| Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
As we continue our sequestration here at home, we hope that all of you are doing well!
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| This past month I continued to appear in various social media venues. Undoubtedly, the most important media event I did was being interviewed by Alex O’Connor, a young British unbeliever, on his hugely popular podcast “Cosmic Skeptic.” I was reluctant to go on his show because it was hard for me to take seriously anyone who espoused something so self-defeating and wrong-headed as cosmic scepticism. But I think the title is just a moniker for him, and I found Alex to be not only very intelligent and perceptive, but also commendably open-minded and humble. We had a very entertaining and thought-provoking conversation which has already been viewed by nearly 150,000 people, including many unbelievers who have said how much they appreciated the podcast.
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| Earlier in the month I did an interview with Focus on the Family for their online magazine about the much publicized defection from the faith of a certain Christian musician, whose faith had become a hollow shell. The following week I appeared on a podcast hosted by Ryan Pauly, a graduate of Talbot School of Theology, whose training in philosophy enabled him to conduct an enjoyable and unusually substantive interview. Mid-month I was back on “Capturing Christianity” with Cameron Bertuzzi for a live 90 minute Q&A with his viewers. It was both entertaining and enlightening to hear people’s doubts and questions from their own mouths.
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| The last week of June I was on a podcast from New Zealand, where at 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon my time, it was already tomorrow in New Zealand! New Zealand has unfortunately slid deeply into secularism, about 50% of the people being non-religious. So I was anxious to be of any help I could to the Christian church there. My interviewer was a Samoan fellow named Daniel whose native last name I could not pronounce! We had a great interview on questions which people had sent him in advance. I found this interaction to be very helpful in understanding people’s misconceptions about and objections to the faith.
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| Meanwhile, in my weekly Defenders class, which Jan films in my home office, I’ve been discussing the doctrine of original sin. Preparing my lessons on this topic has been surprisingly insightful for me, as I think about Paul’s teaching in Romans 5.12-21. Paul seems to require us to distinguish two kinds of sins: sins which are evil acts but not wrong acts (not transgressions of the law) and sins which are both evil and wrong (transgressions), and, hence, death as a consequence (but not a punishment) of sin for those from Adam till Moses and death as a punishment for transgressions since the giving of the law. This same distinction had come up in my debate two years ago with Erik Wielenberg on the foundations of morality.
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| After working intensively for two years, I am thrilled to report that my book Quest of the Historical Adam is now under contract with the very fine press Wm. B. Eerdmans! One of the things that excites me about this book is all the visuals it will include. Eerdmans has agreed to include 45 figures in the book—photos, charts, maps, drawings, and other illustrations. I can honestly say that of the plethora of books on the historical Adam out there today, there is none like this. Eerdmans was very eager to have this book. In fact, they offered me a contract right away. As a result, they caught me somewhat by surprise by asking me to deliver the final manuscript by July 15! This unexpected deadline has caused me to suspend temporarily my other projects and put the book in its final form, which I have now done. I’ll let it sit now for a couple weeks before giving a fresh and final read-through prior to sending it off.
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| Meanwhile, I’m gratified that my book Atonement and the Death of Christ, which I worked on for four years, was released late last month by Baylor University Press. Working with the people at BUP has been a dream. In all my years of publishing over 40 books with both the finest academic presses as well as popular publishers, I have never had a more enjoyable experience than working with the folks at BUP. I enthusiastically recommend BUP to any of you academic colleagues out there who are looking for a publisher for your next book!
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So now I return to working on my projected systematic philosophical theology. After much study, I’m to the point of writing my Prolegomenon (or Introduction) for the work. I recently woke up in the middle of the night and, unable to go back to sleep thinking about these things, got up and composed the opening paragraph of my systematic philosophical theology! Here it is (sans footnotes), as it now stands:
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Systematic philosophical theologies are rare—at least on the contemporary scene. Paul Tillich’s Systematic Theology and Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Systematic Theology deserve to be called systematic philosophical theologies, heavily shaped as they are by philosophical concerns. Unfortunately, neither of these theologians was able to benefit from the renaissance of Christian philosophy that has transpired in Anglo-American analytic philosophy since the late 1960s. Rather Richard Swinburne’s tetralogy in philosophical theology, coupled with his trilogy in natural theology, is representative of that tradition and is doubtless the preeminent example of systematic philosophical theology in our day. Many other philosophers or theologians have taken steps toward a systematic philosophical theology, even if the scope of such a project makes the goal elusive.
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I am so excited!
Grateful for your sustaining prayers for Jan and me, as we labor...
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For Christ and His Kingdom,
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Professor Craig,
I've listened to your conversation with Alex J. O'Connor and this is just another (as I'm sure you get a lot of these) letter of gratitude towards your work. As an atheist I have watched all of your debates and I'd like to thank you for this particular podcast you've had with Alex. Your calm and grounded reasoning in this particular conversation made me see my own bias and mistake of searching for the "got you" moments when I should be listening instead of waiting for someone's else turn to say "you're wrong". I am now convinced that belief in God, although I don't have it, can be a reasonable position to have. Thank you, and I am looking forward to more of your discussions with such prominent, young minds as Alex.
Best Regards,
Jakub
Warsaw, Poland
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