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Know Your Roots: Carl Henry and Kenneth Kantzer on Evangelicalism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1991)

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In the spring of 1991, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship co-sponsored a two-day conference on the Deerfield campus entitled “Know Your Roots: Evangelicalism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.”

The hosts were two Trinity colleagues: 44-year-old New Testament professor Don Carson and 49-year-old church history professor John Woodbridge. The guests were two influential theologians of the twentieth century, 74-year-old Kenneth Kantzer (1917-2002) and 78-year-old Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003).

After a short introduction by Dr. Woodbridge, the first the first half-hour lecture is by Dr. Kantzer. He explains that broadly speaking, evangelicalism is synonymous with Protestant orthodoxy, built on the material principle (on the person and work of Christ) and the formal principle (on Scripture as the final authority) of the Reformation. Kantzer then looks at what historian David Moberg calls The Great Reversal, where fundamentalists retreated from social engagement. The neo-evangelicals, in response, sought to recapture this aspect of biblical witness.

In the second half-hour lecture, Dr. Henry introduces neo-evangelicalism against the backdrop of Modernism and the loss of cultural credibility for orthodox Christians. Liberalism and Neo-orthodoxy failed on two accounts: they could not give a credible Christian alternative to Modernism, and they could not maintain their historic Christian bearings. So evangelicalism arose seeking to accomplish both, providing a credible testimony in accordance with historic biblical Christianity.

The third and fourth videos, filmed on the second day of the conference, contain an hour-long conversation moderated by Dr. Carson, interviewing the two senior saints. They address issues such as

  • the role of parachurch organizations
  • the significance of the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals
  • the distinction between fundamentalism and evangelicalism
  • whether Marsden’s linkage between scriptural inerrancy and commonsense realism holds up historically
  • the effects of the 1960s
  • the effects of the 1970s
  • the then-current controversy within the SBC
  • whether Marsden’s connection between commonsense realism and inerrancy is historically accurate
  • the place of evangelicalism within the global church movement
  • the pitfalls and possibilities for the future
  • the ongoing significance of the term “evangelicalism”
  • the influence of Pentecostalism on evangelicalism
  • the role of Christian education
  • the danger of evangelical accommodation

and more.

You can find both audio and video for the lectures at the helpful Henry Center of TEDS (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). Those interested in exploring more from Henry himself will enjoy this resource page which includes audio from some sermons and lectures by Henry. [See also Mark Dever’s interview with Henry in October 1997, when Henry was 84 years old, and the new book, Essential Evangelicalism: The Enduring Influence of Carl F. H. Henry, ed. Matthew Hall and Owen Strachan (Crossway, 2015).

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