B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)
The term "fundamentalism" came into existence at the Niagara Falls Bible Conference which was convened in an effort to define those things that were fundamental to belief. The term was also used to describe "The Fundamentals," a collection of twelve books on five subjects published in 1910 by Milton and Lyman Steward. These two wealthy brothers were concerned with the moral and spiritual decline they believed was infecting Protestantism, and sought to restore the historic faith with a 12 volume call to arms that dealt with five subjects that latter became known as the five fundamentals of the faith: (1) Literal inerrancy of the autographs (the originals of each scriptural book); (2) the virgin birth and deity of Christ; (3) the substitutionary view of the atonement; (4) the bodily resurrection of Christ; (5) The imminent return of Christ. These twelve volumes were sent to "every pastor, evangelist, missionary, theological student, Sunday School Superintendent, YMCA and YWCA secretary." In all, some 3 million copies were mailed out.
These ideas had been circulating for some time. The first, verbal inerrancy, had been finely honed by A.A. Hodge, a professor of theology at Princeton Seminary, and B.B. Warfield, a professor at Western Theological Seminary.
John Gresham Machen (1881-1937)
was a leading and motivating force behind the development of American fundamentalism. Machen made the argument that Christian theologians of his day had abandoned real Christianity and had instead invented a new religion, which he labeled "liberalism." He founded the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1929 after having left the Princeton faculty.