Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 08:4 (Winter 2004)
Article: Carl F. H. Henry: Heir of Reformation Epistemology
Author: Gregory A. Thornbury

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SBJT 8:4 (Winter 2004) p. 62

Carl F. H. Henry:
Heir of Reformation Epistemology

Gregory A. Thornbury

Gregory Alan Thornbury serves as Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership and Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. A Senior Writer and Editor for Kairos Journal, Dr. Thornbury received his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Incommensurable Qualities”?

Recently, it has become somewhat en vogue for evangelicals to engage in an increasing amount of self-deprecation. In 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 Wood’s review of Mark Noll’s recent book on evangelicalism was specifically in view, Nuechterlein’s comments were aimed at evangelicals in general. According to Nuechterlein, Wood, Professor of English at Baylor University, bemoaned evangelicals’ lack of ability “to embrace the ecclesial virtues of other Christian bodies, especially those of the [Roman] Catholic Church.”1 Nuectherlein, himself obviously sympathetic to much of Wood’s critique, nonetheless observed,

The problem is that [Wood’s] 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 evangelical-even as he wants a Billy Graham who would no longer be Billy Graham. We cannot blend incommensurable qualities.2

Nuectherlein’s observations hit the mark. And they stung. They revealed so much about the identity crisis within evangelicalism, and about the ways in which evangelicals are constantly looking over their collective shoulders, doubting themselves and their theological tradition. Now, at times, lament is certainly an appropriate theme, and clearly it can be done well. But such persistent selfcritical navel-gazing discourages a new generation of young evangelicals about the resources of our own intellectual tradition, and leaves them especially susceptible to any other thoughtful alternative systems. And so in the last two decades evangelicals have witnessed a ...

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