Promoting Christian wisdom and understanding for the glory of God in all areas of life and thought
The Henry Center utilizes classically-informed thought to address modern theological questions. Its mission is to promote Christian wisdom and understanding for the glory of God in all areas of life and thought. Inspired by the enormous legacy of evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry, the Henry Center was founded as a part of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2006.
As a center whose identity is shaped around the concept of theological understanding, the Henry Center recognizes that conversations about such topics often generate noise, not wisdom. Instead of adding to this noise, the Center aims to harmonize past and current discussions in ways that produce insight, not just information. To achieve this task, it runs a host of recurring programs involving a variety of people from across the community. It also funds faculty-led initiatives which draw attention to specific theological questions facing the evangelical church and academy.
The Henry Center seeks to bridge the gap between the academy and the church by cultivating resources and communities that advance Christian wisdom.
Christine Pohl argues that an understanding and practice of hospitality should be recovered because of its centrality to Christian life and discipleship. (56 minutes)
Alan Noble explains why the modern world makes it profoundly difficult to experience Creation as revelation, and he encourages unmediated encounters with Creation that lead to meditation. (52 minutes)
Gerald R. McDermott examines the typological tradition of the Church, particularly through Jonathan Edwards’s thought, and he argues for a recovery of the Christian understanding of the universe as an “immense Trinitarian symbol.” (61 minutes)
Bruce McCormack outlines the history of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. He shows how early Christians’ understanding of the nature of God moved from a focus on His oneness to a more full apprehension of His Triune nature. (66 minutes)
Fred Sanders offers a Trinitarian analysis of the doctrinal significance of the biblical Adam, explaining how his creaturehood is paradigmatic for human beings and their relationship with the Triune God. (46 minutes)
In this lecture, Ephraim Radner critiques modern pneumatology for effectually denying the “difficult givenness” of this life and implicitly subverting our human creatureliness. (40 minutes)
D. Stephen Long explores a consistent theme in the work of theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar: the relationship between Christianity, modernity, and secularity. (46 minutes)
Moral philosopher Oliver O’Donovan makes an argument for the consistency of the idea of law when it is conceived in a theological context. (40 minutes)
In a 2010 lecture, George Marsden examines a few ways in which the distorting effects of Enlightenment rationalism were resisted in the work of Jonathan Edwards.(64 minutes)
Every volume of the Journal produced since November 1999 (Volume 40) is now available to members in our catalog, and on the first Friday of each month, we will highlight one of these archived collections of interviews. The entire highlighted volume will be available for one month to members and to anyone who signs up for a free Visitor’s Pass.*
Volume 146 of the Journal, produced in February 2020, is this month’s free sample volume. In this Friday Feature you will hear excerpts from interviews with Mark Mitchell about why the modern denigration of tradition has rendered political life so volatile; with Hans Boersma about how the ultimate end of seeing God should inform how we live now; with Henry Edmondson, III, about political ideas in Flannery O’Connor’s work; with Brian Clayton and Douglas Kries about integrating faith and reason; with Conor Sweeney about wrestling with the ‘death of God’ with the help of hobbit wisdom; and with Carole Vanderhoof about Dorothy L. Sayers.
*Follow the instructions on our “Listen for free” page to sign up for a free Visitor’s Pass. With this Pass, you can download these audio files to our app on your mobile device. NB: We don’t sell or share our listeners’ information with anyone else. No one who signs up for any of our memberships, free or paid, need fear that their contact information will be sold or shared with any other entity.
Antón Barba-Kay on the shape of the virtues in the digital age
What virtues do we need to live well in our digital age, and how might those virtues be best formed, not only individually but as communities? In this March 2026 lecture, Antón Barba-Kay examines the notion of virtue ethics, a concept that has become increasingly alien to many. He then discusses how digital technology actively deforms, disassociates, and disembeds our lives and experiences. Barba-Kay proposes key principles that educational institutions can embody in order to help form virtuous human beings and communities in light of what we are; and he articulates three “interlocking” virtues that relate to those principles. Throughout the lecture, he offers reflections on these issues from his teaching experience at Deep Springs College, a unique school that forms students through academics, self-government, and manual labor.
