In the summer of 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a letter to W. H. Auden telling of his surprise while working on The Lord of the Rings: “I met a lot of things along the way that astonished me.” This feeling, that the characters in a novel can come to carry such powerful voices…

Remarking on the natural human propensities toward both pride and ease, Francis Bacon observed “A man will become attached to one particular science and field of investigation either because he thinks he was its author and inventor or because he has worked hard on it and become habituated to it.” This strikes most of us…

The rise of the Carolingian Empire (ca. 800–888 AD) witnessed an abundance of theological and philosophical inquiry and controversy, not least because the relative political stability made connections across geographical regions easier, along with a widespread effort by its authorities to promote educational and religious reforms and thus to develop greater uniformity in Christian thought…

God acts in the world. Christians believe that the world is not some mechanical device that God wound up at creation and has since left unattended. God upholds and sustains the world in being, and absent his sustaining activity the world would simply cease to exist. While these beliefs are vital to the Christian faith,…

“As God’s authoritative word, Scripture is normative for all of life, including science.” So says Craig Bartholomew, a member of the 2019–2020 Henry Resident Fellowship community. In today’s climate, these are fighting words—resulting in more heat than light. When we hear this sentiment from Bartholomew, however, it means something quite different. First, and most basically,…

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales believed, at least according to Aristotle, that everything is water. More precisely, he believed that water was the material principle underlying all things—“that of which all things consist, from which they first come and into which on their destruction they are ultimately resolved.” His rationale for this belief isn’t as…

Ralph Stearley placed his trust in Jesus Christ during the mid-1970s, in the midst of his college years at University of Missouri and his studies in biological anthropology. Stearley, Professor of Geology at Calvin College, is the first natural scientist to be awarded the Henry Resident Fellowship. Like many of Christians in the sciences, his…

A modern maxim has long since taken up residence in most theology departments across the world today: we no longer live in a time where the old, substantival metaphysics remain convincing. If historical-theological accounts of the nineteenth century have taught us anything, it was that each passing theologian sought to outdo the one who had…

Our triune God, in all his perfect self-awareness, revealed himself to his servant Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). This ontological statement has led Christian theologians throughout the history of the church to understand God as the one who is utterly other, pure act and pure being, perfectly simple, always immutable, necessarily…

“Fruit” and “Genesis” is a juxtaposition with a long and infamous history. It recalls a story passed on from generation to generation, connecting us to our ancestors, for good and for ill. Fruit, in the first instance, is about fruitfulness. Originally, we are told, the earth was luscious and vivacious, teeming with flora and fauna….

Fred Sanders is usually writing about the Trinity. The burden of his 2010 volume The Deep Things of God was to show how the doctrine of the Trinity “inherently belongs to the gospel.” Years earlier he wrote his dissertation on “Rahner’s Rule” and the immanent Trinity. Then there is his 2016 volume in Zondervan’s New Studies…

James Hoffmeier is stepping away from his lecture podium and beginning retirement—at least for the summer. This fall he will be joining a group of six other scholars in residence with the Creation Project for the 2018–19 academic year. The working title of the project is “Why We Believe in Creation and Evolution: A Discussion…