Carl F. H. Henry
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christian theologian
Christian theology
- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
who served as the first editor-in-chief of the magazine Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
, established to serve as a scholarly voice for evangelical Christianity and a challenge to the liberal Christian Century.
Early Years and Education
Henry grew up on Long Island, New YorkLong Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
as the son of German immigrants, Karl F. Heinrich and Johanna Vaethroeder (Väthröder). After his high school graduation in 1929, he began working in newspaper journalism. While he was not unacquainted with Christianity, his first experience indicating a personal God came as he worked at a weekly newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
office, proofreading galleys with a middle-aged woman, Mildred Christy. When Henry used Christ's name as a swear word, Christy commented, "Carl, I'd rather you slap my face than take the name of my best Friend in vain."
He enrolled at evangelical, liberal arts Wheaton College in 1935, where he was greatly influenced by the philosophical teaching of Gordon Clark
Gordon Clark
Gordon Haddon Clark was an American philosopher and Calvinist theologian. He was a primary advocate for the idea of presuppositional apologetics and was chairman of the Philosophy Department at Butler University for 28 years...
. While at Wheaton, Henry also taught typing and journalism. It was there that he met Helga whom he married in August 1940. He received both bachelors and masters degrees from Wheaton. He then earned a Doctor of Theology degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary located in Lombard, Illinois, USA, near Chicago. It was founded in 1913 by the Second Baptist Church of Chicago to prepare students for church leadership, and it continues to represent a theologically conservative alternative within its...
. He also earned a PhD from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1949.
His wife Helga Bender Henry was born in Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
, the daughter of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
missionaries. She wrote a book in 1955 about the Union Rescue Mission
Union Rescue Mission
The Union Rescue Mission is a private, Christian, homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles's skid row. It is the largest, private, homeless shelter in the United States...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. In 1999 she published Cameroon On A Clear Day about her parents work in that country.
Their son Paul B. Henry
Paul B. Henry
Paul Brentwood Henry was a professor of political science and politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.-Early life and career:...
, Ph.D. was a U.S. Congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
from 1985 until his death in 1993. Their daughter college professor Carol Henry Bates, Ph.D. was a noted musicologist.
Career
In 1942 he took part in the launching of the National Association of EvangelicalsNational Association of Evangelicals
The National Association of Evangelicals is a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals. Its goal is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelicals in the United States. Today it works in four main areas: Church & Faith Partners, Government Relations,...
, serving on its board for several years and being book editor of their magazine United Evangelical Action.
In 1947 he published his second book, a critique entitled The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, which, while rejecting modern liberalism, and preserving a doctrinal focus on the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, also rejected the rigidness and disengagement of Fundamentalists
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
. The book firmly established Henry as one of the leading Evangelical scholars. In the same year, along with Harold Ockenga
Harold Ockenga
Harold John Ockenga was a leading figure of 20th century American evangelicalism, part of the reform movement known as "Neo-Evangelicalism". A Congregational minister, Ockenga served for many years as pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also a prolific author on...
, Harold Lindsell and Edward John Carnell
Edward John Carnell
Edward John Carnell was a prominent Christian theologian and apologist, was an ordained Baptist pastor, and served as President of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He was the author of nine major books, several of which attempted to develop a fresh outlook in Christian...
, he helped establish Fuller Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary
Fuller Theological Seminary is an accredited Christian educational institute with its main campus in Pasadena, California and several satellite campuses in the western United States...
, founded by radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Charles E. Fuller
Charles E. Fuller
Charles Edward Fuller was an American Christian clergyman and a radio evangelist.Charles Fuller was born in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Pomona College in 1910, he worked in the citrus packing business in southern California until 1918...
. (His first book was Remaking the Modern Mind (1946))
In 1956, with the urging and support of Evangelist Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
, Henry began publication of Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
. He was the magazine's editor until 1968.
In 1978 he signed the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was formulated in October 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, held in Chicago. The statement was designed to defend the position of Biblical inerrancy against a perceived...
, which affirmed Biblical inerrancy. In the early 1980s Henry was a founding board member of the Institute on Religion and Democracy
Institute on Religion and Democracy
The Institute on Religion and Democracy is a Christian think tank that promotes Christian conservatism in public life. The organization comments on current events in the Christian community...
, with which he remained active until the mid-1990s.
Henry's magnum opus was a six-volume work entitled God, Revelation, and Authority, completed in 1983. He concluded "that if we humans say anything authentic about God, we can do so only on the basis of divine self-revelation; all other God-talk is conjectural." In his magnum opus he presented a version of Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
called presuppositional apologetics
Presuppositional apologetics
In Christian theology, presuppositionalism is a school of apologetics that presumes Christian faith is the only basis for rational thought. It presupposes that the Bible is divine revelation and claims to expose flaws in other worldviews...
.
His autobiography, Confessions of a Theologian was published in 1986.
Henry died in 2003 at the age of 90.
External link - Biography
Select bibliography
- The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1947).
- Christian Personal Ethics (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1957).
- Evangelical Responsibility in Contemporary Theology (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1957).
- ed., Revelation and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1958).
- Evangelicals at the Brink of Crisis (Waco: Word, 1967).
- Faith at the Frontiers (Chicago: Moody, 1969).
- Evangelicals in Search of Identity (Waco: Word, 1976).
- God, Revelation and Authority, 6 Vols, (Waco: Word, 1976–1983).
- The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society (Portland: Multnomah, 1984).
- Christian Countermoves in a Decadent Culture (Portland: Multnomah, 1986).
- Twilight of a Great Civilization (Westchester: Crossway, 1988).
- and Kenneth Kantzer, eds. Evangelical Affirmations (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
Critical Assessment
- D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, eds. God and Culture: Essays in Honor of Carl F. H. Henry (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans/Carlisle: Paternoster, 1993).
- G. Wright Doyle, "Carl Henry: Theologian for All Seasons" (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf & Stock, 2010).
- Eric J. Miller, "Carl F.H. Henry and Christianity Today : Responding to the 'Crisis of the West,' 1956-1968," M.A. Thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994.
- R. Albert Mohler, Jr., "Carl F. H. Henry," in George, Timothy and David S. Dockery, eds. Theologians of the Baptist Tradition, 279-96 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001).
- Bob E. Patterson, Carl F. H. Henry (Waco: Word, 1984).
- Richard A. Purdy, The Rational Apologetic Methodology of Carl F. H. Henry in the Context of the Current Impasse between Reformed and Evangelical Apologetics (Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 1980).
- Richard A. Purdy, "Carl F. H. Henry" in Elwell, Walter A., editor, Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, 260-75 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993).
- R. C. Sproul, John Gerstner and Arthur Lindsley, Classical Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984).
Other Relevant Sources
- Joel A. Carpenter, ed. Two Reformers of Fundamentalism: Harold John Ockenga and Carl F. H. Henry (New York: Garland, 1988).
- George Marsden, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1987).
- James DeForest Murch, Cooperation without Compromise: A History of the National Association of Evangelicals (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1956).