Defining and Interpreting Christian Fundamentalism

Much ink has been spilled trying to define fundamentalism and distinguish it from the wider evangelical movement. While this introductory chapter surveys these attempts at categorization in some detail, it does not seek to offer a new or composite definition of the movement. Rather it reflects on some of the reasons for the resurgence of scholarly interest in fundamentalism, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC in 2001, and describes how historians and others have understood the fundamentalist mentality. It then looks at the porous relationship between evangelicalism and fundamentalism, and the ways in which fundamentalism is used as a polemic category (by means of a case study of reactions to the hugely popular Alpha course, launched in 1993), before charting some of the main historiographical approaches to the subject from the 1930s to the present day.