Think for Christ

Anthony and Andrew discuss the main theme of Soren Kierkegaard's famous short work, Fear and Trembling. We consider the main theme and aim of the book and how Kierkegaard intends us to see that the intent of Scripture is to order us to God rather than to order us to a system of ethics or morality. True faith, as seen in the story of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac as sacrifice, requires a radical alignment of one's life to God as to the ultimate authority, an authority which transcends all our ethical rationalizations and culturally conditioned expectations.

In Part 25 of this Introduction to Apologetics series we continue our consideration of the historical reliability of the New Testament by reviewing some reasons that can be given in support of the claim that the New Testament authors actually did provide a reliable account about Jesus. Three general categories of evidence for New Testament reliability are considered. First there is what sometimes goes by the name "signs of credibility" (or sometimes also "marks of authenticity"). Here we see that much of what the New Testament reports about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus meets the criteria historians use when evaluating the historical reliability of a source. Then we consider confirmation of the New Testament from non-canonical sources. Here we look at ancient sources, Christian and non-Christian, that corroborate some of the central claims of the New Testament. Finally, we have a brief look at how archaeology has added support to the general historical reliability of the New Testament. Here we consider ways in which archaeological discoveries have contributed to the credibility of some New Testament reports.

In his dialogue the Republic the ancient Greek philosopher Plato famously warned us about the perils of democracy and the moral degradation of what he calls the "democratic man". In this episode, and on the heels of the historic election of Donald Trump to a second term as President of the United States, Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne discuss what Plato has to say about democracy and its relevance to modern political society.

In this episode on the life and thought of Soren Kierkegaard, Dr. Andrew Payne reviews four major themes that emerge across his works.

In Part 24 of this Introduction to Apologetics series we consider the question: Did the New Testament authors intend to provide a reliable account about Jesus? Sometimes it is claimed that the NT authors, especially the Gospel authors, never actually intended to give us a factual account of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Instead, what we have are mostly fabricated stories full of embellishments and non-historical material. The gospels are thus said to belong to a genre that is more akin to folk lore, legend, or myth rather than to the genre of historical memoir or biography. Of course, if this is the case, then even if the NT was written at the right time and by the right people, it won’t be a historically trustworthy source of information about Jesus since it was never intended to be one in the first place. However, despite the claims of some radically skeptical scholars and internet atheists, we do in fact have very good reasons to believe that the NT writers intended to provide us with historically factual accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In this episode we continue our look at the life and thought of Soren Kierkegaard by considering whether he can rightly be characterized as an existentialist.

In Part 23 of this Introduction to Apologetics series we begin our review of the case for the historical reliability of the New Testament. To make this case, we first argue that the writers of the New Testament were well able to write a reliable account by focusing on the dating and authorship of the New Testaments documents. We show that the authors of the New Testament were the right people writing from the right place and writing at the right time. In other words, the New Testament documents were written close enough to the events they describe and by people who were in a position to know whether the events described actually happened.

In this episode we begin a new series on the hugely influential nineteenth century Danish theologian, philosopher, and literary master Soren Kierkegaard. Dr. Andrew Payne kicks off the series with a biographical sketch of some of the important events in Kierkegaard's life. Andrew also explains the relevance of Kierkegaard's thought for Christians today.

In this episode of Think for Christ, we welcome back philosopher J.T. Bridges to talk about his new book Beyond ‘Origin’: A Post-Darwinian Design Theory. In this book Dr. Bridges provides a much-needed critique of the somewhat stalled debate between Neo-Darwinist and Intelligent Design proponents. The book is full of valuable and probing insights for the ID movement, but, by way of disclaimer, it is not by any means an “easy read” or a “beginner-level” work. Dr. Bridges is presenting a philosophical critique of the of the current debate and in doing so he surveys ideas from several academic fields of inquiry including epistemology, the philosophy of science, and, of course, from both neo-Darwinian and Intelligent Design theory. Likewise, and again by way of disclaimer, this interview with Dr. Bridges will at times get us into some technical material and complex ideas. If you are someone familiar with or interested in the ongoing debate between Darwinism and Intelligent Design, both this book and this interview will be well-worth your considered attention.

In Part 22 of this Introduction to Apologetics series we consider the question: Do we have accurate copies of the New Testament? How can we have confidence that our copies of the NT are faithful reflections of the originals? How can we be sure that they haven’t been corrupted and distorted? How trustworthy has the transmission process been?