According to James Barr (Fundamentalism, London, SCM Press LTD. 1977) the most pronounced characteristics of fundamentalism are the following:
- A very strong emphasis on the inerrancy of the Bible, the absence from it of any sort of error;
- A strong hostility to modern theology and to the methods, results, and implications of modern critical study of the Bible;
- An assurance that those who do not share their religious viewpoints are not really ‘true Christians’ at all.
The word fundamentalism appears to have been derived from a series of booklets entitled “The Fundamentals”, which were published in the U. S. during 1920-15. In them the term ‘the fundamentals’ was used for the elements of traditional doctrine – the inspiration and authority of scripture, the deity of Jesus Christ, the virgin birth, and others – which are dear also to the fundamentalists of today. Sometimes it is suggested that the people called fundamentalists today should not be so called because their position is much broader, more sophisticated, and more learned, less crude and combative, than that of the writers of ‘The Fundamentals” and their immediate successors. A reading of the literature must leave this claim unconceded: modern fundamentalism in many respects falls below the level of ‘The Fundamentals”, rather than rising above it. In any case, the teaching of ‘The Fundamentals”, comes quite close to what is beloved and supported by the fundamentalist of today. By what term would fundamentalists prefer to be called? The term favored at present is “conservative evangelical”. Indeed, some say that the word “conservative” is strictly unnecessary, and that one cannot be a consistent evangelical without being conservative.