Mary mentioned this radio show episode to me, and now I can share it with you, because the MP3 has been posted. You simply must listen to this inspiring interview.
Here’s Dr. Groothuis’ bio:
Douglas R. Groothuis (Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Oregon) is professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary in Denver, Colorado. He has also been a visiting professor or adjunct faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary (Colorado Springs extension), Metropolitan State College of Denver, Westminster Theological Seminary (California campus), University of Oregon, New College Berkeley and Seattle Pacific University.
His articles have been published in professional journals such asReligious Studies, Sophia, Theory and Research in Education, Philosophia Christi, Themelios, Think: A Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Christian Scholar’s Review, Inquiry andJournal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He has written several books, including Truth Decay, In Defense of Natural Theology (coeditor),Unmasking the New Age, Jesus in an Age of Controversy, Deceived by the Light, The Soul in Cyberspace, and, in the Wadsworth Philosophers Series,On Pascal and On Jesus. Read more here.
The MP3 file is here. (99 minutes, 57 Mb)
Here’s a summary of the topics:
the relationship between Christianity and philosophy
which Christian thinker inspired Dr. Groothuis to study apologetics (it’s Francis Schaeffer)
is apologetics mandatory and non-negotiable for every Christian, or is it optional?
what is fideism? is fideism Biblical? should Christians avoid education? are faith are reason opposed?
was Jesus good at making logical arguments? was Jesus an intelligent person?
how Christianity addresses the problems of purpose and meaning for individuals
what are the major sections of Doug’s new book on Christian Apologetics?
And there are questions from callers. The first question is on faith vs. knowledge, and what the Bible says about them. And there’s another point about the importance and significance of Jesus’ suffering, and how it fits in to the problem of evil and suffering. He talks about how an atheist professor is using his apologetics book as a text book at the very very secular University of Colorado at Boulder (blech!), and invited him to speak to his students. He contrasts Christian theism with naturalism and the role that science plays in apologetics. He goes over the two best scientific arguments for God’s existence.
Dr. Groothuis is on Facebook and Twitter. He has nearly 2500 Facebook friends and nearly 2000 Twitter followers. He is one of my favorite Christian scholars, because he has a worldview that fully integrates every topic you can possibly imagine. He is very, very evangelical – and not ashamed of it. A very passionate, authentic and influential Christian, who just happens to be a first class scholar and teacher. I think this interview has a very clear message, especially to young men: if you learn apologetics, God will use you. You will have adventures if you only take the time to arm yourself through study.
You can get a copy of Dr. Groothuis’ “Christian Apologetics” book. It won the 2012 Christianity Today Award of Merit. I really recommend the book.
I also posted a lecture that Dr. Groothuis delivered on the kalam cosmological argument earlier in the week.
I am also a big fan of the interviewer, Dr. Michael Brown, who is solid on the same-sex marriage issue, and I have featured one of his debates on same-sex marriage before on this blog.
Filed under: Podcasts Tagged: Academic, Apologetics, Christian Apologetics, Douglas Groothuis, Line of Fire, Michael Brown, Philosophy 
