Does evangelicalism need to go back in order to go forward? Many have argued to that end, offering a variety of antecedents—from the early Church Fathers to the 20th-century classical fundamentalists, and everyone in between. Greg Thornbury nominates another voice for that list in Recovering Classic Evangelicalism: Applying the Wisdom and Vision of Carl F. H. Henry. Thornbury reminds his readers that Henry anticipated and repudiated the assumptions and arguments of Karl Barth, Hans Frei, and the 20th-century Continental philosophers long before evangelical appropriation of these sources became widespread. A prudent evangelicalism will therefore reappraise Henry, not consign him to the dustbin of outdated evangelical fads.
Thornbury, professor of philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, laments the proliferation of evangelical laments on the condition of evangelicalism. Instead, he attempts to mount a positive case for the foundation evangelicalism has built, particularly as defined in Henry’s two most influential works, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947) and the monumental six-volume God, Revelation, and Authority (GRA). One could make a strong case that it’s impossible to understand 21st-century evangelicalism without understanding Henry. Thornbury goes one step further. He contends it will be impossible to reinvigorate 21st-century evangelicalism without rediscovering and embracing Henry’s unique contributions.
