Dr. Keith Ward is a prolific and influential theologian, philosopher, and scholar of religions. He’s also an Anglican priest. In this first of two interviews on his 2015 book Christ and the Cosmos: A Reformulation of Trinitarian Doctrine, we discuss his christology, how to understand what is unique about the man Jesus.
I’ve received some excellent feedback on my two podcast episodes with Dr. Josh Thurow (University of Texas at San Antonio) on theories of atonement in Christian theology. Now, courtesy of Notre Dame’s Center for Philosophy of Religion (subscribe here) you can hear and see him explaining the basic ideas. Here’s your mini-course on atonement. First, watch these: Now, listen to the trinities podcast episodes, which… Read More »a mini-course on atonement by Dr. Josh Thurow
Here’s one reason why some theologians love to appeal to “mystery.” Regarding the second half of the second Christian century, the great church history von Harnack observes, …an urgent impulse necessarily made itself felt to define the contents and value of the Redeemer’s life and work, not, primarily, from the point of view of the proclamation of the Gospel, and the hopes of a future state,… Read More »von Harnack on logos theories and mystery
According to Dr. Michael S. Heiser, we see “two Yahweh figures” in the Old Testament: Yahweh and the “angel of the Lord”. He holds that the Jewish idea of “two powers in heaven” arose from reading these texts, which sort of set the stage for the more radical idea of God becoming incarnate, becoming a man, which he sees in the New Testament.
The gripping story of Nabeel Qureshi’s journey from Islam to Christianity.
When it came to christology, what did Justin Martyr consider essential, as in, you’re not a Christian unless you believe it? The answers may surprise you. In this episode we explore the christology of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho.
Do our earliest surviving post-New-Testament writings interpret Proverbs 8 as being about the pre-human Jesus?
In my view, the fourth has been the most misunderstood gospel.
Here. It’s an excellent, substantial discussion, posted in December 2014. If you don’t know who Dr. Rea is, he’s a leading Christian philosopher, specializing in metaphysics, and co-coiner of the useful term “analytic theology.” Here’s a rough guide to the interview, in case you want to skip around, or review after the fact, with a few sparse comments in italics. 1-12:20 Randal reads quotes about how difficult a… Read More »Dr. Randal Rauser interviews Dr. Michael C. Rea on the Trinity
In the last week of my recent Introduction to Philosophy class, two teams of students debated the existence of God in front of the class. After the debate the rest of the students wrote a short response to the debate. While the pro-God side had offered versions of the design and ontological arguments, one student opined in his written response that they had overlooked the obvious.… Read More »a new proof of God’s existence, with an assist from Dr. Bart Ehrman?
Continuing the conversation, apologist Tom Gilson stands by his claim that the NT doesn’t teach that Jesus had faith during his earthly life, and indeed, tellingly declines to say that. He says, in part, So the NT clearly comments on, and specifically names, many of Jesus’ virtues. If Dr. Tuggy is right, and the reason Jesus’ faith is not named as such is just because… Read More »Did Jesus have faith in God? – Part 5
Is it a sin to celebrate Christmas, because Christmas is pagan in origin? In this episode I discuss this disputed question, and what I believe the apostle Paul would have to say about this ongoing dispute between Christians.
Here, from BBC4’s Beyond Belief podcast, is an interesting and wide-ranging discussion of avatars in Hinduism vs. catholic Incarnation claims, and also avatars in science fiction. (Alternate link, stitcher) How, you ask, does an avatar differ from an incarnation? (This is me talking now, though they say most of this in the episode.) An avatar is supposed to be God himself (Vishnu, thought of as… Read More »Beyond Belief on Avatars vs. Incarnation
“Before Abraham, I am.” What did Jesus, or the author of the fourth gospel, mean here? In this episode we hear how some ancient authors interpreted John 8:58, including the famous North African bishop Augustine of Hippo.
“Before Abraham was, I was already, in God’s plan, the Messiah.”
Does the fourth gospel teach that Jesus existed long before his conception, even before the creation of the cosmos? Most readers think so. But in this episode Dr. Dustin Smith argues that rightly understood, this gospel neither assumes nor teaches that Jesus “preexisted,” that is, existed before he was a human. He argues that we should read the gospel according to John in light of… Read More »podcast 62 – Dr. Dustin Smith on the preexistence of Jesus in the gospel of John
In September of 2014 I was privileged to attend a conference in honor of the greatest living natural theologian. For the uninitiated, this is what “natural theology” is (also here). The initiated hold Swinburne in awe because of his writings. Richard Swinburne has produced an unparalleled string of carefully argued, in many cases ground-breaking books in philosophy of religion and in analytic theology (see the links… Read More »podcast 56 – Richard Swinburne on his life and work
