The Institute for Advanced Christian Studies (IFACS) was an American foundation, founded by theologian Carl F. H. Henry in 1967, for the purpose of encouraging

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

scholars to pursue their academic work from a distinctively Christian worldview. Henry's ultimate goal was to establish a high-caliber, doctorate-granting Christian research university. IFACS was established with funding from the

Lilly Endowment Lilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and among the largest endowments in the United States. It was founded in 1937 by Josiah K. (J. K.) Lilly Sr. and his s ...

and received support from other organizations, such as the

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is a non-profit Christian outreach organization that promotes multimedia evangelism, conducts evangelistic crusades, and engages in disaster response. The BGEA operates the Billy Graham Train ...

. It attempted to establish headquarters near a major American university, but was unable to do so. In 1986, Mary Stewart VanLeeuwen described the low profile of the organization: "Far from having a physical plant, paid faculty, or support staff, IFACS has only a post office box in Chicago and a rotating board of Christian scholars working in both secular and Christian academic institutions." Despite its minimalist operations, IFACS sponsored conferences, books, and other projects by evangelical scholars over its 35 years of operation. Grantees included Samuel H. Moffett,

Nicholas Wolterstorff Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff (born January 21, 1932) is an American philosopher and theologian. He is currently Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theo ...

, and Ronald Sider. IFACS closed in 2002.

References

Educational organizations established in 1967 Educational organizations disestablished in 2002 Christian organizations based in the United States {{Christian-org-stub