S5:E24 Mr. Fundamentalist

S5:E24 Mr. Fundamentalist

William Bell Riley was the real “Mr. Fundamentalist”. And few have heard of him.

So far this season I’ve covered William Jennings Bryan, a man who enjoyed the nickname “Mr. Fundamentalist”. But he wasn’t really a fundamentalist. Experts point to another man as the true face of fundamentalism. That man was William Bell Riley. He was a famous preacher in his day, bouncing around the midwest until he settled in Minnesota. He founded the Northwestern schools to spread his vision of Christianity and picked debates with modernists at the University of Chicago. He formed the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association to help deliver denominations from modernism.

But… he lost. A bunch.

In this episode we explore the life of William Bell Riley to discover why he and the fundamentalists burned brightly, only to fizzle out a few years later. William Bell Riley was the real “Mr. Fundamentalist”. And few have heard of him. That is for good reasons. Riley was popular in his circle and had a big impact. But his lasting legacy is now tied to his schools because he helped take the movement underground and out of the usual channels of public life.

Helpful Links:

  • God’s Empire by William Vance Trollinger
  • Minnesota History article about Riley
  • New Hampshire Confession
  • Fundamentalism and American Culture by George Marsden
  • The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald

Discussion Questions:

  • How should we react to heresy?
  • Do you look for strong leaders like William Bell Riley or do you prefer calm leaders? Why?
  • Do you have a creed you live by? Does your church profess one? Why or why not?
  • How do Bible schools shape our world? Have they impacted your life or the lives of friends?
  • Riley and his friends lost in part because they were all trying to be leaders. Do you think you could submit to the leadership of others? If so, who?
S5:E23 World War One and the Modernist – Fundamentalist Controversy

S5:E23 World War One and the Modernist – Fundamentalist Controversy

The Great War Helped Create the Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy

The modernish/ fundamentalist controversy was heating up in the early 1900s. Conservatives saw this coming a long way off but could not stop modernism from taking control of seminaries and popular pulpits. It was everywhere. It all came to a head with WWI.

Theological conservatives saw WWI as evidence that the world was getting worse. To them, it was a chance to fight for patriotic reasons. Modernists were also pro-war because they thought this was the “war to end all wars”. There would be no more war after this and democracy would take over the world. The liberals fired the first shots in this theological battle because they thought that premillennialism encouraged people to root for the end of the world. That is how the Great War helped Create the Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy.

William Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State in the US during this time and did his best to keep us out of the war.

This episode features the voices of George Marsden (author of “Fundamentalism and American Culture”) and Michael Kazin, professor at Georgetown University and author of “What it Took to Win”.

Special thanks to the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Wyoming for letting me record with permission.

Sources:

Discussion Questions:

  • What was the purpose of WWI? What caused it?
  • Would you have been for or against the war in the 1900s?
  • How can pre and post-millennialism shape a person’s view of the world? Does it have to?
  • How does social Darwinism tie into WWI and WWII?
  • Is WWI an outcome of changing morality?
  • How would you tell a large audience of Christians to adapt to changing morality?