Miller on Carl F. Henry
April 12, 2005
Pantagruelist Eric Miller writes incisively on the legacy of Carl F.H. Henry in the latest Touchstone (not available online as of this writing). Describing how Henry almost single-handedly fashioned “Evangelicalism” as the dominant form of Protestant Christianity in the latter half of the twentieth century through his founding and guidance of Christianity Today, Miller judges Henry’s life-long mission of uniting Protestant Christians in what he termed the “age-old battle against unbelief” as a mixed success, at best:Like so many Evangelicals of his generation, Henry tended to take for granted the ability of Christians to achieve a high, healthy level of communal cohesion irrespective of creed, confession, or geographical location. Failing adequately to grasp the historically contingent nature of the communal elements–the practices, rituals, social forms–that Christian formation requires, he relied too heavily on the ecclesial elevation of Scripture alone to forge Christian communities.It is in large part the mission of The New Pantagruel to respond adequately–as God-haunted heirs of a deeply attenuated and threatened faith–to the legacy Miller describes; to craft an answer to the human need for both particularity and catholicity that keeps the faith, and keeps it well. Of course Miller leaves it to this old Jebbie to name the elephant at such “ecumenical” gatherings as this journal: can we be truly catholic without being Catholic, and is that, perhaps, the particularism that best keeps the faith?
Yes, as he put it in 1957, “the awareness of biblical revelation as relevant to the whole of life grants contemporary civilization the living prospect of a rationally satisfying explanation of human aspirations and problems.” But how do we live, day to day, this “rationally satisfying explanation?”
This is the sort of question we today find ourselves facing again and again. We long for the kind of cultural and communal richness, rooted deeply in the past, that might shape us into a people able to keep the faith, and keep it well, in these daunting times. …
Is it possible that Evangelicalism as a religious tradition is somehow responsible for this, our contemporary malaise? Perhaps. The spiritual and theological vitality that Evangelicals like Henry have called for may actually, in a sad irony, be at odds with the grand vision they promote. Put simply, the histories of our race reveal that unity, whether in families, nations, or churches, only becomes durable and sound when, paradoxically, it honors the personal, communal, and even intellectual particularity that is always present when humans flourish.
To the extent that Evangelicals have pushed to the side the healthy ecclesiastical and theological particularities of their constituents, to that extent they may have damaged the very elements that deep catholicity requires.
This is Miller on Carl F. Henry in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: On the Advantages of Civility and Goodness, Evil and Inhumanity | Next: Deja Vu All Over Again | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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