These words, written by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, reflect one of the most common Christian responses to the problem of evil and suffering in the world. At first glance, the so-called “free will defense” has considerable appeal. It seems to absolve God of responsibility for the existence of evil, by shifting that responsibility to […]
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Four Christian Responses to Gay Marriage
January 4, 2021 
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This blog post is probably at least twenty years too late, if not much more so. Christians in America lost the gay marriage debate long before the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. When the best response we can give to why the government shouldn’t legally recognize same-sex marriage is “because the Bible says it’s […]
Continue reading Discussing abortion, Scholastic-style
October 15, 2020 1 Comment
In the spirit of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, what follows is an attempt to tackle the topic of abortion according to a medieval-scholastic disputation. The topic is divided into four key questions (philosophical, biblical, circumstantial, and legal) that follow the format of Aquinas’s Summa, first setting forth the objections, then stating the opposing traditional view […]
Continue reading How prepared are you to answer pro-choice objections against the pro-life case?
October 9, 2020 1 Comment
I recently finished reading The Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf (Crossway, 2009), which presents a compelling case for the personhood of human beings from the moment of fertilization. It also made me realize just how underequipped I was to respond to so many common pro-choice objections. What I’ve done here is gather the objections […]
Continue reading Review: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham
February 9, 2019 0 Comments
If I had to pick my all-time favorite book on the historical Jesus, it would probably be Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright. However, a close second would be the newly-released second edition of Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by University of St. Andrews NT professor Richard Bauckham […]
Continue reading Review: Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright
September 12, 2018 1 Comment
[Note: the following is from an old seminary paper of mine from 2011, which I just recently re-discovered buried in an old Google Drive folder. I present it here in its original form, though I can see now that it could have used a bit more editorial finesse!] N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of […]
Continue reading Thoughts on the Evidential Argument from Desire
March 5, 2018 0 Comments
I’m in the middle of a unit on Christian Apologetics with my juniors. We are currently going through the existential argument, which claims that Christian faith is justified because it satisfies our deepest emotional and spiritual needs. I’ve written on this subject before, and I’d recommend that readers take a look at my previous post […]
Continue reading Review: The Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth
March 17, 2017 4 Comments
I am now in my third year teaching theology at a Christian high school. In that time I’ve found that, among my students, few subjects provoke as many questions as the subject of creation/evolution: How old is the earth? Where did all the fossils come from? Did animals die before the Fall? Could God have […]
Continue reading Further Thoughts on Modern Bible Translations and Textual Criticism
October 10, 2016 1 Comment
Based on some helpful feedback that I received on my previous post on textual criticism, I thought that I should write a follow-up post to clarify a few things. To begin with, I should state upfront that I’m a relative newcomer to the subject of textual criticism, and would by no means consider myself an expert. […]
Continue reading Is Genesis a Myth? Part 2: Genesis and Science
September 2, 2016 1 Comment
Note: I originally wrote this post on another blog as part of an FAQ for my church in 2013. I am re-publishing here (with minor edits), since I will be using it in an upcoming class on science, faith, and Old Testament interpretation. Part 1 dealt with the literary relationship between Genesis and Ancient Near […]
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