Christ the Center

Recorded before a live audience at Cahaba Park Church during Discovering Christ in All of Scripture, a Reformed Forum seminar hosted in conjunction with Birmingham Theological Seminary, Camden Bucey moderates a panel with Dan Ragusa, Derrick Brite, and Lane G. Tipton on the importance of biblical theology for the life of the church. The panel defines biblical theology in the tradition of Geerhardus Vos, explains its organic and progressive character, and shows how the whole history of special revelation reaches its center and goal in Jesus Christ.

The conversation turns to preaching, discipleship, the unity of the covenant of grace, Christ-centered interpretation, practical resources for reading the Old Testament, and the need for churches to recover the accomplishment of redemption as the great context for every biblical passage. In the audience Q&A, the panel also addresses ministry in small and struggling churches, church revitalization, and the pilgrim ethic needed for faithful pastoral service.

Links

• Episode page
• Birmingham Theological Seminary
• Reformed Academy

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and panel
• 03:55 Why biblical theology matters
• 09:28 Defining biblical theology
• 15:39 Derrick Brite’s formation and pastoral ministry
• 22:20 Dan Ragusa and the Dutch Reformed tradition
• 26:09 Biblical theology in a diverse congregation
• 30:09 Avoiding moralism and subjectivism
• 31:27 Hermeneutical foundations
• 35:56 The trans-testamental gospel
• 40:24 Christianity, liberalism, and supernatural history
• 43:54 God’s redemptive words and deeds
• 48:37 Christ, the one mediator
• 51:11 One gospel for Abraham and the church
• 52:56 Audience questions
• 53:23 Lane Tipton’s conversion and call to ministry
• 58:40 Teaching people to see Christ in the Old Testament
• 63:25 The exodus at the Transfiguration
• 67:16 Reading passages within the history of salvation
• 73:56 Christocentrism and Christotelism
• 77:11 Biblical theology and small-church ministry
• 82:58 The pastoral shortage and a pilgrim ethic
• 88:10 Conclusion

Artificial intelligence does more than raise technical questions; it presses the deeper question of what it means to be human. Camden Bucey speaks with Jason Thacker, author of The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity, about human dignity, the image of God, and the crucial distinction between a human person and a machine.

They consider how Christians can receive technology as a tool under God’s providence without confusing imitation with intelligence, convenience with communion, or productivity with personal worth. The conversation also explores how technology forms its users, why embodied life and genuine relationships matter, and how transhumanism redirects the human longing for life beyond death toward technological self-salvation.

Against both utopian promises and dystopian fear, Thacker points to the sufficiency of Scripture and the hope of the risen Christ. Christians can engage emerging technologies wisely because human identity is given by the Creator, human dignity cannot be earned or erased, and Christ remains Lord over every age.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:19 Meet Jason Thacker

03:24 From public policy to AI ethics

06:05 Teaching ethics, philosophy, and technology

09:53 AI’s anthropological challenge

12:58 What has changed since The Age of AI?

14:55 Humanizing machines and dehumanizing people

19:55 The image of God and human dignity

25:39 AI companionship and simulated relationships

28:11 How technology forms and disciples us

34:00 Embodiment, materialism, and personal identity

42:20 Transhumanism and the longing for immortality

48:35 Engaging Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical

53:22 Technology as ecological change

54:43 Scripture, Christian hope, and the future

Learn more: https://reformedforum.org/ctc975

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Camden Bucey speaks with economist Shawn Ritenour about what makes an account of economics distinctly Christian. They discuss economic law as part of God’s created order and the biblical principles shaping stewardship, private property, labor, capital, exchange, and care for those in need. Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas provides the occasion for a searching conversation about the universal destination of goods, Big Tech, data, subsidiarity, sphere sovereignty, GDP, and human dignity.

The conversation presses beneath policy to theology. Neither markets nor governments escape the effects of sin, and material prosperity must never be confused with sanctification. Christians seek just and prudent arrangements in this age while recognizing that scarcity, exploitation, and disordered desire will not finally be overcome by human construction. The church’s hope rests in the crucified and risen Christ and the consummation of his kingdom.

• Economic law, creation, and Christian stewardship
• Private property, labor, capital, exchange, and human dignity
• Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas and Catholic social teaching
• GDP, inequality, and the common good
• The universal destination of goods
• Data, privacy, Big Tech, and non-rivalrous goods
• Subsidiarity and Kuyperian sphere sovereignty
• Universal basic income and the economic disruption of AI
• Sin, scarcity, eschatology, and Christian hope

Learn more: https://reformedforum.org/ctc974

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:09 What makes economics Christian?
• 09:52 Economics at Grove City College
• 14:01 Introducing Magnifica Humanitas
• 19:23 GDP and the dignity of the human person
• 23:46 The common good, inequality, and economic law
• 29:36 Private property, markets, and solidarity
• 35:12 The universal destination of goods
• 43:20 Data, privacy, and non-rivalrous goods
• 50:21 Subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty
• 55:04 Big Tech, state privilege, and central banking
• 58:02 Labor, capital, and human worth
• 63:26 Universal basic income in the age of AI
• 72:33 Economics between the fall and the consummation
• 80:03 Resources and conclusion

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

What does it mean to cultivate a life of Reformed piety? Camden Bucey speaks with Joel Beeke about the ordinary practices by which God forms reverential love for himself in Christian homes: Scripture reading, prayer, singing, biblical meditation, family worship, and faithful participation in the church’s public worship.

Dr. Beeke explains why meditation serves as a “halfway house” between Bible reading and prayer, how deliberate meditation gives rise to spontaneous reflection throughout the day, and why small, repeated habits often bear their richest fruit over decades. The conversation offers practical encouragement for parents, spouses, pastors, and every believer who desires an integrated life of devotion—one in which home, church, and daily vocation are oriented toward the glory of God and maturity in Christ.

• Reformed piety as reverential love for God
• Building durable habits of family worship
• Reading Scripture, praying, singing, and instructing children
• Praying with one’s spouse
• Deliberate and spontaneous biblical meditation
• Carrying the ministry of the Word from church into the home
• Preparing the family for the Lord’s Day
• The long-term fruit of ordinary spiritual disciplines

Learn more: https://reformedforum.org/ctc973

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:41 Puritan Reformed Seminary, Reformation Heritage Books, and current ministry
• 06:24 Recent and forthcoming books
• 15:05 Cultivating Reformed piety in the home
• 16:22 Family worship and the Family Worship Bible Guide
• 24:46 Prayer with one’s spouse and family
• 27:22 Biblical meditation between reading and prayer
• 34:03 Recommended writers on Reformed piety
• 40:04 Connecting church, home, and school
• 45:51 The Lord’s Day as an uninterrupted exercise of piety
• 51:13 Beginning family worship simply
• 53:58 Cultivating spontaneous prayer and spiritual conversation
• 55:50 Conclusion

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Camden Bucey speaks with Derek C. Schuurman, professor and chair of computer science at Calvin University, about Christian wisdom in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing upon Shaping a Digital World, Schuurman explains why technology is never neutral: people shape their tools, and those tools in turn reshape habits, institutions, and communities.

The conversation sets contemporary AI within the biblical story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. Bucey and Schuurman contrast Christian hope with technicism—the belief that technology can solve humanity’s deepest problems and build a technological heaven on earth. They also discuss human nature, transhumanism, responsible design, Christian higher education, autonomous weapons, and the need to keep human moral judgment and accountability in the loop.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:41 Derek C. Schuurman’s path from engineering to Christian higher education
• 08:29 Technology, cultural change, and the need for wisdom
• 11:45 Technology is not neutral
• 14:36 How tools reshape people and societies
• 18:08 Reading technology through creation, fall, redemption, and new creation
• 20:18 Two cities, two loves, and the biblical story
• 22:22 Babel, idolatry, and the temptation to build heaven on earth
• 23:21 Technicism and the promises of Silicon Valley
• 26:52 Transhumanism and a Christian account of humanity
• 29:14 Practical frameworks for responsible technological design
• 30:36 Dooyeweerd’s non-reductionistic view of creation
• 33:19 Eight norms for faithful design
• 37:34 Integrating Christian faith throughout education
• 41:21 Liberal arts, AI, and well-rounded technical formation
• 42:29 AI, labor, and the human calling to work
• 43:42 Autonomous systems, accountability, and just-war questions
• 45:55 Why moral judgment requires a human in the loop
• 49:12 Faithful presence and wise Christian vocation
• 51:41 Resources for engineers, designers, pastors, and parents
• 53:24 Calvin University’s “Wisdom in the Age of AI” conference
• 55:36 Conclusion

• Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology
• A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers
• Wisdom in the Age of AI Conference, Calvin University, October 8–10, 2026
• Magnifica Humanitas
• Episode resources

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Camden Bucey speaks with Daniel R. Hyde about A Christian’s Pocket Guide to the Presence of God (Christian Focus, 2026), tracing this great biblical theme from Eden’s garden sanctuary through the tabernacle, temple, exile, incarnation, church, and new creation. Scripture’s map leads not to a sacred location or a fleeting spiritual sensation, but to Jesus Christ, the true temple and the glory of God dwelling among us.

The conversation also offers pastoral help for seasons when God feels distant. Feelings ebb and flow, but the Lord’s covenant promises remain sure. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ meets his people in the ordinary means of grace and gathers them as his body. The Christian hope reaches its fullness in Revelation 22:4: the redeemed will see God’s face in the risen and glorified Christ.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:58 A Christian’s Pocket Guide to the Presence of God
• 01:39 Ministry at Oceanside United Reformed Church
• 02:59 The biblical theology series and the book’s origins
• 05:28 Augustine and discovering the Bible’s great theme
• 08:18 Is God’s presence a feeling?
• 11:32 A map to a person, not a place
• 12:59 Omnipresence and covenant presence
• 16:42 God’s presence as blessing and judgment
• 17:58 The presence of God across redemptive history
• 18:29 Eden as the first earthly temple
• 21:14 Edenic imagery in the tabernacle and temple
• 24:49 Worship, geography, and reversing exile
• 29:29 Exile and the departure of God’s glory
• 32:45 Jesus Christ as the return of the glory
• 33:05 When believers feel that God is distant
• 37:34 The ordinary means of grace
• 38:01 The Holy Spirit as a divine person
• 40:57 God’s presence in the gathered church
• 46:03 Seeing the face of God in Christ
• 50:40 Living as the people of God’s presence
• 52:49 Michael Morales’s book in Rome
• 54:07 Conclusion

• A Christian’s Pocket Guide to the Presence of God
• Episode resources

Camden Bucey and Daniel R. Hyde

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

In this episode, we introduce Camden Bucey’s new book, Defending Our Hope: An Introduction to Christian Apologetics, and trace its development from an adult Sunday school class at Hope Presbyterian Church to a twelve-lesson Reformed Academy course and now a beautiful hardcover volume. Camden and Ryan Noha explain why the book is intended as an accessible on-ramp to a distinctly Reformed approach—one grounded in the doctrines of God, revelation, and humanity rather than an imagined realm of neutral reasoning.

The conversation returns again and again to the living hope of 1 Peter 1:3 and the call of 1 Peter 3:15. Christian apologetics is not chiefly about winning arguments or mastering a script; it is about bearing faithful witness to Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and rose for our salvation. Because the power belongs to God and works through his Word, ordinary believers can speak the truth in love with gentleness, respect, and genuine confidence.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:04 Introducing Defending Our Hope
• 02:12 Upcoming Reformed Forum events
• 04:03 The story behind the book
• 04:28 The book and course as an accessible on-ramp
• 07:58 Formed through the local church
• 13:28 Apologetics in the community
• 21:57 Friendship, community, and everyday witness
• 24:31 Ordinary Christians and the hope within us
• 27:09 The apologetic context of 1 Peter 3:15
• 30:04 Always prepared—with gentleness and respect
• 31:37 The living hope of resurrection
• 33:39 Apologetics and evangelism
• 34:39 Why doctrine determines apologetic method
• 41:28 Scripture as the self-attesting Word of God
• 50:09 Starting anywhere in God’s world
• 52:36 Faithful witnesses who tell the truth
• 60:56 Using the book with the free Reformed Academy course
• 62:30 Further study and ordering information
• 65:42 Closing remarks

• Episode resources and Defending Our Hope
• Free Reformed Academy course: Defending Our Hope
• Reformed Forum bookstore

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

We welcome David Noe and Chad Van Dixhoorn to discuss the first volume in Reformation Heritage Books’ new edition of The Works of Samuel Rutherford: Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response. Noe translated the work from Latin, while Van Dixhoorn serves as general editor of the series and edited and introduced this volume.

The conversation explores Rutherford’s significance as a leading theologian of seventeenth-century Scotland and a commissioner to the Westminster Assembly. Rather than treating Arminianism as merely five disputed points of salvation, Rutherford examines it as a theological system reaching into the doctrine of God, divine simplicity, providence, human freedom, ecclesiology, and the sacraments. The guests also discuss the challenges of translating scholastic Latin, recovering manuscripts, correcting citations, and preparing a projected twenty-volume edition.

Learn more at reformedforum.org/ctc969.

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:08 David Noe joins the conversation
• 5:45 Translation projects and Calvin’s Latin Bible
• 12:41 Reformed worship and the declaration of pardon
• 15:29 The Works of Samuel Rutherford, Volume 1
• 17:47 A twenty-volume publishing project
• 22:22 Samuel Rutherford and the Westminster Assembly
• 23:54 Why Rutherford addressed Arminianism
• 27:54 Why the book is more than an “examination”
• 30:23 Arminianism as a theological system
• 31:58 Divine simplicity and the doctrine of God
• 33:56 Middle knowledge, freedom, and providence
• 36:03 Rutherford’s pastoral and rhetorical power
• 41:57 Ecclesiology, sacraments, and scholastic method
• 45:02 The craft and challenges of translation
• 49:16 Difficult texts and inaccurate citations
• 54:38 A second manuscript enters the project
• 56:04 Translating Homer and the meaning of polytropos
• 60:16 How to read Rutherford fruitfully
• 62:55 Chad Van Dixhoorn joins the conversation
• 63:19 Rutherford’s stature in Scottish theology
• 66:10 Arminianism involves more than five points
• 68:20 The origins and scope of the Rutherford series
• 70:38 The search for unpublished letters and sermons
• 73:35 Rutherford’s final years and posthumous legacy
• 76:59 Assessing Rutherford’s polemical judgments
• 82:02 Why the volume remains valuable today
• 83:30 What is next for the series
• 85:02 Conclusion

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

In this free-for-all episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey is joined by Derrick Brite, Lee Hutchings, and Dan Borvan for a wide-ranging conversation following the summer season of Presbyterian and Reformed assemblies. They reflect on the PCA General Assembly, the OPC General Assembly, and the URC Synod, considering overtures, church order, the spirit of deliberation, and the practical realities of Presbyterian polity.

The conversation also turns to Reformed witness in Italy, Roman Catholicism, and the need to speak the truth clearly and charitably. Camden previews upcoming discussions on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Catholic social teaching, artificial intelligence, human dignity, and the need for a sound Reformed anthropology in an age of rapid technological change.

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Camden Bucey speaks with Harrison Perkins about Meeting God in His Means of Grace: How Word, Sacrament, and Prayer Help Us Encounter Christ. Perkins argues that the Christian life is fundamentally receptive: we do not invent our own paths to God, but meet him where he has promised to be present and active for the good of his people.

The conversation explores the ordinary means of grace—Word, sacraments, and prayer—as Christ’s appointed instruments for strengthening faith, assuring believers, and shaping the church’s worship. Perkins discusses the reading and preaching of Scripture, baptism as a covenantal sign, the Lord’s Supper as communion with Christ and a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb, prayer as a means Christ uses to sustain his people, and congregational worship as active participation before God rather than religious spectatorship.

Watch or learn more at reformedforum.org/ctc967.

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit