Are you new to graduate school and looking for ways to respond when people around you ask questions about faith? Or searching for some helpful shorthand to distill your years-long study of apologetics into a brief conversation? Sometimes we only have a moment to share a question or idea that can be a springboard to later conversations. In this new series, Rick Mattson shares some ideas for these moments from his extensive work in apologetics. Sometimes in apologetic dialogue (making a case for Christian faith) we … [Read more...] about Elevator Apologetics, Part 1
skepticism
Getting started with “How Faith Is Like Skydiving” (Excerpt)
Many books on apologetics do well with the arguments, but have little on how to present them. Faith Is Like Skydiving combines reason with rhetoric, clarity with intellectual depth. It provides a vast array of arguments and a host of images to make those arguments clear and compelling. Intellectually sound and amazingly practical, this terrific book deserves widespread reading. -- James Sire, author of The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog and guest contributor to the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) … [Read more...] about Getting started with “How Faith Is Like Skydiving” (Excerpt)
Faith Is Like Skydiving: Interview with Rick Mattson
When Faith Is Like Skydiving: And Other Memorable Images for Dialogue with Seekers and Skeptics came in the mail from InterVarsity Press (IVP) I just had to drop my colleague Rick Mattson[1] an email to enable us to learn more about his new publication. Note: As you may remember Rick wrote a resource rich series on Headed to Graduate School which gave testimony to his passion not only for the life of the mind, but also for creatively engaging in dialogue with seekers and skeptics. Begin with the End in … [Read more...] about Faith Is Like Skydiving: Interview with Rick Mattson
“Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief:” The Meaning of Christian Scholarship
We conclude our guest series from Richard Hughes on the vocation of Christian scholars. The following post is adapted from Richard's book, The Vocation of a Christian Scholar: How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind (Eerdmans, 2005). Ever since I entered my doctoral program at the University of Iowa in 1967, I have committed myself to serious scholarship. That commitment is so central in my life that some might wonder if perhaps I have conformed my understanding of the Christian faith to the … [Read more...] about “Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief:” The Meaning of Christian Scholarship