[#] The Saucy Fundamentalist

I was reading an interesting book today by Robert L. Saucy, Scripture: its Power, Authority and Relevance. In it he had an interesting quote from Kirsop Lake, respected Harvard University biblical scholar of the early 20th century. I wanted to share it (and I also wanted to test blogger.com's ability to
post blog entries via e-mail):

It is a mistake often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind; it is the partial and uneducated survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians. How many were there, for instance, in Christian churches in the eighteenth century who doubted the infallible inspiration of all Scripture? A few, perhaps, but very few. No, the fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the Church are on the fundamentalist's side.

Saucy's footnote cites this from Lake's The Religion of Yesterday and
Tomorrow (Boston: Houghton, 1926).

Take that for what it's worth as you read many of the internet debates which are going on today.