As our final episode in our Apologetics series, we conclude by discussing apologetics pedagogy, education, and training with three recent graduates of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, which was formerly associated with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries as its training arm. Joining us to talk about the experience of studying there and their ongoing relationship with apologetics in the aftermath of what was revealed about Ravi Zacharias are: Stephanie Kate Judd, who is a lawyer...
As the penultimate episode in our Apologetics series, we discuss the need for Urban Apologists in particular to address how Christianity has been whitewashed. For this conversation, we are joined by Pastor Jerome Gay, Jr., who is the founder and pastor of Vision Church in Raleigh, NC, the author of The Whitewashing of Christianity: A Hidden Past, A Hurtful Present, and A Hopeful Future, and one of the contributors to the recent volume on Urban...
On this episode we continue our apologetics conversation by specifically talking about the problems throughout Christian history with Dr. John Dickson, who is the Distinguished Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Public Christianity at Ridley College, Melbourne, and the author of a number of books, including most recently, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History (Zondervan), as well as the host of a podcast called Undeceptions. Apologetics for John...
Carrying on our conversation on Apologetics, we are joined by Dr. John G. Stackhouse, Jr., who is Samuel J. Mikolaski Professor of Religious Studies at Crandall University in New Brunswick (Canada), and the author of a couple important studies on apologetics, such as, Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today (Oxford University Press) and, more recently, Can I Believe? Christianity for the Hesitant (Oxford University Press). In our conversation Dr. Stackhouse points out how what’s happening...
Kicking off our brand-new series on apologetics we begin with the end! Our first guest is Dr. Myron Bradley Penner, the author of The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context (published by Baker), and the Rector at the Anglican Parish of Saint Paul in the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton, Alberta. Dr. Penner helpfully kick starts this series by asking what the goals of apologetics ought to be? He draws attention to many...
Over here at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN we recently had an Apologetics event where we discussed the topic of Mormonism. Specifically, we wanted to help people think through the common question of whether Mormonism is really just another Christian denomination. Here’s a video of the event with three discrete talks and a question and answer time that follows: The talks include an introduction by Campus Pastor at Bethel University, Rev. Laurel Bunker, on...
1 Peter 3:15 is a core verse used to make a case for apologetics. Apologetics is the defense of a religion and, rightly so, this verse speaks firmly of that. While we often find ourselves and our congregations either snoozing this topic, I believe 1 Peter 3:15 gives us more than just equipping ourselves with more knowledge. Apologetics is not a field of study, but a lifestyle. Unlike the college majors we declare, apologetics is...
Evil things happen in this world, and yet God is still somehow sovereign. This is perhaps the hardest part of Christian theology to accept and understand. How is God sovereign over the persecution of Christians around the world, over the acts of ISIS, over world hunger and poverty, or over smaller evils like my own depression, pain, and anxiety? The answer might be eerily similar to the answer to how a perfectly good Father is sovereign over...
After studying under Biola’s apologetics program and then becoming a theology major there, I have felt the tension between the two fields. Apologetics sounds like theology but really feels like philosophy, whereas theology typically doesn’t sound or feel like either. After wondering whether my years of apologetics training were actually fruitless attempts to create an idol from human reason, as some of my fellow students suggested, or whether my theology training would leave me ill-prepared...
My Favorite Proverb There is one particular biblical verse with which I have been infatuated for some time and which I have made a constant conscious commitment to follow. That verse goes a little something like this: “Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of each board…” No… no… wait. Hold on, that’s Exodus. That’s not it… let me see here… ah, yes. Okay –...
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