In this thesis, I intend to illustrate the impact that Jerry Falwell had upon the rise of religious fundamentalism within the United States during the latter part of the 20th century. By elucidating the various factors that led Jerry Falwell from a little-known minister from Lynchburg, Virginia to becoming the figurehead of the movement known as the Religious Right, I wish to show how one of more controversial figures in both the religious and political spheres of contemporary American history became one of the more influential and infamous men of recent times. By focusing on the predecessors of Jerry Falwell along with the events that helped shape his career, I hope to provide a contribution to the scholarship of the nation's religious upbringing, especially in the modern era, as well as trace the career of one of the more infamous and noteworthy figures of both American political and religious history.