| Birth Name: | Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry |
| Birth Date: | 22 January 1913 |
| Alma Mater: | Boston University Northern Baptist Theological Seminary Wheaton College |
| School Tradition: | Evangelicalism, progressive fundamentalism |
| Notable Ideas: | Presuppositional apologetics |
Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry (January 22, 1913 – December 7, 2003) was an American evangelical Christian theologian who provided intellectual and institutional leadership to the neo-evangelical movement in the mid-to-late 20th century. He was ordained in 1942 after graduating from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary and went on to teach and lecture at various schools and publish and edit many works surrounding the neo-evangelical movement. His early book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947), was influential in calling evangelicals to differentiate themselves from separatist fundamentalism and claim a role in influencing the wider American culture.[1] He was involved in the creation of numerous major evangelical organizations that contributed to his influence in Neo-evangelicalism and lasting legacy, including the National Association of Evangelicals, Fuller Theological Seminary, Evangelical Theological Society, Christianity Today magazine (of which he was the founding editor), and the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. The Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity International University seek to carry on his legacy.[2] His ideas about Neo-evangelism are still debated to this day and his legacy continues to inspire change in American social and political culture.
Henry grew up in Long Island, New York 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.
In 1932, at the age of 19, he became editor of The Smithtown Times and later a stringer for The New York Times.[3] The next year, after becoming a Christian, he decided to go to college to begin a life of Christian service.
His wife Helga Bender Henry wrote a book in 1955 about the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. In 1999 she published Cameroon on a Clear Day about her parents' work in that country.[4]
Their son Paul B. Henry was a U.S. Congressman from Michigan from 1985 until his death in 1993.[5]
Frank E. Gaebelein, then headmaster of The Stony Brook School, gave him a catalogue to the evangelical liberal arts Wheaton College.[6] He enrolled in 1935, where he was greatly influenced by the philosophical teaching of Gordon Clark. While at Wheaton, Henry also taught typing and journalism. There he met Helga, a missionary kid, whom he married in August 1940. He received both bachelor's and master's degrees from Wheaton. He then earned a Doctor of Theology degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. Henry was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1942. He also earned a PhD from Boston University in 1949.
Henry taught at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1942 to 1947.[7] Also in 1942, Henry took part in launching the National Association of Evangelicals, serving on its board for several years and being book editor of their magazine United Evangelical Action.
In 1947, Henry joined with Harold Ockenga, Harold Lindsell, Edward John Carnell, and radio evangelist Charles E. Fuller to help establish Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He served as acting dean in the seminary's first year and remained there as a professor until he left to establish Christianity Today magazine.
In 1949, Henry was part of the meeting of evangelical scholars who discussed the need for an organization "to promote serious academic discussion," and suggested the name adopted by the resulting organization: the Evangelical Theological Society.[8]
Henry taught as a visiting professor or guest lecturer at colleges, universities, seminaries, and conferences across the United States and around the world, including in Japan, Singapore, India, Liberia, South Korea, Yugoslavia, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Romania. These institutions include the Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission, Bethel University (Minnesota), Christian Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College, Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, Gordon Divinity School (which is now known as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), Hillsdale College, Hong Kong Baptist College (which is now called Hong Kong Baptist University), Latin American Theological Seminary, Soongsil University, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now renamed as Palmer Theological Seminary), The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Winona Lake Summer School of Theology. He also served as the chairman for international conferences and consultations, including the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin in 1966.
In the early 1980s Henry was a founding board member of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, with which he remained active until the mid-1990s.
His first book was . His second book,, is a critique that rejects modern liberalism and preserves a doctrinal focus on the Bible, but also rejects the rigidness and disengagement of Fundamentalists. The book firmly established Henry as one of the leading Evangelical scholars.
In 1956, Henry became the first editor-in-chief of the magazine Christianity Today, which was founded by evangelist Billy Graham to serve as a scholarly voice for evangelical Christianity and a challenge to the liberal Christian Century. He was the magazine's editor until 1968.
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 called presuppositional apologetics. Henry regarded all truth as propositional, and Christian doctrine as "the theorems derived from the axioms of revelation."[9]
Henry was one of the most influential figures in the development of Neo-Evangelicalism, which emerged in the 1940s and 1950s as a response to the fundamentalist-modernist controversies of the early 20th century. Henry sought to create a new movement that would combine orthodox Christian theology with broader cultural engagement rather than just within Christianity.[10] David F. Wells says Henry's belief in the authority of scripture and the importance of God as the foundation of Christianity helped to recover a more biblically grounded theology in contrast to the theological liberalism of the early 20th century.[11] Henry's influence would likely not have had as far of a reach if not for his founding of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today and his work in establishing Fuller Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Neo-evangelism in years after Henry's influence has started to become more about conservatism and culture wars, however the legacy of Henry has inspired some neo-evangelists in recent years to promote a shift in emphasis to social justice and a broader assessment of cultural and political issues beyond the concerns of only conservatism.
Henry died in 2003 at the age of 90.
As with any theologian, Henry had people who criticized his work and beliefs. One such critic is Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian who believes similarly to Henry that society ought to be formed around Christian ethics but disagreed with the way Henry wants to go about it. Hauerwas writes "Carl Henry, for example, has developed a highly sophisticated model of cultural influence, which assumes that if Christians can only become successful in the worlds of scholarship, journalism, and the arts, then they will be able to reassert the Christian vision in a society that has largely forgotten it. But Henry's vision, no matter how sophisticated, is ultimately one of assimilation, and in the end, that is no more than capitulation to the dominant culture."[12] Hauerwas goes on to argue that the church's main goal is not to change the world, but to be a faithful witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He argues that the church's role is to promote a way of life that is characterized by love, hospitality, and forgiveness, rather than by power and success.
Another critic of Henry is David F. Wells, who did agree with some of Henry's theology but also disagreed with Henry's idea of cultural engagement, arguing that Henry's focus on defending Christian truth has not been effective with our current culture. He says that Henry's approach is too narrow and does not address the broader cultural and social issues facing our society.
George M. Marsden critiques Henry's book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947), saying it was a good critique of fundamentalism and helped to create a new focus for evangelicalism that emphasized broader cultural engagement. However, Marsden also argues that Henry's critique was limited by his own theological and cultural biases. He says Henry is blinded by his social and cultural context as an outsider to fundamentalism and therefore puts a greater influence on cultural engagement than other evangelicals might.