Discussion Topic - Healing and Resurrection Hope Resurrection hope is often muted in churches today as cultural forces of the modern West deny the reality and potency of death. What does genuine resurrection hope entail? Cancer patient J. Todd Billings and Taylor Worley recognize the tendency to equate hope with healing and prolonging life as long as possible. In this discussion, they emphasize that true resurrection hope resides in our participation in Christ's resurrection. Healing and resuscitation are temporary, but resurrection in our glorified bodies is the only permanent solution to death. J. Todd Billings (ThD Harvard) is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary. He is the author of Union with Christ (Baker Academic, 2011), Rejoicing in Lament (Brazos Press, 2015), and The End of the Christian Life (Brazos Press, 2020).

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Discussion Topic - Healing and Resurrection Hope Praying for healing is a controversial topic because it is difficult to know how to pray for someone with an incurable illness. Should "incurable" even be part of a Christian vocabulary? What does it mean to pray with someone rather than pray for someone? What theological assumptions undergird the way we pray? Do we believe in the power of prayer or the power of God? What is the role of prayers of lament? J. Todd Billings is joined by Taylor Worley and Geoff Fulkerson in discussing these questions and offering practical guidance for walking with people who are suffering. J. Todd Billings (ThD Harvard) is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary. He is the author of Union with Christ (Baker Academic, 2011), Rejoicing in Lament (Brazos Press, 2015), and The End of the Christian Life (Brazos Press, 2020).

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[Discussion/interview date: March 24th 2009]

Discussion Topic - What is the Dream Church? The Center was pleased to welcome Trinity's former president back to campus. Dr. Waybright addressed the subject of ecclesiology through consideration of two passages in Ephesians. His talks are entitled "The Dream Church". His first sermon covered Ephesians 1:3-14 and is entitled "God's Idea--Not Mine", while his second covered Ephesians 2:11-22 and is entitled "From Dream to Reality." Gregory Waybright (PhD Marquette University) is President Emeritus of Trinity International University (1995-2007). He has also pastored churches in California, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

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Lecture Title - The Type of the One to Come: Adam in Paul's Theology

This lecture explores the Apostle Paul’s various appeals to Adam with a view to the question whether his appeals require a historical, individual “Adam” in order to make sense of what he is saying. It focuses particularly on Romans 5:12–21, arguing that 1) the importance of a historical Adam depends to some degree on the exact nature of the way Paul connects Adam’s sin and death with the sin and death of all humans; and 2) on the most likely construals of the relationship, a historical Adam would appear to be necessary to account for Paul’s theological conclusions.

Douglas J. Moo (PhD University of St. Andrews) is Kenneth T. Wessner Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. He is author of The Letter to the Romans (NICNT; 2nd edition) (Eerdmans, 2018) and A Theology of Paul and His Letters: The Gift of the New Realm in Christ (Zondervan Academic, 2021). He currently serves as chair for the New International Version translation committee.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - From Jesus to Adam: Working Backwards on a Theological Problem

Most discussions and debate on Adam focus on issues tied to Genesis, but does the relationship to Jesus help us assess some of the issues raised about Adam? Our study will work backwards by asking how Jesus and the NT treat the issue of Adam. What does that mean for what we say about how Genesis presents the issues tied to genre and symbolism? In particular how Jesus and Paul handle the figures of Adam and Eve will receive attention. Then we will consider the implications of the results of our examination.

Darrell L. Bock (PhD University of Aberdeen) is Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 40 books including Jesus the God-Man: The Unity and Diversity of the Gospel Portrayals (Baker Academic, 2016), How Would Jesus Vote? (Simon & Schuster, 2016), and Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World (B&H Academic, 2020).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Symposium on the Intermediate State

The resurrection of the body is one of the central doctrinal claims of the Christian faith. It is also the source of Christian hope when faced with the death of a loved one. But what happens between now and then? When a child asks their parent where a departed loved one is “now,” how should Christians respond? Do the souls of those who have died in faith go to be with the Lord now, awaiting to be reunited with their resurrected bodies? Or are traditional Christian beliefs in an immaterial soul that is separable from the body misplaced—an unscriptural incursion of Platonic metaphysics that has misshaped our expectations of the afterlife?

J. P. Moreland (PhD University of Southern California) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Biola University. He is author or editor of over a dozen books, including The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters (Moody, 2014), The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), and Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2nd edition) (IVP Academic, 2017).

J. Richard Middleton (PhD Free University Amsterdam) is Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Northeastern Seminary. He is the author of The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Baker Academic, 2005), A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic, 2014), and Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God (Baker Academic, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Right Reason, Fallen Reason

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) These words from Jesus’ high priestly prayer light up the darkened sky, the night Jesus enters, to face betrayal, arrest and death. These luminous words tell us that knowledge of God and of His Son is the supreme blessing, life eternal; and the acts of that night tell us that such knowledge is desperately far from us. How should we understand these two truths: that human reason can know God; and that reason fails to do so? It seems that humanity has been created to know God “by nature,” yet God’s very presence among us does not meet with rational faith but rather denial and rejection. What kind of reason is this? And what kind of nature? This lecture examines both.

Katherine Sonderegger (PhD Brown University) is William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is author of a three-volume series in constructive dogmatics published by Fortress Press: The Doctrine of God (2015), The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), and Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology (forthcoming).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Prayer: Jonathan Edwards and the Cognitive Science of Religion

This presentation examines recent studies on prayer in the fields of anthropology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and applies those findings to Jonathan Edwards’ views of prayer. In Edwards’ personal life, his sermons and other writings, and in requests from his congregation (“prayer bids”), what was the focus of prayer, particularly petitionary prayer? What was its purpose? Through which mode of causation was God most likely to act? How did God “answer” or respond to prayer requests? How did one learn to recognize the presence of God in prayer? CSR research opens up constructive possibilities for addressing these questions both in Edwards’ day and ours, yet also raises other questions regarding the nature of human personhood.

David W. Kling (PhD University of Chicago) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami. He is author of A Field of Divine Wonders: The New Divinity and Village Revivals in Northwestern Connecticut 1792-1822 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), A History of Christian Conversion (Oxford University Press, 2020), and The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times (2nd edition) (Oxford University Press, 2023).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Discipling Towards Transcendence in a Distracted Age

The contemporary church in America is faced with the task of discipling believers to recognize the grandeur, wonder, and beauty of the created universe, and therefore the sovereignty, majesty, transcendence, and provision of God. The immanent frame in which modern people live, which is strongly shaped by our mediating technology, creates a barrier for us to perceive what is right in front of us: the goodness of creation. It inclines us to see creation as a purely material phenomenon, measurable, controllable, containable, conquerable, and mundane. To disciple believers towards an awareness of their contingency and God’s majesty, we must teach an attentiveness to creation and a protection of interiority from the encroachment of technology of distraction. We must have eyes to see and minds with space to reflect.

O. Alan Noble (PhD Baylor University) is Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is author of Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World (InterVarsity Press, 2021). He is Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Christ and Pop Culture.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Faithfulness in an Age of Technology: Theological Reflections on Nature and the Natural

Fundamental to Scriptural teaching on creation and to doctrine is the very idea of nature and the natural: we are placed in the midst of a fruitful world that is to be tended and imitated; we are to join in its joyful praise of our Lord. Yet Scripture also teaches us about artifacts and manufacture of all kinds: city walls and streets, houses and the goods in them, the design and fashioning of every decorative and devout element of the Temple, the heavenly Jerusalem, a City of God. How should Christians attentive to these lessons think about technology? We are surrounded by it; we are fascinated by it; it controls much of our lives. Has this supplanted nature in Christian lives; should it? In this lecture, Katherine Sonderegger will reflect upon how a Christian shaped by the Doctrine of Creation should approach such complex and every-day matters.

Katherine Sonderegger (PhD Brown University) is William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is author of a three-volume series in constructive dogmatics published by Fortress Press: The Doctrine of God (2015), The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), and Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology (forthcoming).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Discussion Topic - The Spirit in the Beginning and the End

Geoffrey Fulkerson moderates this discussion between Christoph Schwöbel (Pannenberg), Stephen Williams (Polkinghorne), and Murray Rae (Gunton) as part of A Modern Creature conference. They discuss pneumatology and eschatology in relation to creation, English translations of German theology, and more.

Murray A. Rae (PhD Kings College, London) is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago. He is author of Christian Theology: The Basics (Routledge, 2015) and Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place (Baylor University Press, 2017). He is also co-editor of the T&T Clark Handbook of Colin Gunton (T&T Clark, 2021).

Christoph Schwöbel (PhD Philipps Universität Marburg) was Chair of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. His publications include Word and Spirit: Renewing Christology and Pneumatology in a Globalizing World (De Gruyter, 2014), Der entgrenzte Kosmos und der begrenzte Mensch (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), and Luther Heute: Ausstrahlungen Der Wittenberger Reformation (Mohr Siebeck, 2017).

Stephen N. Williams (PhD Yale University) is Honorary Professor of Theology at Queen’s University and served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Creation Project. His books include Revelation and Reconciliation: A Window on Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 1996), The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche’s Critique of Christianity (Baker Academic, 2006), and The Election of Grace: A Riddle without a Resolution? (Eerdmans, 2015).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Discussion Topic - What are the boundaries of the natural?

Joel Chopp moderates this discussion between Katherine Sonderegger (Barth), D. Stephen Long (Balthasar), and Kevin Vanhoozer (Torrance) as part of A Modern Creature conference. They discuss the boundaries of the natural, whether there is such a thing as forbidden knowledge, and more.

D. Stephen Long (PhD Duke University) is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University. He is author of Hebrews (Interpretation) (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), Saving Karl Barth: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Preoccupation (Fortress Press, 2014), and The Perfectly Simple Triune God: Aquinas and His Legacy (Fortress Press, 2016).

Katherine Sonderegger (PhD Brown University) is William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is author of a three-volume series in constructive dogmatics published by Fortress Press: The Doctrine of God (2015), The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), and Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology (forthcoming).

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title: Spirit of Life and Death: Modern Pneumatology and the Struggle against Mortality

“Pneumatology,” as a distinct area of theological study about the Holy Spirit, does not come into being until the later twentieth century. Before that “pneumatology” referred to a general study of “spirit,” which might or might not include God’s Holy Spirit. The rise of pneumatology was in part motivated by modern moral concerns about the character of the created world, especially physical suffering. Radner traces some of this development and consider how modern pneumatology has obscured central Christian claims about mortality and about the divine grace of embodied human limitations.

Ephraim Radner (PhD Yale University) is Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College and priest in the Episcopal Church. He is author of numerous books, including The End of the Church: A Pneumatology of Christian Division in the West (Eerdmans, 1998), A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human LIfe (Baylor University Press, 2017), and A Profound Ignorance: Modern Pneumatology and Its Anti-modern Redemption (Baylor University Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Sermon Title - "I Hope You Dance": A Sermon on Lamentations 3 Dr. Carolyn Gordon muses about how we survive “the next day,” that is the day after the day we never wanted to live through, when we wake up after a broken relationship, jobless, or bereft. She narrates Jeremiah’s story. His call from God was to prophesy from a life full of hardship and tragedy. And there were moments when he thought he could take no more, when he wanted to give up. So the words of Lamentations 3 are words for when there are no words. He is introspective, clearly and honestly expressing his angst, retrospective, remembering when God and his work, and given a new perspective, which allows him to lean on God’s mercies and grace. He is an example of one who, even in the distress, dances in the showers of God’s mercies and grace. Carolyn Gordon (PhD Howard University) is Associate Professor and Chair of Mass Communication at Mississippi Valley State University. She previously taught at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a former columnist for The Beacon newspaper and has produced several television shows including, “Another Day” for KYFC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri and “A Point of View” for BSU-TV in Bowie, Maryland. The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ Subscribe to the HCTU Newsletter: https://bit.ly/326pRL5

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Lecture Title - Living with the Great Divide

Philosopher William Halverson argues that the great divide in Western thought is between those with a naturalistic worldview and those who have a nonnaturalistic one. For those who practice science, naturalism dominates the work environment. This is especially challenging for the Christian who experiences liminality or marginality as a result. This presentation offers a frame of reference involving two principles as a way forward to a deeper understanding of our expectations: the principle of proximity to the anthropological, and the principle of methodological subsidiarity. Plato, Augustine, Leo XIII, and Bernard Ramm figure in the discussion.

Graham A. Cole (ThD Australian College of Theology) is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Biblical & Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of a few books, including He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Crossway, 2007), The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of Incarnation (IVP Academic, 2013), and Against the Darkness: The Doctrine of Angels, Satan, and Demons (Crossway, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Adam, Eve, and the Rest of Us: Contemporary Discussions of Original Sin

In this talk, Tom McCall offers an overview of the theological landscape in discussions of “the historical Adam” and the doctrine of original sin. After briefly summarizing some important developments in paleonanthropology and genetics, McCall surveys several recent theological proposals. He then turns to the venerable doctrine of original sin, exploring how the traditional doctrinal options map onto the current discussion.

Thomas H. McCall (PhD Calvin Theological Seminary) is the Timothy C. and Julie M. Tennent Chair of Theology at Asbury University. His recent publications include Against God and Nature: The Doctrine of Sin (Crossway, 2019), After Arminius: A Historical Introduction to Arminian Theology (Oxford Univeristy Press, 2020), and Analytic Christology and the Theological Interpretation of the New Testament (Oxford University Press, 2021). He was the Director of the Henry Center from 2012–2020.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Discussion Topic - Are we scheduled for perfection?

Steve Long offers a response to Katherine Sonderegger's lecture, "Faithfulness in an Age of Technology: Theological Reflections on Nature and the Natural," followed by a discussion by Drs. Long, Sonderegger, and Luy.

D. Stephen Long (PhD Duke University) is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University. He is author of Hebrews (Interpretation) (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), Saving Karl Barth: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Preoccupation (Fortress Press, 2014), and The Perfectly Simple Triune God: Aquinas and His Legacy (Fortress Press, 2016).

Katherine Sonderegger (PhD Brown University) is William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is author of a three-volume series in constructive dogmatics published by Fortress Press: The Doctrine of God (2015), The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), and Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology (forthcoming).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - From Physics to Metaphysics: Imagining the World that Scripture Imagines

In this address, Vanhoozer will suggest that pastors engage science not head-on, but indirectly, at the metaphysical level, by using the Bible to help congregations imagine reality in theological rather than secular terms. Appeal to the philosophy of science helps to remind us that scientists depend on the imagination (world-pictures) too, and that physics and the other sciences can’t appeal to scientific evidence to establish a materialist or secular picture. In fact, the attempt to do so is a category mistake.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - What Is the Creation Story There to Do for Us?

We understand the Biblical Creation Story best if we consider what kind of text it is, what were the needs of the first audiences, and what social setting it was intended for. We will appreciate how reading it aloud in worship enabled its ancient audiences to live faithfully in the land, admiring the creation as a work of craftsmanship, and seeking to form a life of imitating God, and this fortifies them (and us) against some prominent temptations.

C. John “Jack” Collins (PhD University of Liverpool) is Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, and was a Senior Research Fellow for The Creation Project. He was Old Testament Chairman for the English Standard Version of the Bible, and is author of Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care (Crossway, 2011) and Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11 (Zondervan, 2018).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title: The Goodness of Creation and Its Ethical Implications

Genesis 1 repeatedly says that God saw that his emerging creation was good and then that it was very good. This lecture explores what this goodness (tob) means in its ancient Near Eastern, Old Testament, and canonical context and its implications for a Christian doctrine of creation and the comprehensive ethical vision evoked by this emphasis. An assessment will be made of the extent to which (evangelical) Christians are faithful to this vision and what such faithfulness might look like today.

Craig G. Bartholomew (PhD Bristol University) is Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics. He was a 2019–20 Henry Resident Fellow. He has edited and written many books, including The God Who Acts in History: The Significance of Sinai (Eerdmans, 2020) and Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction (IVP Academic, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Jonathan Edwards on Creation

In classical theology, there is an old and difficult question of whether God has a real relation to the created order. The worry is this: if God is really related to the creation (as, say, a mother is really related to her children) then this seems to jeopardize his doctrine of divine aseity. But God is metaphysically and psychologically independent of the created order (i.e., exists a se). So he cannot have a real relation to the creation. However, this poses serious conceptual problems for the Christian theologian. In particular, it generates a worry about how God can have a true relationship to his creatures if he doesn’t have a real relation to them. In this lecture, Crisp will turn to Jonathan Edwards’s idealist account of creation to see whether what he says about God’s act of creation provides resources for addressing this issue.

Oliver D. Crisp (DLitt University of Aberdeen; PhD University of London) is Principal of St Mary’s College and Head of the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He is also Professor of Analytic Theology and Director of the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology. He is author of numerous publications, including Jonathan Edwards among the Theologians (Eerdmans, 2015), Saving Calvinism: Expanding the Reformed Tradition (IVP Academic, 2016), The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and Work of Christ (Baker Academic, 2016), and Analyzing Doctrine: Toward a Systematic Theology (Baylor University Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Against Panentheism

This paper offers an argument against panentheism. Although the doctrine has proven difficult to define, this paper provides a working definition of the view, and proceeds to argue that given this way of thinking about the doctrine, it has serious theological drawbacks. It then explores some of these theological drawbacks. In a final section this paper gives some reasons for thinking that the classical theistic alternative to panentheism is preferable, all things considered.

Oliver D. Crisp (DLitt University of Aberdeen; PhD University of London) is Principal of St Mary’s College and Head of the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He is also Professor of Analytic Theology and Director of the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology. He is author of numerous publications, including Jonathan Edwards among the Theologians (Eerdmans, 2015), Saving Calvinism: Expanding the Reformed Tradition (IVP Academic, 2016), The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and Work of Christ (Baker Academic, 2016), and Analyzing Doctrine: Toward a Systematic Theology (Baylor University Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Humans Consist of Two Parts: Body and Soul

The cerebral cortex of the human brain, on which all our beliefs, memories, and conscious life depend, consists of two hemispheres—a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere. Recent neuroscience has discovered that humans continue to have much the same conscious life, memories, and beliefs if either their left hemisphere or their right hemisphere is removed. Suppose the cerebral cortex to be removed from the brain of each of three humans; and the cortex of one of these humans, Alexandra, to be divided into its two hemispheres, and one of these hemispheres to be integrated into the brain of one of the other humans, Alex, and the other hemisphere to be integrated into the brain of the other human, Sandra. Then both Alex and Sandra would have some of the brain and almost all of the memories, and type of conscious life of Alexandra and would both claim to have been Alexandra. For each of these persons, for example Alex, it is totally compatible with everything we could ever know about the brain and mental life of the earlier Alexandra and the subsequent Alex, that Alex is Alexandra; and it is also totally compatible with everything we could ever know that Alex is not Alexandra. But there could only be a difference between Alex being and Alex not being Alexandra if there is something extra beyond the brain matter and beyond the mental life which makes that person Alexandra, and that must be an immaterial soul. I go on to develop the consequences of this scientifically possible experiment for the nature of humans, and to reject philosophical objections to my interpretation of it.

Richard Swinburne (Diploma in Theology University of Oxford) is Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of Christian Religion at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is author or editor of over two dozen books, including The Existence of God (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Coherence of Theism (2nd edition) (Oxford University Press, 2016). His work has been translated into twenty languages.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Nature, Contingency, and the Spirit: A Conversation with Wolfhart Pannenberg

Wolfhart Pannenberg was involved in the dialogue with the natural sciences from the beginning of his theological formation. His engagement with the sciences is characterized by the determination neither simply to incorporate scientific findings into a theological account of reality nor to adapt theological reflection to the state of scientific theory, but to challenge scientific methods, hypotheses, and theories from a theological perspective. Pannenberg has attempted to develop a theology of nature in which the concept of contingency plays a crucial role—both for science and theology. In Pannenberg’s magisterial Systematic Theology (1988–1993) the different aspects of his theology of nature are integrated into the framework of a comprehensive view of the Spirit as a field of force. This essay will build on Pannenberg’s achievements and offer them as an encouragement to explore further aspects in the dialogue between theology, philosophy, and the sciences.

Christoph Schwöbel (PhD Philipps Universität Marburg) was Chair of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. His publications include Word and Spirit: Renewing Christology and Pneumatology in a Globalizing World (De Gruyter, 2014), Der entgrenzte Kosmos und der begrenzte Mensch (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), and Luther Heute: Ausstrahlungen Der Wittenberger Reformation (Mohr Siebeck, 2017).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Discussion Title - Race in the US: The State of Race Relations [Parts 1-3]

---Henry Center archive audio---

(Dr. Peter Cha is currently Professor of Church, Culture and Society at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.)

Peter Cha, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, hosts a Henry Center dialogue with Michael Emerson, Alvin Sanders, and Peter Hong, who explore how racial prejudices have diminished in the United States in the last years, but at the same time, the social differences are increasing. Michael O. Emerson (PhD University of North Carolina) is Department Head and Professor of Sociology at University of Illinois Chicago. He is co-author of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford University Press, 2000), People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States (Princeton University Press, 2006), and Market Cities, People Cities: The Shape of Our Urban Future (New York University Press, 2018). Alvin Sanders (PhD Miami University) is President and CEO at World Impact. He is author of Bridging the Diversity Gap: Leading toward God’s Multi-Ethnic Kingdom (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2013) and Uncommon Church: Community Transformation for the Common Good (InterVarsity Press, 2020). Peter Hong (MDiv & MA Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) founded and served as Lead Pastor for 19 years at New Community Covenant Church, a vibrant and growing urban, multiethnic church. The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world. Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ Subscribe to the HCTU Newsletter: https://bit.ly/326pRL5

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Lecture Title - John Polkinghorne on the Doctrine of Creation

After outlining Polkinghorne’s scientific understanding of the way the world is, this paper notes his commitments to critical realism and natural theology before giving an account of his theological understanding of creation. It notes the influence of two seminal figures—Jürgen Moltmann and W. H. Vanstone—with particular emphasis on their role in the formation of Polkinghorne’s central idea of creation as kenosis. The exposition draws on a range of his work with particular reference to the first and second editions of Science and Creation and The Work of Love. In conclusion, it raises critical questions on the role of science in theological construction.

Stephen N. Williams (PhD Yale University) is Honorary Professor of Theology at Queen’s University and served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Creation Project. His books include Revelation and Reconciliation: A Window on Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 1996), The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche’s Critique of Christianity (Baker Academic, 2006), and The Election of Grace: A Riddle without a Resolution? (Eerdmans, 2015).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Creation by the Triune God: Colin Gunton’s Doctrine of Creation

Among the prominent features of Colin’s Gunton’s extensive writing about the Christian doctrine of creation, three are of seminal importance. These are: first, that the Christian doctrine of creation is an article of the creed, second, that God creates out of nothing, and third, that creation is the work of the triune God, Father, Son and Spirit. This paper explores the reasons for Gunton’s insistence on these three features of the doctrine of creation and discuss their importance in rendering the world accessible to scientific enquiry.

Murray A. Rae (PhD Kings College, London) is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago. He is author of Christian Theology: The Basics (Routledge, 2015) and Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place (Baylor University Press, 2017). He is also co-editor of the T&T Clark Handbook of Colin Gunton (T&T Clark, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Another World: William Burt Pope on Primary and Secondary Creation

William Burt Pope’s three-volume Compendium of Christian Theology (ca 1881) is a carefully-wrought dogmatics emphasizing the organic unity of Christian thought and the deep continuity of the entire Christian tradition. Pope’s doctrine of creation programmatically distinguishes between the divine act of primary creation (God calling all things into existence) and the divine work of secondary creation (the formation of an ordered universe). The former is the realm of metaphysical inquiry and apologetic argumentation; Scripture chooses to say little about it, and science can say nothing in principle. Secondary creation, on the other hand, is the domain of both the biblical account and of scientific investigation, and also stretches forward into the doctrine of providence. This paper examines how Pope deploys the distinction in order to preserve the main lines of a Christian systematic theology.

Fred Sanders (PhD Graduate Theological Union) is Professor of Theology in the Torrey Honors College of Biola University. He is the author of multiple books, including The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Crossway, 2010), The Triune God (Zondervan Academic, 2016), and Fountain of Salvation (Eerdmans, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - Karl Barth on Human Dignity in a Natural World

This paper examines the status and stature of the human in Barth's doctrine of creation and covenant. Barth clearly advances some strong claims for human uniqueness and dignity in his doctrine of creation. He interweaves covenant and creation, so that the doctrine of creation is shaped by human, historical aims and laws. He considers the human relation of encounter the imago Dei, and even more, that Christ in his incarnate life is the goal and pattern and agent of the whole of creation. But there are other notes as well. Barth minimizes traditional claims that the human being is especially prized as creature above others, or that rationality and inwardness are gifts to honor above all other creaturely powers. Barth is more open to biological continuity in the whole natural realm than many traditionalists, and shows more interest in embodiment than those who focus on mind-body dualism or strong accounts of a separable soul. Barth is also well known as a critic of all things bourgeois, and considered elevated claims to human culture and the moral life so much puffery and self importance.

Katherine Sonderegger (PhD Brown University) is William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is author of a three-volume series in constructive dogmatics published by Fortress Press: The Doctrine of God (2015), The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Processions and Persons (2020), and Divine Missions, Christology, and Pneumatology (forthcoming).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - B. B. Warfield on Evolution and Theology

Evangelicals wanting good precedent to embrace evolutionism alongside a robust doctrine of biblical authority often cite Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield as their prime example. J. I. Packer called him a theistic evolutionist, but Warfield in his day expressly refused that position, finding it insufficiently supernaturalistic and impossible to square with scripture on key points. His qualified acceptance of biological evolution is the subject of renewed interpretive disagreement today, and requires careful discrimination of concepts and terms—but the larger and more interesting story concerns the pervasive developmentalism in his theology.

Bradley J. Gundlach (PhD University of Rochester) is Affiliate Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of Process and Providence: The Evolution Question at Princeton, 1845-1929 (Eerdmans, 2013).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - "From Mirror to Window:" Balthasar’s Reflections on Theology, Science, and Creation

Drawing on Auguste Comte, Balthasar traces historical “progress” from an earlier epoch in which humanity conceived itself as “being spirit within nature” to a modern, scientific epoch that sets humanity against nature. In the first, humanity is a “mirror” of nature, in the second it is a “window.” Philosophy becomes anthropology rather than cosmology. The study of the human individual opens a window to limitless possibilities for uniting humanity but also the peril of destroying it. What science needs, suggests Balthasar, is an “integrally human” absorption of it into philosophy and theology, one that works against a strong distinction between nature and supernature, and resists the reduction of creation to utility by interpreting it with the transcendentals of truth, goodness and beauty.

D. Stephen Long (PhD Duke University) is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University. He is author of Hebrews (Interpretation) (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), Saving Karl Barth: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Preoccupation (Fortress Press, 2014), and The Perfectly Simple Triune God: Aquinas and His Legacy (Fortress Press, 2016).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Discussion Topic - Providence, Causality, & Creation

Tom McCall moderates this discussion between Kevin Hector (Schleiermacher), Bradley Gundlach (Warfield), and Fred Sanders (Pope) as part of A Modern Creature conference. They discuss God's providence over primary and secondary creation, the continuity between creation and new creation, and more.

Bradley J. Gundlach (PhD University of Rochester) is Affiliate Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of Process and Providence: The Evolution Question at Princeton, 1845-1929 (Eerdmans, 2013).

Kevin W. Hector (PhD Princeton Seminary) is Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is author of many articles, chapters, and books, including Theology Without Metaphysics: God, Language, and the Spirit of Recognition (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The Theological Project of Modernism: Faith and the Conditions of Mineness (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Christianity as a Way of Life: A Systematic Theology (Yale University Press, 2023).

Fred Sanders (PhD Graduate Theological Union) is Professor of Theology in the Torrey Honors College of Biola University. He is the author of multiple books, including The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Crossway, 2010), The Triune God (Zondervan Academic, 2016), and Fountain of Salvation (Eerdmans, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - T. F. Torrance’s Kataphysical Poetics: How the Incarnation Relates Science to Theology

For T.F. Torrance, theological and scientific inquiry stand or fall together. Whereas Western scientists and theologians, ancient and modern, too often depend on universal methods and criteria, Torrance’s fundamental axiom is to think everything, from amoebas to the Alpha and Omega, in ways appropriate to their respective natures. Scientific theology thus begins with incarnation—the self-communication of God in space-time—also the controlling center for the doctrine of creation, insofar as “all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16). Viewing creation through the lens of Christology allows Torrance to integrate theology and science, and to argue that theology contributes something to our knowledge of the natural world hidden from the natural sciences, namely, its contingent order, triadic relationality, and proleptic conditioning by redemption.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Lecture Title - Freedom, Necessity, and the Love of God: Schleiermacher on Creation

When theologians tell the story of modern theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher is almost always cast as the villain. He is customarily portrayed as a sort of arch-accommodationist, a theologian who all-too-willingly revises Christian commitments so as to render them acceptable by the lights of science. As it happens, however, the customary portrayal of Schleiermacher is wrong, and his actual approach to science turns out to be much more robustly theological—and, I think, more interesting—than is usually recognized. In this chapter I argue that Schleiermacher defends a distinctively theological diagnosis of characteristically modern, science-induced anxieties about the possibility of freedom in a mechanistic world governed by the laws of nature. I conclude by arguing that there are several interesting insights we might glean from Schleiermacher’s approach, the most important of which is (what I would term) his practical doctrine of creation, that is, his emphasis on the sort of practices and dispositions one would have to cultivate such that one could treat the world—including oneself—as God’s good creation. This approach, in turn, opens up a different way of thinking about the practice of natural science, a way that, at least to my unscientific ears, sounds promising.

Kevin W. Hector (PhD Princeton Seminary) is Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is author of many articles, chapters, and books, including Theology Without Metaphysics: God, Language, and the Spirit of Recognition (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The Theological Project of Modernism: Faith and the Conditions of Mineness (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Christianity as a Way of Life: A Systematic Theology (Yale University Press, 2023).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Jonathan Edwards and "the Nature of Things": Reclaiming a Doctrine of Creation for the Reformation Tradition

Some have claimed that the Reformers put so much emphasis on the doctrine of redemption that a proper doctrine of creation was obscured or lost. Karl Barth went so far as to claim that there can be no Reformation natural theology—that nature can be seen as creation only by those who know the Redeemer, that nature cannot be known apart from special grace. Edwards, however, argued that nature has its own integrity apart from the order of grace. For the greatest Reformed theologian between Calvin and Barth, God created “the nature of things” with its own objectivity apart from the order of redemption. Thus the regenerate can discuss creation with the unregenerate in the public square without having to appeal to special revelation that the unregenerate do not share.

Gerald R. McDermott (PhD University of Iowa) is the former Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. He is author, co-author or editor of many books, including The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land (Brazos Press, 2017).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Discussion Topic - Church and Reconciliation: State of the Issue Doctrine and doctrinal issues are not merely aloof ideas that flit about within the closed precincts of academic institutions, but the living reality of the people of God located within local neighborhoods, neighborhoods replete with all layers of broken relationships. Positively, churches everywhere have been entrusted with the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), beginning with the thought that God brings together things that are broken. In this opening symposium, a conversation with Trinity’s own Peter Cha, Michael Reynolds, and Harold Netland, and moderated by pastor and president emeritus Gregory Waybright, we will begin framing our year-long conversation on the doctrine of Reconciliation by considering its very concrete and practical outworkings within the context of the local church. Peter T. Cha (PhD Northwestern University) is Professor of Church, Culture and Society at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is co-editor of Growing Healthy Asian American Churches: Ministry Insights from Groundbreaking Congregations (InterVarsity Press, 2006). Harold A. Netland (PhD Claremont Graduate University) is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is author of Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith and Mission (IVP Academic, 2001), Christianity and Religious Diversity: Clarifying Christian Commitments in a Globalizing Age (Baker Academic, 2015), and Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God: The Evidential Force of Divine Encounters (Baker Academic, 2022). Michael D. Reynolds (DMin McCormick Theological Seminary) is Affiliate Professor of Pastoral Theology, Associate Professor of Christian Ministries, and Executive Director and Associate Dean of the Chicago Regional Center at Trinity International University. He is senior editor of the ESV Urban Devotional Bible (Crossway, 2007) and author of Still Off-Base About Race: When We Know the Truth, Things Will Be Different (Dream Releaser, 2021).

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Lecture Title - Creatio ex Nihilo: Is It Biblical, and Does It Matter?

Yahweh alone is self-existent, nothing else is. This assertion flies in the face of all the other world-views, which insist in one way or another that it is matter that is self-existent. Thus, the question must arise, did the present cosmos arise out of pre-existing matter, or did I AM produce this cosmos from nothing? Does the Bible give us the answer to the question, or is the idea of creation from nothing only an inference? And does it really matter that much, anyway? In this lecture, Oswalt will lay the biblical foundations for the Christian idea of creation out of nothing and show why a great deal hinges upon it.

John N. Oswalt (PhD Brandeis University) is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. His publications include The Bible among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? (Zondervan Academic, 2009) and The Holy One of Israel: Studies in the Book of Isaiah (Wipf and Stock, 2014).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Lecture Title - The Natural, the Supernatural, and the Meaning of Creation

One of the great debates in modern theology involves the relationship between nature and grace in our understanding of creation. Does a Christian view of creation require us to approach this discussion exclusively from the perspective of grace, focusing on the centrality of Christ, the gospel, and the eschatological end for which God created the universe? Or should the doctrine of creation begin from a “natural” standpoint, seeking to understand the nature and purpose of creation in its own right before exploring how the doctrines of grace contribute to our understanding of creation? Although such questions may sound somewhat academic, they have vital implications for how we address ecological concerns, approach human flourishing, and engage in interdisciplinary dialog with the modern sciences. If theology is the study of God in relation to that which he created, then questions about the nature of creation, often neglected in Protestant theology, stand at the center of the theological task.

Marc Cortez (PhD University of St. Andrews) is Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and a previous Henry Resident Fellow of The Creation Project. His publications include Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark, 2010), the T&T Clark Reader in Theological Anthropology (T&T Clark, 2017), and Resourcing Theological Anthropology: A Constructive Account of Humanity in the Light of Christ (Zondervan Academic, 2018).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Christ and the Cosmos

The psalmist wrote “The heavens declare the glory of God.” The field of modern astronomy is revealing amazing wonders in the heavens, from baby stars to distant galaxies to the Big Bang. These discoveries, when seen through the eyes of biblical faith, give exciting insights into our theological understanding of Christ the Creator, including his glory, the goodness of creation, creation from nothing, and even the redemptive love of Christ.

Deborah B. Haarsma (PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is the President of BioLogos. She is co-author of Origins: Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Faith Alive, 2011), and co-editor of Delight in Creation: Scientists Share Their Work with the Church (Center for Excellence in Preaching, 2012).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Jonathan Edwards on the Twenty-first Century

What are the most helpful insights that we can gain from Jonathan Edwards’s theology today? This lecture uses the contrast between Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century to reflect on some of the most characteristic traits of later American culture to which Edwards’s “theology of active beauty” provides particularly helpful alternatives.

George M. Marsden (PhD Yale University) is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is author of Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (Oxford University Press, 1980), The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 1994), and Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale University Press, 2004). His biography of Jonathan Edwards won virtually every major historical prize, including the Bancroft Prize, the Merle Curti Award, the Philip Schaff Prize, and the Eugene Genovese Prize.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Symposium Title - History, Science, Poetry, or What? Understanding the Genre(s) of Genesis 1–3

Genre assumptions are so intuitive we hardly think about them. Whether walking into a movie theater, picking up a new album, or opening a book, our assumptions about the genre that we’re about to encounter shape how we understand it. The same is true of Scripture. While concern for genre-sensitivity is widely acknowledged, the vexed problems associated with determining the genre of a particular text and what exegetical and theological implications follow remain a pressing set of issues in evangelical theology, particularly with regard to the opening chapters of Genesis. In this symposium, Drs. Todd Beall, Tremper Longman, and John Oswalt, will each weigh in with their view of the genre of Gen. 1–3 and discuss some of the implications these questions have for a Scripturally faithful and a scientifically informed doctrine of Creation.

Todd S. Beall (PhD Catholic University of America) is Adjunct Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at The Master’s Seminary. He is the author of various books, chapters, and articles on the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Creation Studies.

Tremper Longman III (PhD Yale University) is Robert H. Gundry Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies and Distinguished Scholar of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. He is author of How to Read the Psalms (IVP Academic, 1988), How to Read Proverbs (IVP Academic, 2002), and How to Read Genesis (IVP Academic, 2005).

John N. Oswalt (PhD Brandeis University) is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. His publications include The Bible among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? (Zondervan Academic, 2009) and The Holy One of Israel: Studies in the Book of Isaiah (Wipf and Stock, 2014).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Into the Family of God: Creation, Covenant, and the Genesis of Life with God

The book of Genesis sketches the foundations not only of human society and creatureliness but of the church and Christian worship. To help make sense of both origins and ends of creation, the book draws our attention to the doctrine of the covenant and the pledge that people are drawn “into the family of God.” In this lecture, Allen will follow the basic theological moves of the doctrine of the covenant in this fundamental text, seeking to sketch its implications for a number of theological and anthropological concerns, not least the doctrine of creation.

R. Michael Allen (PhD Wheaton College) is John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Academic Dean at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is co-author of A Companion to the Theology of John Webster (Eerdmans, 2021) and author of The Fear of the Lord: Essays on Theological Method (T&T Clark, 2021).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards on Natural Philosophy and Noah's Flood

The rise of natural philosophy (science) during the early Enlightenment (1650-1750) posed tremendous challenges to theologians of all stripes. Among the principal questions were such issues as the dimension, capacity, and design of Noah's ark, the origin and universal extent of the deluge, calculations about the amount of water necessary to inundate the entire globe, and the use of fossil evidence from European and American sites. The debate involved the brightest minds of the time — men of the cloth like Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton in Europe, and Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards in New England. Smolinski's presentation focuses on how these clergymen employed the best historical, theological, and scientific evidence of the day, and achieved a remarkable consensus in upholding the authenticity of the Mosaic flood account. In fact, New England furnished some surprising archeological evidence in its confirmation.

Reiner Smolinski (PhD Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of English at Georgia State University. He is editor of a ten-volume edition of Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (Mohr Siebeck, 2010-present) and the co-editor of A Cotton Mather Reader (Yale University Press, 2022).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - From the Literal Interpretation of Genesis to the Doctrine of Literal Six-Day Creation

This lecture shines light on what has become an obscure idea: literal meaning and interpretation. Literality has become obscure because different biblical interpreters mean many different things by it. Yet literality matters if Thomas Aquinas is right that only Scripture’s literal sense establishes doctrine. In this lecture, Vanhoozer will explore the diverse meanings of literality by examining the history of interpretation, using the opening chapters of Genesis as a case study, in particular, the creation of light and lights. He will then examine arguments for and against young-earth creationism, a flash point in the debate over the necessity of literal interpretation for biblical authority. The constructive proposal that emerges sets out a properly dogmatic account of creation and introduces the concept of “theological literality,” a notion used to highlight the importance both of divine intention for understanding the literal sense of Scripture and of literality for understanding the personal agency of God.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Lecture Title - Bookkeeping: Reconciling God's Words & Works

Historically the Church has faced numerous moral, philosophical, and spiritual challenges to majority or even consensus interpretations of Scripture. Evolution is regarded by many not only as a significant challenge to orthodoxy but even as decisive evidence favoring naturalism and atheism. Others regard it as fertile ground for theological reflection that not only coheres with but supports orthodox, Christian belief. Is evolution friend or foe of the faith? In this talk, Michael Murray will consider a thirteenth-century challenge to orthodoxy, the resolution of which proves instructive to contemporary Christian scholars, who are tasked with the responsibility of negotiating the boundary between the book of God's word and the book of God's works.

Michael J. Murray (PhD University of Notre Dame) is Senior Visiting Scholar at Franklin and Marshall College and President and CEO of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. He is author or editor of multiple books, including Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering (Oxford University Press, 2008).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/ 

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Lecture Title - Matter Matters; Scripture Matters More; Creation by, through, & for Christ Matters Most

Thomas Aquinas says that Scripture transcends science and that Christian doctrine must be founded on the literal sense. Medievals read the book of Nature through the interpretive lens of the Bible. By way of contrast, modern thinkers often reverse the hermeneutical polarities. Both scientists and theologians want to say something about the world, its material nature, intelligibility, and origin. This lecture poses general questions about doctrine and its biblical basis before dealing with the specific discourse of creation. It will be argued that the “creation project” is ultimately a triune project (an economy) whose aim is summation in Christ. From this vantage point, the lecture concludes with some observations about the place of dogmatics in the discussion about the relationship between astrophysics, metaphysics, and biblical poetics.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Sermon Title - God and Sinners Reconciled: And Calls Us--Yes, Us--to Follow (Mark 8:34-38, 10:17-31) Greg Waybright continues his two-part series (part 1) on God and reconciliation in the gospel of Mark. He expounds Christ’s call to radical discipleship in Mark 8:34-38, and describes the path we can walk down alongside our eternal brothers and sisters in Mark 10:28-31. The hard work of reconciliation first requires that we deny ourselves and pick up our crosses in our pursuit of Christ, submitted to whatever he demands. Yet, Christ doesn’t leave us without the resources we need to do his work. He provides a family of God in the form of the local church – a family that grows with each new member of our respective communities reconciled to God our Father. This is the framework that guides us as we step into our neighborhoods as ambassadors of reconciliation. Gregory Waybright (PhD Marquette University) is President Emeritus of Trinity International University (1995-2007). He has also pastored churches in California, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

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Lecture Title - Reading Genesis in Church: Some Pastoral Reflections along the Way

In Genesis, the book of beginnings, we discover the foundation for our understanding of who God is, who we are as human beings, and the world in which we live — both what is good about it as well as for what has gone wrong. It is thus not surprising either that we find ourselves coming back to Genesis 1-3 week-upon-week and generation-upon-generation, or that it has been among the most divisive passages of the Bible. In this opening address, Gregory Waybright narrates the story of his own church, representative of so many, and how one pastor has learned to appreciate the complex relationship between science and theology. Providing pastoral guidance for how we the church must respond, Waybright will suggest several theological priorities and attitudes of heart and mind that are vital for God-honoring church-edifying response in the midst go these divisive times.

Gregory Waybright (PhD Marquette University) is President Emeritus of Trinity International University (1995-2007). He has also pastored churches in California, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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Lecture Title - The End of Protestantism: Telos or Terminus?

Anniversaries are as much about taking stock in the present and anticipating the future as they are about remembering the past. Accordingly, as reformation celebrations are happening throughout the Western world to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 theses, the prophetic-like question of rightly seeing the current state of Protestantism and faithfully guiding us into its future is no less urgent. Two of our current theological luminaries, Kevin Vanhoozer and Peter Leithart, have recently published works that engage the present state of Protestantism and propose directions for its future. Join us as these theologians tell us about their recent publications and interact on the question of the end (cessation, limit, or purpose) of Protestantism.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD University of Cambridge) is Research Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), Remythologizing Theology: Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), and Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine (Lexham Press, 2019).

Peter Leithart (PhD University of Cambridge) is President of Theopolis Institute and serves as Teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church. He is author of many books, including 1&2 Chronicles (Brazos Theological Commentary) (Brazos Press, 2019). He also writes a regular bi-weekly column at First Things.

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

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Debate Question - Does Scripture Speak Definitively on the Age of the Universe?

Whether one traces the origins of evangelicalism to the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, or back further to the great awakenings in the 18th and 19th centuries, the age the earth has been a pressing question throughout its history. Evidenced by the question’s staying-power, a satisfying resolution has remained hard to come by. At bedrock the debate raises several important exegetical and theological questions addressing issues like biblical authority, the proper interpretation of opening chapters of Genesis, and the relation between scientific and theological knowledge, to name only a few of the more difficult ones. In this year’s debate, prominent evangelical voices C. John Collins and R. Albert Mohler will debate this important question and the wider issues surrounding how one responds to it.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. (PhD Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is author of many books, including Words From the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments (Moody, 2009) and The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church (Thomas Nelson, 2020). He hosts two programs, “The Briefing” and “Thinking in Public,” and also writes a popular blog.

C. John “Jack” Collins (PhD University of Liverpool) is Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, and was a Senior Research Fellow for The Creation Project. He was Old Testament Chairman for the English Standard Version of the Bible, and is author of Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care (Crossway, 2011) and Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11 (Zondervan, 2018).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/

Subscribe to the HCTU Newsletter: https://bit.ly/326pRL5

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