The Historical and Theological Contributions of the Niagara Bible Conference to American Fundamentalism
In the years following the Civil War in America, important religious changes in the theological situation occurred, including the rise of American theological liberalism. In the face of American liberalism's attack on the basic doctrines of orthodoxy, conservatives responded with a variety of counteractions, one of the most important being the Bible conference. The earliest and most important of the summer Bible conferences was the Niagara Bible Conference. The dominant personality and president of the Niagara Bible Conference through the years until his death in 1897 was James H. Brookes. Brookes was a Presbyterian pastor from St. Louis, Missouri, the editor of a religious periodical, The Truth, and the author of many books and tracts. He was thoroughly and militantly orthodox, and he had developed a mature dispensational premillennialism. The last meeting was held at Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1900. - Abstract.