Q. Mark what prompted you to write this particular book which targets the arguments of atheists and agnostics used to discredit Christianity? Is that because their arguments have come to have more sway in our culture in this century?   A. In the practice of law, many of my friends and companions are atheists and agnostics. I find that once we begin discussing matters of faith, very few have thought through the arguments in any depth at all. Those conversations... Read more

Mark Lanier is a remarkable person on numerous counts. He is both a devout Christian and a world-class lawyer.  One wonders how he feels about what Jesus said about lawyers.  All kidding aside, Mark writes as well as he argues in court, with the same wit and wisdom that also shows up when he teaches an enormous Sunday school in a Baptist Church in the Houston area.  Not only so, he has set up a remarkable study center, which has... Read more

I have always loved the works of Frederick Buechner, and here is one of my favorite quotes from The Magnificent Defeat. I agree entirely with this quote, and have discussed the meaning of real love in my Who God Is small book. “If we are to believe he is really alive with all that that implies, then we have to believe without proof. And of course that is the only way it could be. If it could be somehow proved,... Read more

Actually, this film should be called deaths (plural) on the Nile, as the bodies keep piling up.  If you think you’ve seen this in a movie theater before, you must be reasonably old, like me, as there was a 1978 version with Peter Ustinov playing Poirot the detective, and in 2004 there was a television adaptation.  This film was supposed to come out in December 2019, then October 2020, but has just now appeared thanks to the pandemic.  As such... Read more

Much as I have enjoyed watching the excellence of Tom Brady and the Patriots South the last two seasons, as Jerry Glanville once said— the NFL stands for Not For Long, when it comes to the issue of players getting injured, and often permanently out of the game.  And frankly it was nothing other than pure greed that led to the extending of the season to 17 games, and more teams in the playoffs— including teams that had no business... Read more

Q. From the perspective of Biblical theology, I don’t really find the pick and choose approach of Shelly Matthews at all helpful, not least because ‘all Scripture is God-breathed’. What are the implications in your mind for Biblical theology of a high view of Scripture and also taking into account the varigated witness in the Bible about violence? Prof. Chris Hays answers: A. Like the last question, this one goes to serious and deeper issues of hermeneutics and interpretation. Although... Read more

Q. I looked pretty much in vain for a discussion of the fact that a text like Rom. 13 addresses the role of government, with an assumption that Christians are not involved in the tax police or the vigiles. My point is that the Christian ethic of non-violence is an ethic for Christians as a witness to the Gospel. It’s not something we could expect of government nor impose on governments. This raises questions about the degree to which Christians... Read more

It was E. Kasemann who once said the Gospel of John is shallow enough for a baby to wade in but deep enough for an elephant to drown. Someone who spent the majority of his academic career doing a very good job of plumbing the depths of this Gospel in so many ways (its themes, its theology, its narrative structure, its social implications about and for the church, its relationship with early Judaism, its literary dimensions and more) is Alan... Read more

Q. Most Christians, really worldwide, would not agree with the view of Dr. Lincicum that seems to suggest Christians shouldn’t even have hunting rifles. It seems to me that the focus in the Bible including especially in the teaching of Jesus and Paul is focused on no violence against human beings. Do you think Lincicum overegged the pudding, as the Brits would say? Prof. Chris Hays answers: A. I think David covered himself here. On p. 114, he wrote: “For... Read more

Q. So what prompted you to write this particular book? And why these particular contributors? At the beginning it seems OT scholar heavy. Dr. Chris Hays responds: A. The energy for the book comes partly from my own background, and then it found momentum in a community of friends and scholars. Gun violence has been on my mind since I was a kid. In 1984, I went to Los Angeles in the summer for my uncle’s wedding. Around that time,... Read more