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Carl F. H. Henry as Heir of Reformation Epistemology
Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D.
Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership
Assistant Professor of Christian Studies
Union University, Jackson, TN
Conflatable Worldviews?
In recent years, it has become somewhat en vogue for evangelicals to engage in an
increasing amount of self-deprecation. In a recent issue of First Things, the editor of the
magazine, James Nuechterlein, reflected on the penchant that evangelicals seem to have
for lament and self-criticism. Although Ralph Woods review of Mark Nolls recent
book on evangelicalism was specifically in view, Nuechterleins comments were aimed at
evangelicals in general. According to Nuechterlein, Ralph Woods of Baylor University
bemoaned evangelicals lack of ability "to embrace the ecclesial virtues of other Christian
bodies, especially those of the [Roman] Catholic Church."
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Nuectherlein, himself
obviously sympathetic to much of Woods critique, nonetheless observed,
The problem is that [Woods] prescriptions call for, in effect, a squaring of the
theological and ecclesial circle. . . . But all systems of thought, religious or
otherwise, are partial. They are also all package deals. Their distinctive strengths
come together with distinctive weaknesses. Neither in theology or anywhere else
can we maximize all good things at once.
Prof. Wood wants an evangelicalism that will be at once individual and
communal, fully engaged with the culture, and yet distinct from it, authentically
Protestant and authentically Catholic. He wants, in short, an evangelicalism that
will no longer be distinctly evangelicaleven as he wants a Billy Graham who
would no longer be Billy Graham. We cannot blend incommensurable qualities.
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1
James Nuechterlein, "Evangelical and Catholic Together?" First Things (October 2001:
8).
2
Ibid., 9.