| Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
The new year got off to a great start for us with a very busy January!
The first week of January Jan and I spent three days in New York City at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, the largest professional organization of philosophers. I was honored to have a so-called “Author-Meets-Critics” session devoted to my book on divine aseity and abstract objects God Over All (2016). (Intriguingly, this session was arranged by Erik Wielenberg, whom I had debated last spring at the University of North Carolina on whether God or Wielenberg’s Godless Normative Realism provides the best foundation for objective moral values and duties.) My two critics for the session were Peter van Inwagen of the University of Notre Dame, the most prominent contemporary Platonic realist, and Greg Welty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the most prominent contemporary divine Conceptualist. After they each presented their critiques, I was given the opportunity to respond. Then we threw open the discussion to questions from the floor.
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L-R: William Lane Craig, Jody Azzouni, and Peter van Inwagen |
| I was wondering how this session would go since it has been a few years since I was working on the topic of divine aseity. I have since completed a second research project on the atonement and am now involved in yet a third on the historical Adam. Nevertheless, our discussion went great, and I felt very comfortable responding to Peter and Greg’s thoughtful criticisms. I think Greg did a good job in responding to some of my worries about divine Conceptualism, which truly pleased me since I want that view to be a viable option for Christian thinkers. Perhaps the most significant result of the session was that Peter van Inwagen, having previously denied my claim that he is a proponent of the so-called Indispensability Argument for abstract objects, agreed during the discussion that my formulation of his Indispensability Argument was, indeed, accurate. We’ll make the papers from the session available, and Jan recorded my response along with the Q&A time. You can view it here on YouTube. Participating in a session like this at a major, secular philosophical conference is a wonderful testimony to the professional community of the credibility of Christian philosophers and their work. It helps to make it more difficult for university professors to dismiss or belittle Christians.
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Dr. Craig in New York City |
| The cultural contest in which we are engaged in the U.S. was very evident in the vociferous reactions to my interview by Nicholas Kristoff in The New York Times.
Our brief interview elicited a firestorm of over 1,000 online comments, most of them angry and mocking, before being closed. As I shared in my Question of the Week #611, the most striking impression I had of the many criticisms is the ignorance they evince, not only of Christian scholarship, but of the broad range of scholarship pertinent to the issues discussed. It reinforced the fact that our culture is deeply polarized when it comes to matters, not only of politics but also of religion. I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to bear witness in such an influential newspaper as the NYT.
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Returning from New York, I packed my bags and flew out to southern California to teach for two weeks at Talbot School of Theology in the graduate philosophy program. The subject of my class was the atonement, and for my lectures I used the text of my unpublished book manuscript on the subject (more about that later). I had a very diverse class of American and international students, of different ethnicities and genders. The students were very engaged with the material, and we had wonderful discussions, which I looked forward to every day. It is not only a privilege to be involved in the training of our future generation of leaders, but also strategic.
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While at Talbot, I agreed to do an interview conducted by Prof. Eric Thonnes in the Sunday evening service at Grace Evangelical Free Church. This turned out to be an unusually rich experience! I wasn’t expecting anything special, but it turned out to be the best interview that I have ever sat for, with many personal stories and lots of laughs. It was a wonderful evening, due in no small part to Prof. Thonnes’ insightful questions. He knew just how to draw out the marvelous ways in which God has worked in Jan and my life together and the many lessons that we have learned. I had not expected the interview to be recorded, but fortunately it was, and so we're pleased to be able to share it with you right here on YouTube.
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I closed out January with a trip to Clemson University in South Carolina, home of the National Collegiate Football Champion Tigers (tigers were everywhere!). I spoke on “Why Should I Believe God Exists?” at the invitation of Ratio Christi, a campus Christian Group. Prior to the event, I spoke at a faculty luncheon sponsored by Faculty Commons, the faculty ministry of Cru. The luncheon was well-attended, and we had a lively discussion after my talk. I think it was a real encouragement for the Christian faculty there.
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That evening the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts was packed out for my talk. I punctuated my talk with four of our Zangmeister animated videos. The most novel feature of this event was a series of video clips which the organizers wanted me to respond to following my talk. They showed short clips from such prominent anti-Christians as Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bart Ehrman, and Sam Harris and invited me to respond to each one. Since these clips were at first blush very challenging, I think it was a powerful demonstration to the audience how seemingly powerful objections can be dissected and dismantled. From the feedback we received later, it was clear that many people had never seen anything like this before. I really liked this technique and hope to employ it in the future. It makes one’s case all the more powerful when people can see how one can expose the fallaciousness of the objections of highly-touted critics. Following the video clips and my responses, the discussion was thrown open to the audience. I fielded questions not only on the case for God’s existence but also on practical matters such as church-state actions, abortion rights, and Christian involvement in politics. It was a fabulous evening, and the whole thing was video recorded and is now available here on YouTube.
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Readers of this letter know that I’ve been waiting for about a year for a decision from Oxford University Press concerning my proposed book Atonement and the Death of Christ. I’m disappointed to report that their verdict was negative. The three reviewers to whom my manuscript was sent were all expressly opposed to penal substitution, and their reservations could not be overcome. So I’ve sent the proposal to my literary agent and asked him to try to find a top publisher for the book. Just what we’re up against became patently clear when one publisher he approached rejected the proposal within just three hours of its receipt, explaining that they didn’t want to publish a book using “the A-word.” Can you imagine? The precious doctrine of the atonement is now classed with words so vulgar that they cannot be pronounced in polite society! Unbelievable!
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Later this month Jan and I shall be flying to Houston, where I’ll teach for a week at Houston Baptist University on “God, Time, and Eternity.” I’ll also be speaking at the HBU Apologetics Day on February 23 at Woodlands United Methodist Church in Woodlands. So if you’re in the area, feel free to join us for the day!
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For Christ and His Kingdom,
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MONTHLY TESTIMONIAL I just wanted to thank you and your team, Dr. Craig. I raptly listen to endless hours of your Sunday School class and cull all I can to teach my Sunday School class and youth group. The depth of your treatment is not lost on laity like myself; rather, your sound treatment of Biblical, historical, and philosophical material multiplies through thoughtful listeners everywhere. Know that you are a blessing. I expect that such knowledge can become a bit lost in the grist mill, and that loneliness and discouragement are real encounters. May this encounter with my testimony be an encouragement to foil such challenges as you may face today, that you might continue to do your great work tomorrow, by the grace of God. Blessings. -Michael
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Dig in Deep These are worth your time and effort!
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The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology | |  |
Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview - 2nd Edition | |
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