Reveals the history of Black Fundamentalists during the early part of the twentieth century

As the modernist-fundamentalist controversy came to a head in the early twentieth century, an image of the "fighting fundamentalist" was imprinted on the American cultural consciousness. To this day, the word "fundamentalist" often conjures the image of a fire-breathing preacher--strident, unyielding in conviction . . . and almost always white. But did this major religious perspective really stop cold in its tracks at the color line?

Black Fundamentalists challenges the idea that fundamentalism was an exclusively white phenomenon. The volume uncovers voices from the Black community that embraced the doctrinal tenets of the movement and, in many cases, explicitly self-identified as fundamentalists. Fundamentalists of the early twentieth century felt the pressing need to defend the "fundamental" doctrines of their conservative Christian faith--doctrines like biblical inerrancy, the divinity of Christ, and the virgin birth--against what they saw as the predations of modernists who represented a threat to true Christianity. Such concerns, attitudes, and arguments emerged among Black Christians as well as white, even as the oppressive hand of Jim Crow excluded African Americans from the most prominent white-controlled fundamentalist institutions and social crusades, rendering them largely invisible to scholars examining such movements.

Black fundamentalists aligned closely with their white counterparts on the theological particulars of "the fundamentals." Yet they often applied their conservative theology in more progressive, racially contextualized ways. While white fundamentalists were focused on battling the teaching of evolution, Black fundamentalists were tying their conservative faith to advocacy for reforms in public education, voting rights, and the overturning of legal bans on intermarriage. Beyond the narrow confines of the fundamentalist movement, Daniel R. Bare shows how these historical dynamics illuminate larger themes, still applicable today, about how racial context influences religious expression.

This classic defense of orthodox Christianity, written to counter the liberalism that arose in the early 1900s, establishes the importance of scriptural doctrine and contrasts the teachings of liberalism and orthodoxy on God and man, the Bible, Christ, salvation, and the church. J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism has remained relevant through the years ever since its original publication in 1923. It was named one of the top 100 books of the millennium by World magazine and one of the top 100 books of the twentieth century by Christianity Today. / "An admirable book. For its acumen, for its saliency, and for its wit, this cool and stringent defense of orthodox Protestantism is, I think, the best popular argument produced [in the controversy between Christianity and liberalism]." / -- Walter Lippmann in A Preface to Morals / "It is my conviction that Machen's book can still speak today. . . . Even for those who do not agree with his central thesis, Christianity and Liberalism can still be understood as representing one of the literary artifacts of a generation that had come to see liberalism as leading inexorably to a sentimentalized religion that had nothing to do with the God of the Bible or, indeed, with real life." / -- Carl R. Trueman (from the foreword) / Westminster Theological Seminary

Though the apostle Paul boldly proclaimed "Christ crucified" as the heart of the gospel, Fleming Rutledge notes that preaching about the cross of Christ is remarkably neglected in most churches today. In this book Rutledge addresses the issues and controversies that have caused pastors to speak of the cross only in the most general, bland terms, precluding a full understanding and embrace of the gospel by their congregations.

Countering our contemporary tendency to bypass Jesus' crucifixion, Rutledge in these pages examines in depth all the various themes and motifs used by the New Testament evangelists and apostolic writers to explain the meaning of the cross of Christ. She mines the classical writings of the Church Fathers, the medieval scholastics, and the Reformers as well as more recent scholarship, while bringing them all into contemporary context.

Widely known for her preaching, Rutledge seeks to encourage preachers, teachers, and anyone else interested in what Christians believe to be the central event of world history.

We live in a world that seems to be on the verge of coming apart. Shootings. Killer viruses. The threat of nuclear war. All of it is just too real.
Why does the apocalypse craze in movies and video games appeal to so many people so strongly? One answer is it shows us the primal foundations of our existence. In the same way, what's happening in our world today is moving Christians to return to the foundations of our spiritual existence. Believers everywhere must get back to what matters most. We must always remember that our battle, at its most basic level, is spiritual.

So, what are the spiritual tools--the essentials--that Scripture tells us we must remember and use as the end draws near?
In The End Times Survival Guide, you will discover ten spiritual tools the Bible relates directly to our preparation for the Lord's coming--ten biblical survival strategies to live out in these last days so you and your family can prosper in an increasingly decaying, darkening world. These strategies won't guarantee your physical or financial well-being, but they are guaranteed to bring life and vitality to your spiritual health and welfare as you cling to the immovable rock of God's Word.

When life is whittled down to its essence, the real issue is our spiritual condition before God. Discover how you can protect yourself and your family spiritually in these dark days.