er of GodÆs saving work recorded in scripture, (3) salvation to eternal life based on the redemptive work of Christ, (4) the importance of evangelism and missions, and (5) the importance of a spiritually transformed life.
Darwinism and higher criticism were challenging the authority of the Bible, and the new historical, sociological, and psychological ways of thinking were revolutionizing thought in almost all areas. Many people brought up to accept unquestioningly the authority of the Bible and the sure truths of evangelical teaching found themselves living in a world where such beliefs were no longer considered intellectually acceptable, especially when they arrived at a university, where German skepticism was now the mode. In this situation, some began the process of modernizing Protestantism to adapt it to the world of the twentieth century; others tried to find ways to defend traditional orthodoxy against the onslaught of ôsecularö thought.
The major issue was the truth of the Bible, since the authority for the whole conservative Protestant belief system seemed to rest on this foundation. If there were scientific and historical errors in Scripture, would these not call into question other Biblical claims? Conservative Protestants were deeply divided in the ways that they reacted to the challenges of Darwinism, higher criticism, and scientific approaches to social questions. Some would make no concessions whatsoever to the new historical analysis of the Bible. The most prominent of these were the theologians at the conservative Presbyterian theological seminary in Princeton.
These defined what came to be called the doctrine of inerrancy, which holds that the text of the Bible as originally inspired by the Holy Spirit is absolutely errorless. This was not a nineteenth-century invention. Many Christians in the past had said or assumed essentially the same concept. But the fact that some conservative Protestants...