American Protestant fundamentalism, 1875-1940: Its evolution-birth, maturity, near-death, and reincarnation

What began as an intra-church religious struggle by conservative evangelicals to defend the inerrancy of the Bible and the establishment of prophetic doctrines, after initial great success, expanded into secular culture and confrontations with liberalism in many of its forms, such as the teaching of evolution in public schools and the use of alcohol in society. Fundamentalists, however, could not compete with the intellectual persuasiveness and political power of either prominent liberal theologians, or the secular advocates of modernism. As an act of survival, fundamentalists terminated their confrontations with secular liberalism and withdrew from mainstream Protestant denominations. They organized strong independent churches and, more importantly, established numerous colleges, seminaries, and publishing houses, in order to insure that their conservative message would continue to be instilled in the hearts and minds of the American public, especially the young.