Deerfield, IL – The Henry Center for Theological Understanding, a ministry of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and its faculty, has been awarded a 4.2 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to continue the Creation Project, a multi-year initiative on the Christian doctrine of creation within evangelical theology.

The Creation Project aims to recover the grand themes of the doctrine of creation and to articulate them in a way that is faithful to revealed truth and in open and earnest dialogue with modern science.The Creation Project aims to recover the grand themes of the doctrine of creation and to articulate them in a way that is faithful to revealed truth and in open and earnest dialogue with modern science. The grant begins this summer and will be executed over the next three academic years.

“We are very grateful for the generosity and confidence of the John Templeton Foundation for this grant,” said Henry Center Director Thomas H. McCall. “The past three years have been especially blessed by the Lord, and, in many ways, the Creation Project has been successful beyond our hopes. Building on the advances made, we will now be able to deepen our inquiry and to focus on several important issues that have emerged.”

While commending the biblical orientation of the project and the progress already made, President David Dockery also emphasized how much work remains to be done. “Over the past three years the Creation Project has made serious steps forward, with the biblical questions leading the way. It is vital that the important strides that have been made continue forward to enhance these discussions and to encourage additional interdisciplinary research.”

This grant is the largest of its kind in Trinity’s 122-year history, surpassing the previous grant awarded to the Henry Center in 2016 to begin the Creation Project.

Mickey Klink, Pastor of Hope Church in Roscoe, Ill., and previous recipient of the Creation Project’s John Stott Award, likewise expressed appreciation for the grant. “The Creation Project has given the church a plethora of resources to help with the task of integration, not only in regard to the Christian faith and the sciences, but also with the interrelationship between God’s Word and world. This latter integrative task,” he added, “is both scholarly and practical, since its goal is to connect every living thing to God the Creator—not only to read rightly the ‘two books’ of God, but to live differently because of them.”

The grant will be administered by the project leaders, Henry Center Director Thomas H. McCall, Assistant Director Geoffrey Fulkerson, and Henry Center staff, along with a TEDS faculty advisory committee, including Richard Averbeck, Dana Harris, Harold Netland, Joshua Jipp, and Kevin Vanhoozer. It will fund five programs, consisting of a research fellowship community housed on Trinity’s campus, annual church partnerships, public lectures and events, an invitation only summer conference, and articles published on Sapientia, the Henry Center’s online periodical.

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For questions about the Creation Project, visit our FAQ page, or contact [email protected].

The Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding is dedicated to the advancement of Christian wisdom in all areas of life and thought for the glory of God, the good of His church, and the welfare of the world.