research!

[kayre]

Haven't posted about my research into the history of American Protestant Christian Fundamentalism for a while, partly because church organist/Christmas, but also because I got into a tangle over the early relevant documents. Today I think I finally sorted out my confusion.

The early blockbuster documents are indeed the 12 volume set of The Fundamentals, with multiple authors, of which I bought a set. Those were condensed into a four volume set in 1918. But the tricky part is that the main editor wrote his OWN Fundamentals-- The Fundamentals of Christian Doctrine by R. A. Torrey, 1918. And it appears to me that modern fundamentalists are most likely to be referring to his book rather than the first volumes, though I'm not positive of that. I've also read a reliable comment that his work is more extreme than the early collections.


At any rate, my research path is clear for a while. Continue to read Kung's Christianity. Read the first edition Fundamentals. Follow whatever tangents those two lead me on. Eventually scan the 2nd Edition Fundamentals, and then Torrey's book.

Today's tangents: R. A. Torrey, the YMCA, Muscular Christianity, "phophetic" (typo or no? it's complicated), Christoph Schrempf.

Comments

[amaebi]

There are books and other writings that people refer to in some kind of legendary way, rather than actually talking about the texts of the book-- like the Bible, or what always seems to be referred to as "Saul Alinsky." I imagine it's hard to distinguish those?