Last Friday I referenced Collin Hansen’s CT article “The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism.” This led to an interesting exchange in the comments section, particularly seven posts by Dr. Dave Doran (“Dave” in the comments) as he interacted with Tim Baylor.
- Dr. Dave Doran is president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and senior pastor of Inter-City Baptist Church in Allen Park, MI. He wrote the foreword to Rolland McCune’s Promise Unfulfilled (part of which is reproduced here).
- Tim Baylor grew up in fundamentalism, including a pastoral internship under Dr. Doran. He is currently working on an M.Div. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. (He is quoted in Collin Hansen’s CT article.)
I’ve found this exchange to be helpful, especially how Dr. Doran articulates his understanding of fundamentalism.
- One of the major questions on the table here is whether fundamentalists can embrace a wider social involvement than some of them have traditionally embraced.
- Coming at the issue from another angle: Is secondary separation the crucial difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism?
Update: Harold J. Ockenga’s foreword to Harold Lindsell’s The Battle for the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976) suggests that I asked the right two questions: “The ringing call for [1] a repudiation of separatism and [2] the summons to social involvement” were the two key notes of the address for which Ockenga coined the term “neo-evangelicalism” in 1948 (p. 11). HT: Brian Collins.
As for the issue of the post, my intent wasn’t so much to discuss the central nature of fundamentalism as to point out what I perceived to be a misreading of what Collin originally wrote. Naturally, this meant an exploration of 1) whether or not the historic terms were applicable/profitable to the discussion today, 2) whether or not social involvement and separatism are essential aspects of fundamentalism which are not shared by evangelicals. But I think these were ancillary to the point I was making initially.