This is a great article by Phil Johnson on the failure of fundamentalism. Both sides of the battle have failed to some degree. That’s not the point. The point is his criticisms are right on. A sample:
Now, you might think that a movement that was devoted to making a defense of fundamental doctrines would become the most biblically literate and theologically astute movement since the time of the Puritans. Fundamentalists should have produced the finest theologians, the most skilled Bible teachers, and the best writers. Fundamentalism should have been a literate movement theological, devoted to doctrinal instruction, and (to borrow language from Titus 1:9) “able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” Fundamentalism as a movement has historically exemplified none of those things.
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You can survey the landscape of the twentieth-century fundamentalist movement and look for important and influential doctrinal material produced by the movement works where the fundamental doctrines of Scripture are clearly taught and defended and you’re going to come up mostly dry. It’s hard to think of a single truly significant, lasting, definitive doctrinal work or biblical commentary written by anyone in the fundamentalist movement since the time of J. Gresham Machen. I suppose there are some exceptions to that rule somewhere, but I can’t think of any.
