In Memory of Carl F. H. Henry
Author and towering figure in the evagelical Christian world, Carl F. H. Henry, died yesterday in Watertown, Wisconsin. Here is the article at Christianity Today, of which he was the first editor.
Henry lived in our Moravian apartments in Watertown and I had one of those remarkable experiences when he first moved in. I was visiting some of our members in the apartments and was going through the lobby when our bishop who lived there stopped me to introduce me to Dr. Henry. As we talked he mentioned he was having difficulty figuring out some stuff on Word Perfect on his computer. Being a Word Perfect geek at the time, I offered to help. The next thing I knew I was in his apartment helping one of the great evangelical figures of the last century work on Word Perfect.
He was a kind and caring man, as I knew him. I heard him speak a couple times and was always impressed by his amazing intelligence. When I would run into him in the building he always remembered my (and my name) as did his wife.
As the article at Christianity Today shows, he helped form the whole evangelical theological vision. "Among my concerns," he wrote, "was to engage evangelicals in a discussion of social and cultural problems and to help define authentic involvement." He did far more than that. Here are the closing paragraphs from the CT article:
On granting Henry the Mark O. Hatfield Leadership Award from the Christian Council of Colleges and Universities in 2000, Union University President David S. Dockery said, "Few people in the twentieth century have done more to articulate the importance of a coherent Christian world and life view than Carl F.H. Henry." "No Christian college or university in North America carries forth the commitment to the integration of faith and learning without Henry's influence, even if many on our campuses are unaware of that influence."
Henry's vital relationship with Jesus Christ informed and animated all his accomplishments and dreams. Of that relationship, he once wrote, "Into the darkness of my young life he put bright stars that still shine and sparkle. … I walked the world with God as my Friend. He prodded me to go to college, to choose my career and my mate and still leads me day after day."
