Carl F. H. Henry, known as the 'dean' of evangelical theologians, dies at 90

by Michael Foust                                                                                                             Vol. XVII, No. 1, January 2004

Carl F.H. Henry, a staunch defender of biblical authority, a giant evangelical theologian of the 20th century and the founding editor of Christianity Today, died Dec. 7. He was 90.

Known as the dean of evangelical theologians by some, Henry helped shape evangelical thought during the middle of the 20th century by arguing that fundamentalism and its belief in separation from culture was ineffective. Evangelicals, he asserted, must engage the culture.

In the latter half of the century Henry defended the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, asserting that heresy is rooted in an improper understanding of God's revelation. His six-volume God, Revelation, and Authority, released from 1976-82, served as a monumental guide to the centrality of the doctrine of revelation.

Henry, a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., died in his sleep in Watertown, WS.

"The mission of the church is to embrace both evangelism and cultural impact," he said in a 2001 interview with Southern Seminary Magazine. "To neglect either is catastrophic. This is the lesson of both Protestant liberalism and fundamentalism."

R. Albert Mohler Jr, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, said Henry's death presents a challenge to the next generation of evangelicals. "The torch has now been passed to a new generation," Mohler wrote on his Crosswalk.com weblog. "The real question is now this: Will the present generation of evangelicals run the race -- or run from the challenge?"

Born Jan. 22, 1913, to immigrant parents in New York City, Henry grew up under a Roman Catholic mother and a Lutheran father. But in 1933 -- "by the grace" of God he would write later -- he was saved at the age of 20.

Henry went into teaching, serving first at Northern Seminary and later at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. While at Northern Seminary, Henry wrote The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism in which he critiqued the fundamentalism of the day and argued that evangelicalism must engage the culture intellectually.

In 1956, Henry became the first editor of Christianity Today, which was the brainchild of Graham and was started as an evangelical alternative to the more liberal Christian Century.

Henry left Christianity Today in 1968 and went to Cambridge, England, to study, but later returned to the United States to teach at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

Henry considered himself a Baptist for the last 50-plus years of his life. In 1958, he wrote an article titled, "Twenty Years a Baptist" -- an article that was later included in the 2001 book, Why I Am a Baptist.

During the 2001 interview with Southern Seminary Magazine, Henry praised the movement by Southern Baptists to return to their orthodox biblical roots. "The collapse of modernism and the reassertion of a commitment to biblical authority within the denomination are significant," he said. "It means that God has provided a new opportunity for evangelical renewal within the denomination and beyond."

Henry lamented the drift toward modernism and liberalism within many Baptist institutions. "We need more than two hands to count up the number of Baptist institutions that have gone down the drain doctrinally," he said at Southern Seminary in 1993. "There are gratifying signs, however, of a recovery of academic heritage. ... If a comprehensive Christian alternative to the prevalent secular outlook is to arise, it will come from Christian academia. The foes of Christian education can hardly be expected to respond critically to their own theories."

Throughout his life and to the end, Henry stressed the importance of intellectual engagement. Two years before his death he said he was concerned about the future of evangelical scholarship. "I am very worried about the loss of the priority of the mind among evangelicals," he said in 2001. "This is a matter of great importance in the struggle for evangelical fidelity. It must not be forgotten." [BP]