Harry Emerson Fosdick and the Controversy Between Modernists and Fundamentalists

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Harry Emerson Fosdick was born May 28, 1878 in Buffalo, New York.
Fosdick married Florence Allen Whitney in 1904, and in the same year he became pastor at First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey. Their daughter’s names were Elinor and Dorothy. He taught at New York's Union Theological Seminary from 1908 to 1946. Fosdick wrote for popular magazines such as: Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, and Ladies' Home Journal; he was on Time's cover twice. He became the weekly preacher at New York City's First Presbyterian Church for six years (Christian). Fundamentalist Christians nationwide attacked his view that modern Christians could doubt doctrines such as the literal truth of the Bible and the virgin birth of Jesus and still remain faithful. He spoke out against the segregation of modernists and their views in "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” A Fosdick publicist mailed it to United States churches, stimulating the controversy. Fosdick did not want national fights with Presbyterian conformists, so he left and became pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church. The church moved in 1930 to Upper ...

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