The Henry Center Archive

Lecture Title - Divine Action, Healing, and Providence

Robust forms of Christian theism are unapologetically committed to the possibility and actuality of healing. In some cases this healing takes place through natural causes; in others through direct divine intervention. Moreover, in many cases healing does not take place. Once we allow both these propositions, devout believers are faced with two very challenging problems. How do we attribute divine causation to natural events? How do we reconcile the absence of healing with a strong doctrine of providence? This paper will seek to provide a persuasive response to these challenges.

William J. Abraham (1947-2021) (DPhil Oxford University) was a Northern Irish theologian, analytic philosopher, and Methodist pastor known for his contributions to the philosophy of religion, religious epistemology, evangelism, and church renewal. He was the author of a tetrology, Divine Agency and Divine Action (Oxford University Press).

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 - Defining Humanity in an Age of Plasticity

Modern discourse about the human person often emphasizes the extent to which humans are “plastic” and thus capable of being transformed in remarkable ways. Our brains are malleable, we have the technological capacity to reshape our bodies in seemingly countless ways, and even things we once imagined to be relatively stable features of human identity (e.g. sex, gender, and race), are increasingly viewed as subject to change. In this age of plasticity, it can be difficult to know what we should think about the task of defining what it means to be human, particularly when there are elements in the Christian tradition itself that challenge the idea of a stable and easily identifiable human nature. This paper explores the challenges presented by plasticity and various kinds of “posthumanism,” suggesting that at least some common theological critiques may not be as strong as they seem.

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 - AI, Spirituality, and Human Flourishing

What happens when an electrical engineer and computer scientist starts to give AI the skills of emotional intelligence? This talk will highlight cutting-edge capabilities being given to technologies, such as robots that appear to have emotion, and wearable technologies that can measure and in some cases, forecast human mood and stress. Where is this technology taking us? What are the implications for our future? As AI technology rapidly develops, what are the challenges that the church needs to prepare for related to our humanity and the promotion of human flourishing?

Rosalind W. Picard (ScD Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is Founder and Director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Co-Director of the Media Lab’s Advancing Wellbeing Initiative, and Faculty Chair of MIT’s Mind+Hand+Heart Initiative. She has authored or co-authored over 300 scientific articles and chapters spanning computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, human-computer interaction, wearable sensors and affective computing, as well as one book, Affective Computing (MIT Press, 2000). Picard is also an active inventor with multiple patents, which have applications in areas such as autism, epilepsy, depression, and PTSD.

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

Watch the HCTU on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HenryCenter

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Lecture Title - Divine Interjection: How God Puts Morphemes into Motion in the Great Theater of the World

Probably no greater obstacle complicates the dialogue between theology and science than the notion of divine intervention, commonly understood to involve divine interference in the laws of nature. Many scientists and some theologians complain that divine intervention complicates and, at the limit, subverts the project of explanation by causation. Accordingly, modern theologians are often reluctant to ascribe any effective causation to God. This lecture attends to biblical depictions of God communicating verbally, suggests divine interjection as an alternative model for understanding special divine action, and explores the strengths, weaknesses, and variations of this inform-active model (Deus dixit) over alternative models that privilege physical causation (Deus ex machina).

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/ 

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

Watch the HCTU on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HenryCenter

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Lecture Title - Imaging the Image: A Relational Anthropology

In this lecture, Ury will examine the decline of the concept of personhood in the modern era along with its corresponding separation from the doctrine of the Trinity, and then trace the theme of personhood—both human and divine—through the creation narratives. The question of evolutionary or creationist perspectives will be addressed as they pertain to a full understanding of human personhood. Ury aims to show that if we are able to discern the essence of created personhood in its fullness then it is possible to define the nature of sin and of salvation in such a way that God the Creator is revealed as not only able to remove the consequences of sin but as also able to recreate a human person in his image in time and eternity.

M. William “Bill” Ury (PhD Drew University) is National Ambassador of Holiness for The Salvation Army. For over twenty years he has hosted The Hour of Holiness, a national radio program heard Sunday mornings on American Family Radio, and is author of Trinitarian Personhood: Investing the Implications of a Relational Definition (Wipf and Stock, 2002).

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

Watch the HCTU on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HenryCenter

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Lecture Title - Among the Fallen: The Estrangement of Humanity from God in the New Testament

The New Testament directly refers to the ‘fall of man’ as an event on a few occasions (e.g. Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Timothy 2). But it insists at every turn that humankind exists in a ‘fallen’ state. In some places (2 Peter 2; Matthew 25; Revelation 20) this fallen state and its consequences are associated with an analogous fall of supra-human forces; in others (Romans 8) the fall is said to implicate the created order itself. We will survey all of these aspects of ‘fallenness’ in the NT, with particular emphases on the figure of Adam in the proceedings; the distinction between Fall as event and fallenness as a state of affairs; and the significant role of physical death in the discussion of fallenness in the NT.

Sean M. McDonough (PhD University of St. Andrews) is Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His publications include Christ as Creator: Origins of a New Testament Doctrine (Oxford University Press, 2009) and Creation and New Creation: Understanding God’s Creation Project (Hendrickson Academic, 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/ 

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

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Lecture Title - Patristic Interpretations of the Fall: Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Tragedy

Christian interpreters from very early on presumed that the Adamic fall was a primordial cataclysm with ramifications for the whole human posterity; but they did not all concur on the precise nature of its causes and consequences. Blowers’ lecture will track three major trajectories of patristic interpretation. First is a tradition viewing the fall as an adumbration of the perduring patterns of human sin, a preview of the continuing reinvention of moral evil, generation after generation, beginning with Adam and Eve. Second is a tradition that understood the fall as an apocalypse of sorts, insofar as it provided a catalyst for revealing the fullness of the Creator’s sacrificial love

Paul M. Blowers (PhD University of Notre Dame) is Dean E. Walker Professor of Church History at Emmanuel Christian Seminary. His publications include Drama of the Divine Economy: Creator and Creation in Early Christian Theology and Piety (Oxford University Press, 2012), Maximus the Confessor: Jesus Christ and the Transfiguration of the World (Oxford University Press, 2016), and Visions and Faces of the Tragic: The Mimesis of Tragedy and the Folly of Salvation in Early Christian Literature (Oxford University Press, 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.

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

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

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Lecture Title - Goodness that Abides? Martin Luther's Adam, for Today

Scholars frequently note Martin Luther’s powerful imaginative capacity for entering into the world of the Bible, which was nowhere more vividly displayed than in his interpretation of “the dear Genesis.” This lecture will introduce Luther’s dramatic reading of the story of Adam and Eve, exploring the powerful connections he finds between God’s goodness, human goodness (imago Dei), and the good creation. Our universe, however, is not Luther’s cosmos. And his narration of the fall was just as dramatic as the creation. Can Luther’s readings of the lost promise of our “first parents” still be useful to theology today?

Mickey L. Mattox (PhD Duke University) is the Flack Family Foundation Chair and Professor of Theology at Hillsdale College and serves as Associate Editor for the 1.4 million-word Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion: Martin Luther. His books include “Defender of the Most Holy Matriarchs”: Martin Luther’s Interpretation of the Women of Genesis in the Enarrationes in Genesis, 1535-1545 (Brill, 2003) and An Exposition of Genesis 1-3 (Marquette University Press, 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.

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

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

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Lecture Title: The Place of the Fall in the Overall Vision of the Hebrew Bible

The notion of the “fall” of Adam and Eve, our first parents, has played an important role in Jewish and Christian theology. It has been used to explain the “brokenness” of the world, and it has also been declared unbiblical, or at least of little historical and theological consequence. This paper will focus on sound reading strategies and show, first, why we should indeed read the Hebrew Bible as presenting the “fall” as a reality. Second, it will consider some of the consequences (for humankind, and for the non-human creation). Third, it will show its importance in the rest of the Bible beyond Genesis 1–11. Finally, it will take up the matter of the enduring relevance of the “fall,” and how the world can still be called “good.”

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/

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Lecture Title - Adam in Canonical Perspective: The Old Testament

Where has Adam gone? The central figure in Genesis 1–5 is missing in the rest of the Old Testament. It is surprising that the personal name “Adam” occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament except the single reference in the genealogical list in 1 Chronicles 1:1, “Adam, Seth, Enosh.” In order to hold Adam in canonical perspective, therefore, we must return to Genesis 1–5 to ask what the text demands of us as twenty-first century readers. This paper returns briefly to the question of the ancient Near Eastern location of the text, proposing that we ask only as much of Genesis 1–5 as that location will allow. The result is an exploration of the fundamental questions of genre and worldview in the opening chapters of the Bible as a means of establishing what is and is not reasonable in our reading of Adam, concluding with a few implications for our current dialogue.

Bill T. Arnold (PhD Hebrew Union College) is the Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1995. He has written or edited over a dozen books, including Who Were the Babylonians? (SBL Press, 2004) and Introduction to the Old Testament (Cambridge University Press, 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/ 

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

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