Modernism, Modernist Christianity, and Liberalism are pejorative labels applied to the opponents of traditional Christian orthodoxy by the adherents of orthodoxy. By using these labels, the defender implies an allegation that the opponent appeals to modernity, or perhaps specifically to the advances of modern science, for ultimate authority in the determination of what is essential to faith, instead of appealing to the appropriate authority in holy scripture or tradition.

This terminology was coined during the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, which began near the close of the 19th century in the Evangelical Protestant Christian denominations, and continues to be used in an analogous sense by fundamentalists or traditionalists in virtually all dogmatic religions, including Catholicism, Judaism and Islam.

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