Becoming a thoughtful Christian means learning to think well and to think Christianly. And in noting these two points, we want to say that they must be both at once. Making this observation recognizes that it is possible to be thoughtful without being Christian, and that it is possible to be a Christian without being thoughtful. Frankly, in our current duality-promoting context, either of these would be easier for most people to contemplate. What is challenging is to be both thoughtful and Christian in vigorous and vital engagement with each other and interdependence among each other. We believe, however, that such integration is precisely what is needed at this time in the church and in our culture.

The issue of “How We Got the Bible” has become one of the flash points of our day. The popularly accepted storyline today is that a state-sponsored Christian church chose the New Testament books fully three centuries after Christ. But does the historical data really support that claim? Explore the evidence in this essay by Dr. Charles Hill.

Charles E. Hill Charles Hill serves as Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, where he has taught since 1994. With a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Hill has published widely on New Testament studies in various journals, especially on the canon of the New Testament, the traditions of New Testament manuscripts, the early church fathers, and the Johannine books of the Bible (the Gospel of John, 1–3 John, and Revelation). Dr. Hill’s publications include Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy (Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Early Text of the New Testament (Oxford University Press, 2012), edited with Dr. Michael J. Kruger.  

D. A. Carson is Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He earned his PhD in New Testament from the University of Cambridge and has served as an assistant pastor and pastor and has conducted itinerant ministry in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A prolific writer, Dr. Carson has authored or edited more than fifty books, including The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Zondervan 1996), which won the 1997 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Gold Medallion Award in the category “theology and doctrine”; Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church (Zondervan, 2005); Christ and Culture Revisited (Eerdmans, 2012); and The Intolerance of Tolerance (Eerdmans, 2012).

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. served as president of Calvin College from 2002–2011. He has degrees from Calvin College, Calvin Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He has served as a pastor and on the faculties of two colleges and three seminaries. An author and editor, his publications include Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary on Sin (Eerdmans, 1995); Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living (Eerdmans, 2002); and Reading for Preaching: The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists (Eerdmans, 2013).

Lots of North Americans use the word sin only on dessert menus and when telling an inside joke. If they hear the word used seriously, they might conclude that they are in the presence of a Puritan. There are few contexts left in which the word is said and heard straight. Even preachers often mumble when it comes to sin. Yet most people would widely agree that the world is broken—that things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. This essay describes sin, its real effects on humanity, and how Christians can contribute to human flourishing.

Harold A. Netland is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies and the Director of the PhD/Intercultural Studies program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has taught since 1993. Prior to coming to Trinity, he was a missionary in Japan for nine years with the Evangelical Free Church of America and taught for four years at Tokyo Christian University. He earned his PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School. His publications include Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism & the Question of Truth (Regent College, 1999); Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith and Mission (IVP Academic, 2001); and Can Only One Religion Be True? Paul Knitter and Harold Netland in Dialogue (Fortress, 2013).

Until the modern era, Christians largely took it for granted that Christianity is the one true religion for all humankind. By the late twentieth century, however, there were growing numbers of those identifying themselves as Christians who called for a radical pluralism in which Christianity is just one among many possible ways of responding to the divine. Explore the idea that all the major religions are more or less equally true and how Christians can respond to religious diversity today.

Craig L. Blomberg is Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, where he has taught since 1986. Dr. Blomberg received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In addition to contributing numerous articles in professional journals, multi-author works, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, he has authored or edited twenty books, including The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (IVP Academic, 2007); Making Sense of the New Testament: Three Crucial Questions (Baker Academic, 2004); and Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey (2nd ed., B&H Academic, 2009).

Jesus of Nazareth has been the most influential person to walk this earth in human history. To this day, more than two billion people worldwide claim to be his followers, more than the number of adherents to any other religion or worldview. But just who was this individual and how can we glean reliable information about him? Explore the evidence for the historical Jesus and discover why Jesus of Nazareth matters.

Kirsten Birkett has worked for the Universities of New South Wales and Sydney as a tutor in philosophy of science and in Christian publishing. Her publications—including Unnatural Enemies: An Introduction to Science and Christianity (Matthias Media, 1997)—address the relationships between science and religion, and she has also written on psychology, feminism, and the family for both a popular and academic audience. She currently teaches pastoral counseling, apologetics, and church history at Oak Hill Theological College in London.

Can science provide answers to the ultimate questions of life? How unbiased is the scientific endeavor? Does science have any limits? These and other questions arise from the popular modern acceptance of naturalism, a belief that only natural laws and forces work in the world and that the supernatural does not exist. This timely essay explores science and the naturalistic worldview from a Christian perspective, suggesting ways for Christians to engage with science today.

Danielle Sallade is a staff member of Princeton Evangelical Fellowship at Princeton University, where she graduated before earning a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Raised in a home with mixed religious traditions (Judaism and Christianity), Danielle committed her life to Christ as a young teenager. She has been working with students in various capacities since 1994, and at Princeton Evangelical Fellowship, she particularly ministers to the women through Bible study and discipleship and offers pastoral care to the ever-growing alumni family. Danielle also speaks for churches and groups, including the Gospel Coalition, and is actively involved in her home church.

What keeps people from flourishing today? For many college students, busyness not only weighs them down, it causes high levels of anxiety, fear, and depression. But a flourishing life is a life that both goes well and is lived well. This essay offers students a way of hope when they recognize that they will only flourish when they live in right relationship to God, their environment, their neighbors, and themselves. Explore how you, too, can have a flourishing life.

Mark A. Yarhouse is the director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity and is also Professor of Psychology and the Rosemarie Scotti Hughes Endowed Chair of Christian Thought in Mental Health Practice at the Regent University School of Psychology and Counseling, where he has taught since 1998. He earned his MA in Theological Studies, MA in Clinical Psychology, and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton College. He has published several volumes on the issue of homosexuality, including Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate (co-authored with Stanton Jones, IVP Academic, 2000); Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation (co-authored with Stanton Jones, IVP Academic, 2007); and Homosexuality and the Christian: A Guide for Pastors, Parents and Friends (Bethany House, 2010).

How do we view homosexuality in light of a Christian sexual ethic? Perhaps this will come as a surprise, but homosexuality is not the focal point of the Christian sexual ethic. Rather, same-sex behavior is one of many sexual acts that fall outside of the context of a life-union between a man and a woman, including pre-marital and extra-marital sex, pornography, and so on. Christianity begins with a broader sexual ethic that affirms the good of physical creation and the good of our inherent sexuality. This essay engages the intersection of religious and sexual identities and the much-debated topic of Christianity and homosexuality.

Graham A. Cole is Dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Vice-President of Education, and Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology. He is also Vice-President of Education for Trinity International University. He is the author of four books: Engaging with the Holy Spirit: Real Questions, Practical Answers and He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom, and The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of Incarnation. He has also authored over a hundred book chapters, articles, and book reviews. He is an ordained Anglican minister, and has taught theology and philosophy of religion on three continents.  

He took the blade. It was bright silver. He loved the way it glistened. It felt good in his hand. He cut deep into her chest again and again. He showed no emotion, no recognition of her humanity. She lay motionless, her life gone. He made no attempt to cover the body. Later that night over a beer he openly talked to a stranger in the bar about what he had done. The stranger felt ill…. What are we to make of this? Should someone have called 911? Should he have been arrested? Is this a Hannibal Lecter story? It all depends. To make sense of it, this narrative fragment needs placing in a larger picture or frame of reference. Frames of reference are keys to reading the world of our experience. Examine how to assess frames of references like postmodernism and discover what makes a worldview Christian.

As monotheistic religions Christianity and Islam share significant common ground despite their theological disagreements. This common ground needs to be appreciated if our interaction with Islam is to be informed and fair. We can find a way forward by dispelling myths about both Islam and Christianity, seeking to understand Muslim beliefs and practices better, and engaging in charitable dialogue. This essay explores all of these areas, giving Christians insight into how to approach Islam today.

Chawkat Moucarry was born and grew up in Syria and lived in France for many years, and he serves as Director for Interfaith Relations at World Vision. A former lecturer in Islamic Studies at All Nations Christian College, Dr. Moucarry is also the author of Faith to Faith: Christianity and Islam in Dialogue (IVP, 2001) and The Prophet and the Messiah: An Arab Christian’s Perspective on Islam and Christianity (IVP, 2002).

William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, where he has taught since 1994. Dr. Craig has graduate degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the University of Birmingham (England), and the University of Munich (Germany). He has written over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, and he has also authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Wipf & Stock, 2000); Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology (Clarendon, 1995); and God, Time, and Eternity: The Coherence of Theism II: Eternity (Springer, 2001).

It’s perhaps something of a surprise that almost none of the so-called New Atheists (like Richard Dawkins) has anything to say about arguments for God’s existence. Instead, they tend to focus on the social effects of religion and question whether religious belief is good for society. One might justifiably doubt that the social impact of an idea for good or ill is an adequate measure of its truth, especially when there are reasons being offered to think that the idea in question really is true. This essay presents five arguments for God’s existence that interact with the arguments atheists make for their beliefs.

Why is sex so fascinating? That’s one question. But why pay any attention to what Christians believe about sex? That’s quite another. And yet the very fascination of sex points to a religious dimension. Sex and religion have always been hard to separate—from the gods and goddesses of the religions of the Ancient Near East onwards. This thought-provoking essay explores why sex is so fascinating, what God says about sex, and how Christians can respond to sex in our culture today.

Christopher Ash is Director of the Cornhill Training Course for the Proclamation Trust in London. He studied theology at Oxford University, where he was awarded the University Prize. He is the author of several books including Marriage: Sex in the Service of God (IVP, 2003) and Married for God: Making Your Marriage the Best It Can Be (IVP, 2007).