The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Carl F.H. Henry)

This short, 80-page book titled "The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism" was written in 1947. According to Bruce Ware in his Systematic Theology lecture on Liberalism, Neo Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism this was one of the key books that shifted the church from being "fundamentalist" to "evangelical". For those of you like me who aren't sure who Carl F. H. Henry is, he:
- was born in 1913
- rejected the rigidness and cultural disengagement fundamentalist Christians
- began the publication of Christianity Today magazine and was its editor from 1956-1968.
- helped establish Fuller Theological Seminary
- took part in the launching of the National Association of Evangelicals.
- died in 2003
Not a bad resume eh?

Here are two quotes from the "Foreward" updated in 2003 by another Christian author...

There are some books that are important to keep in print simply because they serve as instructive museum pieces. They give us glimpses into bygone eras, helping us to grasp the insights of creative thinkers who once wrestled with questions that are very difference than the ones we presently face. The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism is no mere museum piece. (pg ix)

[Henry had] a hope for a more open evangelicalism that would transcent the barriers that had been erected by a separatistic mentality; and a profound desire to engage culture in all of its created complexity. (pg x)

Then Carl F. H. Henry gets into the nuts and bolts of his argument.

First by saying the church for too long has just sat watching the world go by, or obsessing about one type of sin over another.

Fundamentalism is the modern priest and Levite, by-passing suffering humanity. (pg 2)

But the sin against which Fundamentalism has inveighed, almost exclusively, was individual sin rather than social evil... conservative churches have clustered about such platitudes as "abstain from intoxicating beverages, movies, dancing, card-playing, and smoking" (pg 7)

This sentence made me smile but then made me think. At first I thought he was just an "old guy" upset with the new drums and guitar in the church... but I'm hoping it wasn't that he was upset with. If Henry was against the songs that have lyrics that don't even mention "God", "Christ", "Jesus" or "Saviour" then I am with him!!!! God, raise up more composers who will write Christ-centered songs for the modern church!

There is also a tendency to replace great church music by a barn-dance variety of semi-religious choruses; some churches have almost become spiritualized juke boxes. (pg 5)

Then he discusses "the kingdom":

The kingdom is here, and it is not here... the kingdom exists in incomplete realization (pg 48)

The kingdom is not wholly future - Rom 14:17, 1 Cor 4:20, Col 1:13, Heb 12:28, Rev 1:9...
Yet the kingdom has a glorious future aspect - 1 Cor 15:24, 1 Cor 15:50, 2 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 4:18, 2 Pet 1:10-11, Rev 11:15, Rev 12:10, Acts 1:6. (pg 53)

There is a growing reluctance to explicate the kingdom idea in Fundamentalist preaching, because a "kingdom now" message is too easily confused with a liberal social gospel, and because a "kingdom then" message will identify Christianity further to the modern mind in terms of an escape mechanism. Yet no subject was more frequently on the lips of Jesus Christ than the kingdom. He proclaimed kingdom truth with a constant, exuberant joy. It appears as the central theme of His preaching. (pg 46)

Did you get that "[The kingdom] appears as the central theme of [Jesus'] preaching." Van Plet would argue that in Biblical Theology the kingdom is the thematic framework for all of Scripture... but that's another blog post.

I think the following has come true regarding the previous obsession with "pre-millennialism" and "post-millennialism" and I think it may be a benefit to the church not to be obsessed with non-essentials.

There appears a tendency to discard dogmatism on details [referring to the end times]; if this continues, the eschatological preaching of the next generation will concentrate on the proclamation of the kingdom, the second coming, the bodily resurrection of the dead, and the future judgment, and will not concern itself too much with lesser events. (pg 45)

He also includes a couple great summaries of our faith. I hope you read these you can say with me "AMEN", "AMEN", "AMEN"!

Two great convictions are necessary:
1) that Christianity opposes any and every evil, personal and social, and must never be represented as in any way tolerant of such evil;
2) that Christianity opposes such evil, as the only sufficient formula for its resolution, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit (pg 40)

[Christianity]
- insists upon a purposive and moral as over against a purely mathematical universe;
- it insists upon a personal God as against impersonal ultimates whether of space-time or elan vital variety;
- it insists upon a divine creation as over against a naturalistic evolution;
- it insists that man's uniqueness is a divine endowment rather than a human achievement;
- it insists that man's predicament is not an animal inheritance nor a necessity of his nature but rather a consequence of his voluntary revolt against God;
- it insists that salvation can be provided only by God, as against the view that man is competent to save himself;
- it insists that the Scriptures are a revelation lighting the way to the divine incarnation in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of mankind, as against the view that they stand among many records of religious experience without a difference in kind;
- it insists that history is bound up with man's acceptance or rejection of the God-man, rather than that history is primarily what happens among nations;
- it insists that the future is not an open question, but that world events move toward an ultimate consummation in a future judgment of the race. (pg 58)

Henry touches on evangelism and missions by saying:

That evangelicalism may not create a fully Christian civilization does not argue against an effort to win as many areas as possible by the redemptive power of Christ (pg 67)

The program of home-front expenditure has been severely criticized, in view of the heightened missionary needs on foreign fields... The distinction between home and foreign missions is a generation outmoded. (pg 69)

The evangelical task primarily is the preaching of the Gospel, in the interest of individual regeneration by the supernatural grace of God, in such a way that divine redemption can be recognized as the best solution of our problems, individual and social (pg 88).

I partially agree with him that the distinction between home and foreign missions is a generation outmoded. We definitely need to be reaching our neighbors and those from around the world God has brought to us, but that doesn't minimize the need to "go and make disciples of all nations". There still are thousands of people groups with no access to the good news of Jesus, and "how can they hear unless someone is sent?" (Romans 10)

Henry then goes on to discuss education and politics:

Evangelicalism will have to contend for a new order in education... For the past three centuries, the state has steadily supplanted the church as the indoctrinating agency, and today secular education largely involves an open or subtle undermining of historic Christian theism (pg 68)

The evangelical mood must not withdraw from tomorrow's political scene. (pg 72)

He briefly makes mention of church buildings by stating:

The day has now come for evangelicalism to rethink its whole building program. By tremendous outlay of funds, most church communities provide a worship structure which usually stands idle except for two Sunday services and a mid-week prayer meeting, if the latter. No secular steward could long be happy about such a minimal use of facilities representing so disproportionate an investment. (pg 70)

And a quote which summarizes the book:

A Christianity without a passion to turn the world upside down is not reflective of apostolic Christianity (pg 16)