Discovering my spiritual heritage: Reforming Fundamentalism--Part II

When I received my copy of Reforming Fundamentalism, I began reading from the very beginning--the Preface, the Introduction, and then the body. Already, at the Preface, I was impressed with Marsden's candor and, frankly, insight:

Inevitably one's point of view will shape one's work. Since it is impossible to be objective, it is imperative to be fair. . . . I work from a particular Christian commitment that makes me generally sympathetic to what Fuller Seminary has been trying to do since its inception. At the same time, I have also tried to step aside from my sympathies. I think the primary justification for having historians these days is that they can provide critical perspectives, especially on traditions that they take seriously. Partisanship, then, although to some degree inevitable, is to be suppressed for the purposes of such historical understanding.

This approach will not entirely please those who see Christian history as adequately understood only as a battle in which it is perfectly clear who stands with the forces of light and who with the forces of darkness. I do not have any difficulty with the concept of the Christian life as a battle; I do not believe, however, that we can identify the forces of light and darkness so easily. My world is filled with ambiguities. Even with the light of Scripture we are very limited humans who see as through a glass darkly.

--p. xi

But it was as I began the Introduction that my heart leapt. I "couldn't believe" whose names I was reading as being associated with Fuller Seminary from the very beginning.
On Page 1, I read the names of:

• Harold Ockenga--longtime pastor of Park Street Church in Boston and, at various times, president of Gordon College and founding president of Gordon-Conwell Seminary. "Yes! No wonder I am familiar with his name! He and the institutions with which he is identified were well-known at East Glenville Community Church, the church of which I was a part during high school."
   
• Everett Harrison--famous evangelical Bible scholar and author.
   
• Carl F. H. Henry--"You're kidding!" Founding editor of Christianity Today, and far more prolific and well-known (primarily because of his journalism) than Harrison.
   
• Harold Lindsell--"!!!???!!!" Probably best-known (even to me) for his The Battle for the Bible. --"How was he involved at Fuller?!?"
  
• George Eldon Ladd--Probably best known for his breakthrough scholarly work titled The Gospel of the Kingdom, a book many of us studied at Westminster Theological Seminary in the early '80s! --"This is crazy!"
   
• Charles E. Fuller. (I had to read a little in the book to realize who he was--the guy who not only founded Fuller Seminary, but who preached on "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour"--a program I know my mom used to listen to.)
   
• Daniel Fuller--Charles' son, but also (again, I had to read this in the book to re-discover the fact)--someone who considered Ralph Winter one of his best friends back when they were in high school, college and seminary.
   
• And many others: Paul K. Jewett, Edward J. Carnell, Wilbur Smith, William LaSor, Gleason Archer, for example--all men whose names I recognized even though I am not as familiar with them.

Later in the book, I discovered other men who were associated with the seminary early on and who, by direct or circuitous routes, had had an impact on my life:

• Robert Boyd Munger--pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, California--the man who baptized me as an infant. (My parents were members of the church at that time.)
   
• Herbert Mekeel--long-time pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, New York, the "parent" church of East Glenville Community Church (my high school church) and "sponsoring" church of (certainly, the church we attended while staying at) the Bible camp I attended in early elementary school (and the camp at which, once our family moved back to upstate New York at the end of junior high, I was able to work as a junior counselor for another year or two).

But then, further (though not that much further!) into the book, I came across a whole host of organizations and people who, though not necessarily directly associated with Fuller--indeed, some of them opposed the institution--all interacted with Fuller in some way or another and found their way into Marsden's book:

• J. Gresham Machen--major figure in the modernist/fundamentalist battles of the early 20th century and, eventually--because he was thrown out of the Presbyterian Church due to his fundamentalist views--founder of Westminster Seminary.
   
• Billy Graham.
   
• Henrietta Mears.
   
• Harry Emerson Fosdick (liberal/modernist).
   
• Young Life.
   
• The National Association of Evangelicals.
   
• Youth for Christ.
   
• Wheaton College.
   
• Westmont College.
  
• Carl McIntire (ultra-fundamentalist founder of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Faith Theological Seminary . . . which institutions themselves are closely associated, historically, with Francis Schaeffer). . . .

I realized: These are my people (most of them; not Harry Emerson Fosdick, nor McIntire--though McIntire sure came close to me at various points in my life). Moreover, most of these people and institutions receive from Marsden far more than name-dropping, passing reference. He shows how they are interrelated.

And I realized I needed to read the book just to understand my own heritage. "Who am I?" as it were. "Where do I come from? What's my spiritual heritage?"
******
NOTE: Kim in Montana commented yesterday on one of my posts from three weeks ago, and elicited the following response from me:

I'm not sure what your last comment is saying about your social context and commitment at this time. But it sounds as if you have undergone some kind of "conversion" experience. Specifically, it sounds as if whereas at one time you used to identify yourself as . . . an evangelical, . . . now you identify yourself as something else. . . .

I think my post . . . has . . . stated the truth concerning my perception of and commitment to my social context. I see myself as an evangelical. And I believe I belong there. And I certainly want to remain there.

The question I am wrestling with, however: Will I be permitted to remain? Or will I be forced out? The Christian Homeschoolers of Colorado threw Sonlight out of their homeschool convention because Sonlight didn't teach young-earth creationism in quite the way they (CHEC) would have preferred.

But John Morris, Ken Ham and others seem to suggest that the issue is far more than a commercial one related to whether a vendor might display its wares at a homeschool convention. It comes down to basic church membership. Specifcally: Whether I am forced out or not, if I choose an old-earth and, especially, evolutionary creationist perspective, a commitment to basic decency, honesty and integrity should motivate me to, as it were, "resign" from evangelicalism.

I will tell you frankly: I had thought such ideas were complete nonsense until a few weeks ago. Now, having read some of the history of the evangelical/fundamentalist movement and having read several of the various evangelical/fundamentalist statements of faith concerning Scripture, biblical authority and biblical inerrancy, I see Morris and Ham may be correct. (Ouch!)

But that . . . is something I am (now) planning to explore, here [in the Forbidden Questions blog].

By reading Reforming Fundamentalism, I hoped better to identify my born, bred, and chosen social context. Notice that, having read the book, and having finished it well over a week ago, I still--yesterday--wrote to Kim: "I see myself as an evangelical. And I believe I belong there. And I certainly want to remain there."

But Reforming Fundamentalism certainly clarified some--actually, many--of the very issues that the young-earthers are raising today, that Lindsell and others raised in the late '70s, and that Machen and the fundamentalists of the 1910's, '20s and '30s were also raising.

It is my intent in the days and weeks to come to follow Marsden's and Lindsell's leads (as well as the lead of others) to help clarify exactly what is at stake and why.