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Carl F. H. Henry: Faithful Heir of Reformation Epistemology
Returning to James Nuechterleins query toward evangelicals as to whether we
can see our way to remain authentically evangelical, I say yes we can. But to do this we
must begin with the epistemology of the Reformers and their dogged, untiring insistence
that human beings rely, as Luther once put it, "upon the poor tokens of the Word of God
alone." But the Reformation happened so long ago, and evangelicals have since lost their
way, both philosophically and theologically. Further, the Reformers never considered the
conditions of modernity as must we. To whom can we turn? Although many worthies
might be offered, as the title of this paper indicates, I suggest that evangelicals turn once
more to the model set forth by Carl F. H. Henry, a man who inherited the epistemology of
the Reformers, and faithfully applied it to the challenges of modernity. Henry considered
the respective trajectories of fundamentalism, liberal theology, and neo-Thomism, and
unstintingly found them wanting in the light of a Reformed theological perspective
historically, but also lacking theologically in the gaze of a distinctly Hebrew-Christian
worldview. To Henrys level of vision and engagement we would do well to return
again, specifically taking into account his full corpus of written work. As Paul House so
eloquently has argued recently, Henrys early work especially is impressive in its scope
and consideration of the issues. If you have not done so, I would encourage to read such
early Henry volumes as The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, Remaking
the Modern Mind, The Protestant Dilemma, and The Drift of Western Thought which
engage then contemporary scholarship with an ability which reminds us why the early
neo-evangelicals gained the attention of the broader culture.