Mar 24, 2021 - Dr. Keith Bates, Professor of History, has authored a book about fundamentalist John R. Rice titled Mainstreaming Fundamentalism: John R. Rice and Fundamentalism’s Public Reemergence that the University of Tennessee Press published on March 24, 2021.
Relying heavily on primary sources that included Rice’s articles for his Sword of the Lord newspaper and correspondence with fundamentalist leaders and local pastors, Bates provides an insightful analysis of Rice’s decisive role in reviving the fervent spirit of American fundamentalism after World War II. Bates argues that Rice secured his central place in the movement by preaching a mainstream fundamentalism that lay between the supposedly compromised positions of the new evangelicalism and the isolationism of hardline separatists. Rice laid the groundwork for the activism that other fundamentalists pursued in their battle against modernism that they saw overtaking American culture, politics, and religion.
The book may be purchased at the following sites: