Harry Emerson Fosdick Preaches "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" - Timeline Event
Founder
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Time Period
05-21-1922
Description
On May 21, 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick fired a shot across the bow of fundamentalist Presbyterians with his sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" delivered at First Presbyterian Church in New York City. Accusing fundamentalists of being "essentially illiberal and intolerant," Fosdick's minced no words in defending the new, modern theology and disputing traditional doctrines like the virgin birth of Christ, the inerrancy of the Bible, and Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross. The sermon is unusual in that regard; few Protestant pastors in the early 1920s openly stated modernist doctrines to their often more conservative parishioners.
In response, Presbyterian fundamentalists forced Fosdick to resign his pastorate in order to escape a formal trial in 1924. The incident made Fosdick a martyr to the liberal faction of mainline Christianity, but he quickly found a new home at Park Avenue Baptist Church and a new friend in John D. Rockefeller Jr.
In response, Presbyterian fundamentalists forced Fosdick to resign his pastorate in order to escape a formal trial in 1924. The incident made Fosdick a martyr to the liberal faction of mainline Christianity, but he quickly found a new home at Park Avenue Baptist Church and a new friend in John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Interactive Timeline(s)
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Religious Groups
Timeline Entries for the same religious group: Independent Fundamentalist FamilyIndependent Fundamentalist Family: Other ARDA Links
Presbyterian-Reformed Family: Other ARDA Links
Presbyterian-Reformed Family: Religious Family Tree
Biographies
Fosdick, Harry EmersonMovements
Christian ModernismRelated Dictionary Terms
ChristianityPhotographs
'Shall the Fundamentalists Win' title page- Internet Archive
Harry Fosdick portrait- Library of Congress- Courtesy of the Special Collections Department University of Iowa Libraries
First Presbyterian Church, New York City- Internet Archive- from The Services in celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the founding of the Old First Presbyterian Church in the city of New York
Book/Journal Source(s)
Miller, Robert Moats, 1985. Harry Emerson Fosdick: Preacher, Pastor, Prophet New York: Oxford University Press.Web Source(s)
https://web.archive.org/web/20210726185402/http://baptiststudiesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/shall-the-fundamentalists-win.pdfThe full text of Fosdick's sermon is available here.
Web Page Contributor
Paul MatzkoAffliated with: Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D. in History
