second advent of Christ and pleads for a tolerance of both views within the Christian church . In a letter to Dr . Macartney , Dr . Fosdick claimed that he had been misunderstood and that the burden of his sermon was tolerance and not necessarily liberalism (Presbyterian 6

As I further analyze and interpret the document and do some researches I 've come up with facts saying that through this sermon by Dr .Fosdick the conflict between the forces of historic Christianity and modern liberalism within the Presbyterian Church in the USA arises . Others look upon this event as the first real skirmish between liberals and conservatives in the church , it is more accurate to consider it as a continuance of the struggle

On the other hand , it is correct to point to the publication of this sermon as the immediate cause for the conflict which eventually led to the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church . As a matter of fact the ensuing events show that the trend toward modernism , not only in the Presbyterian Church in the USA but also in many other Protestant churches , was very pronounced and that in many cases this form of religion dominated the situation

The words uttered in the sermon presented the liberals both in the Presbyterian and Baptist denominations as sincere evangelical Christians who struggles to reconcile with new discoveries in history , science and religion with the Christian faith . On the other hand the fundamentalist that Fosdick pertains to are those intolerant conservatives who refused to deal with new discoveries and had arbitrarily drawn the line as to what was off limits in religious discussions . As for me we have freewill to give different point of views within the church , and only tolerance and liberty could allow for these different perspective to co-exist in the church "Shall the Fundamentalists Win " is dripping with panic over the numeric decline that would surely follow the triumph of Fundamentalism Fosdick complained that the Fundamentalists were wrongly elevating non-essential ideas beyond the gravity that they deserved . The Fundamentalists were...