15
determination, Paul reminds us, that "that which may be known of God is
manifest . . . for God hath shewed it . . . For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and Godhead. (Rom. 1:19-20, KJV) It is solely by
Gods own determination that he reveals himself universally in the history of the
nations and in the ordinary course of human events. He is nowhere without a
witness (Acts 14:17) and is everywhere active either in grace or judgment.
21
With these words, Henry modeled a flowering of the Augustinian/Reformation
perspective with a clarity rarely matched in modern evangelical theology. What we
know, Henry avers, we know because God wants us to know it. In this sense, then,
Henry defies the sort of foundationalist label with which some have recently attempted to
place upon him, a trend which began when Hans Frei responsed to Henrys critique of
narrative theology. Unfortunately for the Henry legacy, the impression stuck and has
been repeated by other postliberal writers such as George Hunsinger.
22
Certainly,
evangelical neo-Thomists such as Norman Geisler, R.C. Sproul, and Douglas Geivett
would be surprised to say the least that Henry is somehow a co-belligerent with them in
the realm of foundationalist apologetics and epistemology. For Henry, there is no
neutral, antiseptic path to knowledge. Knowledge, properly defined in the way Henry
defines it, is both permitted and circumscribed by God himself. In Kuyperian fashion,
Henry avers that all knowledge owes its origin to God who speaks and shows.
21
Henry, GRA, vol. 2, 9-10.
22
For example, see, variously, Hans Frei, Types of Christian Theology (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), 84; Carl F. H. Henry, "Narrative Theology: An
Evangelical Appraisal, Trinity Journal 8 n.s. (1987): 3-19; and George Hunsinger, "What
Can Evangelicals and Postliberals Learn from Each Other? The Carl Henry-Hans Frei
Exchange Reconsidered," in Timothy R. Phillips and Dennis Ockholm, ed. The Nature of
Confession: Evangelicals and Postliberals in Conversation (Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity Press, 1996): 134-150.