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Colleges’ award to Carl F.H. Henry presented by Union Univ. president

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JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)–Carl F.H. Henry has been honored by the Christian Council of Colleges and Universities with its highest honor, the Mark O. Hatfield Leadership Award.

David S. Dockery, president of Union University, Jackson, Tenn., was selected to present the award to Henry, a fellow Southern Baptist, Feb. 1 during the CCCU’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

“Few people in the 20th century have done more to articulate the importance of a coherent Christian world and life view than Carl F.H. Henry,” Dockery said in presenting the award.

Henry was born in 1913 to immigrant parents in New York City, who faced circumstances very similar to other hard-working immigrant families, living with little luxury, and little evidence of religion in the family.

It was after high school and the start of a career in journalism, working for various New York daily newspapers, that Henry came in contact with the gospel. Only 20 years old, Henry left a successful and promising career as a young journalist to enroll at Wheaton College, and it was there that he made friends with Billy Graham, studied with philosopher Gordon Clark, and met his wife, Helga Berden, whom he married in 1940. Henry went on to complete his bachelor and master’s degrees at Wheaton, the M.Div. and Th.D. at Northern Baptist Seminary and later the Ph.D. in philosophy at Boston University.

After several years serving on the faculty of the Fuller Theological Seminary in California as professor and later dean, Henry accepted the invitation to serve as founding editor of Christianity Today.

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Henry has authored or edited more than 50 books in the past 40 years and, said Dockery, “all have called for serious engagement with our culture and the issues of our day.”

“Henry’s irenic spirit has enabled him to interact with others in an accepting way while holding unapologetically to the truthfulness of historic Christianity,” Dockery said.

Through Henry’s several key leadership roles over the years, including his tenure as president of the American Theological Society and the Evangelical Theological Society, “Henry’s influence has been immense,” Dockery said.

The CCCU annually awards the Carl F.H. Henry Scholarship to a journalism student who can bring a biblical perspective to the issues of the day.

“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,” Dockery said.