The Henry Center Archive

Lecture Title - Paradox Lost: Longing, Alienation, and the Mystery of Humanity in a Technological Age

The Christian concept of creation is contested in the present age for many reasons, but one of those reasons is the incredibility of a distinctiveness of humanity beyond the explainable and the material. Figures from the past century—from Walker Percy to Wendell Berry to Marilynne Robinson—though have drawn from theology, biology, psychology, and the humanities to suggest that the mysteriousness of human nature points beyond itself to a greater mystery of the cosmos. Christian theology can account both for the human similarity to the rest of nature and the human predicament of alienation from nature, and from ourselves. A sense of humanity as a paradox of integrity-in-brokenness, intelligibility-in-mystery, cultivation-in-conservation, and wayfaring-in-habitation can help us to reconcile the tensions between imagination and reason, community and individualism, and realism and justice while maintaining what we intuit to be true—that humanity is unique—alongside the challenges to that uniqueness in questions about whether humanity is alone in the universe or can be replicated by an algorithm.

Russell D. Moore (PhD Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Editor in Chief and Director of the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today. He is author of several books, including Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel (B&H, 2015), The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home (B&H, 2018), and The Courage to Stand: Facing Your Fear Without Losing Your Soul (B&H, 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 - Good, Doing Good, and the Goods

When we explore the goodness of any thing, we encounter it through a complex network of interactions: there is the good of its occurrence, the good it does for us and those who enjoy it, the good it may elicit from us in response. Philosophical accounts have discussed whether the good is one or many, whether it is a “description”, whether it is primarily attached to things, states of affairs or actions, and whether it is ontologically prior to evil. Theology has a strong interest in these discussions, since it speaks in four ways of the good, none of them dispensable: the goodness of God, the goodness of his action, the goodness conferred on his creation, and the goodness commanded of it.

Oliver O’Donovan (PhD University of Oxford) is British Anglican Priest and Academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2013. He is author of many books, including Resurrection and the Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics (Eerdmans, 1986) and The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

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 - Paul and the Pursuit of Pleasure

Paul, in his debate with a wisdom group at Corinth, addresses Greco-Roman attitudes toward (idol) food (1 Cor 8:1–13; 10:23–30), sex (6:12–20), and entertainment (15:32). He engages with a kind of moral naturalism which motivates the Corinthians’ behavior. While he acknowledges that natural desire can serve as partial index of what is good, Paul nevertheless warns against letting anything have power over us (1 Cor 6:12). Food, drink, human intimacy, and play are physical and social pleasures that are good gifts from our Creator. They can, however, be dangerously idolatrous and addictive. Paul offers instruction on how we can enjoy pleasures as created goods without turning them into idolatrous practices.

Max J. Lee (PhD Fuller Theological Seminary) is Professor of New Testament at North Park Theological Seminary. He is one of the Creation Project’s 2020–21 Henry Resident Fellows, researching natural desire and pleasure according to Paul. He is co-editor of Fire in My Soul: Essays on Pauline Soteriology and the Gospels in Honor of Seyoon Kim (Wipf and Stock, 2014) and author of Moral Transformation in Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind: Mapping the Moral Milieu of the Apostle Paul and his Diaspora Jewish Contemporaries (Mohr Siebeck, 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

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

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Panel Discussion - The Inner Life of God

The long-awaited second volume of Katherine Sonderegger’s Systematic Theology arrived in 2020. It is a book about the Inner Life of God, exploring the Immanent Trinity, the Holy Life of the One God. It is, admittedly, an “unusual dogma of Trinity,” having not Persons but Processions as its foundation and insisting that the doctrine is a deliverance of the Old Testament itself. In the author’s own words, “it is a strange book, a disorienting one, and, some would say, an impossible one.” In the words of others, the book is “magnificent,” “a marvel,” “faith-filled,” “a hymn of praise,” “like listening to someone pray.” In addition to this panel discussion, there is also a written symposium published in Sapientia, our online periodical (https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/2021/01/the-inner-life-of-god/?from_cat=1070). The essays in this symposium are written by the panelists and serve as a foundation for the event.

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.

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

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

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Lecture Title - The Myth of the Fact/Value Gap

Our knowledge of nature is based on observation and experiment, and thus is objective. Our knowledge of ethics—the good—is based on culture, religion, and philosophy, and so seems subjective. If this usual story is correct, then how can these orders be united? How can this “gap” between facts and values be overcome? I will argue that understood in the right way, there is no gap. I will then offer a big picture explanation for how the good fits into the natural order. Or, rather—as ultimately makes more sense—how the natural order fits into the good.

Paul Nedelisky (PhD University of Virginia) is Assistant Director and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He is co-author of Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality (Yale University Press, 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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Lecture Title - Suffering and Flourishing

Although we sometimes praise a person who suffers for not sinking under his suffering, we still suppose that the sufferer is to be ranked more among life’s losers than among life’s winners. The disability rights movement is an exception to this general attitude—it wants others to see that those with disabilities are people to celebrate. The Christian tradition has held an analogous position as regards suffering in general: those who endure serious suffering are not the pitiable losers of life or even the heroic overcomers of tragedy but rather are those specially loved by God. This lecture looks closely at the relevant Christian doctrines to explain this attitude towards suffering and to distinguish it from the neighboring perverse attitude that sees suffering as an intrinsic good.

Eleonore Stump (PhD Cornell University) is Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. She is author or editor of seventeen books, including Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering (Oxford University Press, 2010) and Atonement (Oxford 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/

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

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Lecture Title - Falling Short and Becoming Virtuous: Insights from Psychology, Philosophy, and Christianity

Most of us realize we’re not as good as we could be. But can we become better? In this lecture Miller outlines some steps that we can take to grow in virtue and become better people. He begins by clarifying what virtue is, and why it is important, and then discusses how most of us fall short of virtue, an idea familiar from the Christian tradition but also confirmed by empirical research in psychology. With this background in place, he turns to highlighting at least four different ideas for improving our characters that should appeal to both Christians and non-Christians alike.

Christian B. Miller (PhD University of Notre Dame) is A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. His research is primarily in contemporary ethics and philosophy of religion. He is author of The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (Oxford University Press, 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/ 

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 - The Goodness, the Glory, and the Goal of Creation

Much Christian thinking about creation and environmental issues focuses only on the creation narratives and the concept of stewardship that they generate. We need to look further at the Bible’s insistence that creation itself constitutes a part of the glory of God, such that our actions in and with creation either enhance or diminish God’s glory. And we also need to build an eschatological dimension into our environmental theology and practice. What does the Bible say about the destiny of creation in the purposes of God, and how should that affect our attitudes and actions within it now?

Christopher J. H. Wright (PhD University of Cambridge) is International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership International. He is author of Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (IVP Academic, 2004) and The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (IVP Academic, 2006).

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 - Signs of the Kingdom: Miracles in the NT and Today

From its earliest moments, the Christian community pointed to miraculous events—paradigmatically, the resurrection of Jesus—as disclosing the truth about God and his saving action on their behalf. In spite of their centrality in early Christian proclamation and belief, Christians in the modern era have tended to approach the category of ‘miraculous events’ with a measure of skepticism. Many believe that modern science has called the plausibility of belief in miracles into question; others have argued against their historical reliability. In this lecture Craig Keener will discuss the contributions and limitations of conventional science and historiography in examining miracles, and some evidence globally for the sorts of experiences described in the earliest Christian sources.

Craig S. Keener (PhD Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He was a Resident Fellow at the Henry Center in 2019-20. He is author of twenty-five books, five of which have won awards at Christianity Today. His works include Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (2 vols.) (Baker Academic, 2011), Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (4 vols.) (Baker Academic, 2012-2015), Galatians: A Commentary (Baker Academic, 2019), and Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World (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.

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

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

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Lecture Title - Keeping Time with the Divine Clockmaker

Time is an inescapable reality of human life and one of the fundamental building blocks of human society. To be bound to time and aware of our finitude is a unique characteristic of human anthropology. Christianity’s robust theology of time teaches believers to relinquish our limited time into the hands of a God, who freely created time, entered time in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and promises eternal, bodily human life to those who believe. This lecture will explore how early-modern Christians presented the Bible’s teaching on God’s activity in time during a period undergoing calendar reform and rapid scientific advancements in astronomy and horology. Recognition of a “Divine Clockmaker” takes on new meaning when contextualized by early-modern attention to charting the dating of the universe and God’s activity in sacred chronology. Attention to the history of time measuring and how it comes to bear on the Christian life during the rise of modern science provides an opportunity to engage the framework and attitudes of the past in fruitful ways as Christians today.

Jennifer Powell McNutt (PhD University of St. Andrews) is Franklin S. Dyrness Associate Professor in Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. She is author of Calvin Meets Voltaire: The Clergy of Geneva in the Age of Enlightenment, 1685–1798 (Routledge, 2014) and co-editor of The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible (IVP 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

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

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