| Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
Although Jan and I continue to flourish during our time of sequestration, the coronavirus has finally touched the Reasonable Faith family. Caleb Steele, who handles the livestreaming of Defenders podcast every Sunday morning has fallen ill with the virus. Although he feels pretty miserable, he says he’s grateful that he hasn’t required hospitalization, and he continues to soldier through.
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| Despite not traveling, I’ve had a surprising number of opportunities to speak publicly via various social media. Christian ministries are really exploiting the electronic media during this time for all they’re worth! So during this past month I joined the computational biologist Joshua Swamidass, author of The Genealogical Adam and Eve, on Cameron Bertuzzi’s podcast “Capturing Christianity.” We had a great two-hour dialogue concerning different issues pertinent to the historical Adam. I also did my first in-depth interview on my own work on the historical Adam for a radio show called “Remnant Radio” with Joshua Lewis and Michael Rowntree. It was a genuine pleasure to engage in such an intelligent conversation with them on these fascinating questions. Speaking of radio, I also did an interview on WPEO in my home town of Peoria, Illinois, about how our ministry has grown over the years.
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| To make up for my canceled class at Houston Baptist University in March, I did a program on “Capturing Christianity” with HBU prof Dr. Hemati, during which I responded to students’ and callers’ questions concerning the historical argument for Jesus’ resurrection. Since the students had read my lectures in advance, this was a much more substantive discussion of the issues than one normally encounters. I also had a fun interview with Frank Turek on his podcast Cross Examined reviewing and answering questions from callers on the five arguments for Christian theism I usually present in university debates.
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| It’s amazing how social media enables us to touch lives all over the world from the security and comfort of my home office. For example, I did an interview for Justin Brierly’s “Unbelievable” radio program out of London, England, on theological questions related to the pandemic. Similarly, Lars Dahl of a theological college in Gimlekollen, Norway, conducted a long interview with me on the occasion of the release of six of our Zangmeister animated videos translated into Norwegian and the launch of a new academic course in apologetics using Reasonable Faith materials. I also had a wonderful interview with Ryan Keating, a former missionary to Turkey who once organized a speaking trip there for me but who has now been exiled to Cyprus, where he continues his ministry. What surprised me was that joining us on this Zoom call were not only people from Turkey but also Tajikistan, Nigeria, and South Africa! It is such a thrill to know that people in such far-away and often beleaguered lands are being equipped and encouraged by Reasonable Faith. All of these interviews will eventually be posted on our YouTube channels, where they will reach thousands more viewers.
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| On top of this, Jan and I continue to record my weekly Defenders podcast from my home office. Our media guy Gabe Jones has done an extraordinary job of outfitting these lessons with colorful slides that make the podcast so much more entertaining and communicative! I have to tell you, I could really get used to speaking in this way without all the hassle of airports and travel!
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This time of sequestration during the pandemic has been extraordinarily fruitful for me. I have actually finished my work on the historical Adam and am ready to move on to the next project. Of course, one is never really finished with a topic like this, which is inexhaustible, but it’s time now for me to move on. I’m planning for two books to come out of this study: the first about my own findings on the subject and the second a joint volume co-authored with Josh Swamidass. Now begins the job of finding a publisher for my book. In the meantime I’ve summarized my conclusions in a popular way in my current Defenders lessons, in case you don’t want to wait for the book.
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Having finished my study of the historical Adam I’ve turned to mopping up a couple of other projects that have been in the hopper. First is an article on “Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Argument for Jesus’ Resurrection” for a volume of collected essays on the thought of this great German theologian. Pannenberg was my doctoral supervisor at the University of Munich back in the ’80s and the article first took shape then. But now I’ve revised it in light of Pannenberg’s more recent Systematic Theology. Doing this article really brought back a lot of memories!
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The other project I’m working on is a joint book with philosopher Peter van Inwagen entitled Do Numbers Exist? Van Inwagen is a prominent proponent of Platonism, the view that abstract objects like numbers and sets really exist. So we’re participating in a series of books edited by Tyron Goldschmidt for Routledge called Little Debates about Big Questions. It feels so strange to be working on abstract objects again, as well as getting my atonement book ready for its release in July, plus finishing up my study of the historical Adam. It’s an indication of the faster pace at which I’m working.
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Social media opportunities continue to present themselves. This month I have a dialogue on “Capturing Christianity” with the Australian philosopher Graham Oppy on the best explanation of the applicability of mathematics to the physical world. I don’t know what to expect, other than that he doesn’t think it’s unreasonable that mathematics should apply to the physical universe as Eugene Wigner famously contended. (That reminds me by the way: the Zangmeister has nearly finished his animated video on this argument for God, and it looks very sharp!) I also have a couple of radio interviews scheduled for this month.
Now that my historical Adam studies are complete, I want to turn my attention to a multi-year project of summarizing my life’s work in a systematic philosophical theology. This is a daunting task, but I remind myself that “A journey of a thousand miles begins at your own two feet.”
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For Christ and His Kingdom,
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Dr. Craig and team,
I'm writing today to thank you for your incredible work. It feels intimidating to such a renown scholar, but I felt compelled to do so. Your Reasonable Faith text, website, and podcasts have strengthened my Christian faith. You're arguments are sound, logical, and reasonable. You are never question-begging where so many others are. I'm intrigued by Richard Dawkins who really does seem to work in reverse. I'm just a routine 32 year old husband and dad of two kids living in West Michigan. As I've gotten older and look at my two children, I know I'll need to be able to 'defend' the Christian faith. I'm grateful I can 'know' the truth simply by way of the invitation to the Holy Spirit, but you're work provides rich and deep roots for the consistency and legitimacy of the Christian faith in cosmology, science, and so many other areas. Again, thank you! May God continue to bless you in your incredible apologetic work. You deserve to be proud.
Blessings from West Michigan,
Stefan!
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