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Fundamentalism

A religious movement that arose among conservative members of various Protestant denominations early in the 20th century, with the object of maintaining traditional interpretations of the Bible and of the doctrines of the Christian faith in the face of Darwinian evolution, secularism, and the emergence of liberal theology.

A group protesting "modernist" tendencies in the churches circulated a 12-volume publication called The Fundamentals (1909-12), in which five points of doctrine were set forth as fundamental: the Virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Jesus, the infallibility of the Scriptures, the substitutional atonement, and the physical second coming of Christ. The debate between fundamentalists and modernists was most acute among the Baptists and the Presbyterians but also arose within other denominations.

Source: Modern Language Association (MLA): "Fundamentalism." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 08 Mar. 2007.