Slipstream - Leaders - in - formation

Slipstream Podcast 12 - Gary Habermas and Tim Keller

Gary Habermas is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia in the USA, and a known expert on Christ's resurrection. He is married to Eileen and they have seven children and nine grandchildren.

Tim Keller is founder and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City which has spawned an international church planting movement. He is also the author of the bestselling apologetics book The Reason for God as well as the recent The Prodigal God. He is married to Kathy and they have three sons.

Here is a taster of Gary's interview:

As you look at the whole wide sweep of the Church and Christianity, what do you think will be the biggest single intellectual challenge that we'll face in the next few years?

If I had to pick something, I'd pick postmodernism. I don't think it's new atheism…I would say that postmodernism is still here, but my experience is that most postmodernists will not say, contrary to popular opinion - not even Derrida, definitely not Foucault - they won't say things like, you can't know anything. They'd never say that. And Foucault is an historian - in his book The Archaeology of Knowledge, he gives rules like I would use. I think they're saying, be very careful what you do, but you can do it. So I think we should be very careful. I think the average postmodernist today doesn't say you can't get anything. They just say don't be totally certain, be open to my questions, and within those parameters you can do it. I'm happy to move in those parameters. But I still think that's the biggest threat right now.

And of Tim's interview:

What would you say to younger leaders who want to get started in apologetics?

In the area of philosophy - I don't know about the UK, but I know in America - there's been something of a renaissance of Christians - Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant -who have become philosophers. Of all the members of the American Philosophical Association, which is about 10,000 people who basically are academic philosophers - the guess is that 10-20% are now orthodox Christians. A generation ago it would have been close to zero. Reasons for that are complex and I can't go into them because I don't know them. But you'll find that there's not a lot of of theological pastors and theologians writing good apologetics as much as there are great Christian philosophers writing it, like Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff … I would say actually look at Christian philosophers right now, they're writing really sharp apologetics.

Gary recommends reading Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ.

Tim recommends reading Michael Murray, ed. Reason for the Hope Within.

Download the Slipstream Podcast 12 - Gary Habermas and Tim Keller podcast
(Note: Right-Click / Save As...)