Toward a Recovery of Christian Belief: The Rutherford Lectures (Paperback)

by Carl F. H. Henry (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891075887
• ISBN-13: 978-0891075882
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,369,770 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and compelling call to reason, December 9, 2002

By	Brian Douglas (Brighton, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the published form of the four Rutherford Lectures C.F.H. Henry gave in 1989 at Rutherford House in Edinburgh.

Henry begins by showing Christians how they have abandoned their "intellectual birthright" and settled for "a mess of pseudo-intellectual pottage." He argues that modern Evangelicals have in fact cast off their moral and epistemic moorings by trading the foundation of Scripture for anti-Christian thought systems. Henry identifies the decay of Western society as the result of this trade.

Henry then argues that a return to the presuppositional method, founded upon the axioms given by God in Scripture, will return Christianity to its proper place in the intellectual arena and cause a radical change in the church. Only then, says Henry, will we again drink from the "eternal springs" found in the glorious truths of God's Word and drastically alter our sinking society.

Marvellously written and enjoyable to read, I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Christian thought and desires to see the destructive trends of our society reversed.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Theology from Evangelicalism's Elder Statesman, July 9, 2000

By	Daniel R. Streett (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This slim volume is made up of four lectures Henry delivered in a 1989 tour of Scotland. Demonstrating the truth of Christianity's truth claims has served as the driving passion of Henry's life and work and these addresses have the same focus. Chapter One sets the tone with an overview of the current state of philosophy, theology and apologetics -- in Henry's opinion, all dominated by an underappreciation for the central Christian concept of rational propositional revelation. Chapter Two deals with the controverisal subject of presuppositions and their role in theology and apologetics. Henry is a dedicated presuppositionalist of the Gordon Clark variety and proffers what he sees as a via media between fideism and evidentialism. Chapter Three presents the two basic axioms or presuppositions of Christian theology: ontologically, eternal God as trinity; epistemologically, the Bible as propositional revelation. Chapter Four continues this theme as it traces the downgrade trends in contemporary theology towards irrationalism and offers a critique of its premiere purveyor - neo-orthodoxy.

Altogether, these lectures provide an excellent introduction to the thought of the foremost spokesman for evangelicalism in the 20th century. One could wish he had spent a bit more time speaking to the postmodern condition rather than beating the long-dead horse of logical positivism. The recurring emphasis on warrant and the like similarly betrays a dependence on outmoded foundationalist concepts of rationality. Nonetheless, most of what he says is right on target.