FUNDAMENTALISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22835, 20 March 1936, Page 15

FUNDAMENTALISM

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —Your correspondent Dr S. F. Hunter has gone to some pains to ridicule the extreme fundamentalism of Mr Steel. In doing so he has, of course, carefully avoided exposing any of the fallacies of extreme modernism. What I. and probably many others also, would like to know is this: In what way can the cause of the Kingdom of God be helped by making use of such phrases as follows in reference to different parts of the Scriptures: —The early chapters of Genesis "only folk lore”; the story of Joseph "novelistic narrative”; the Book of Daniel “ a text for the times written nearly 400 years after the captivity, in fact, ‘it is very doubtful if Daniel ever existed? ” These are a few of the strange things that modernists teach and expect others to believe. Doubtless, there are others of which I have never heard. As to the progressiveness of the Revelation, I adhere to a school of thought that traces the hand of God in history right down to the present day. Is that not progressive enough even for Dr Hunter? I do not say, however, that I believe everything said or written regarding this school of thought. I believe in using a little discrimination and also believe in avoiding extremes. I do not think that God has given any particular school of religious thought a monopoly of His truth. These schools are all a mixture of truth and error —an incontestable proof of the fallibility of man.-—I am, etc., F. R. Hall. Mosgiel, March 18.