Christian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.^[1]

Origins[link]

Christian humanism may have begun as early as the 2nd century, with the writings of St. Justin Martyr, an early theologian-apologist of the early Christian Church. While far from radical, Justin suggested a value in the achievements of Classical culture in his Apology^[2] Influential letters by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa confirmed the commitment to using pre-Christian knowledge, particularly as it touched the material world. Already the formal aspects of Greek philosophy, namely syllogistic reasoning, arose in both the Byzantine Empire and Western European circles in the eleventh century to inform the process of theology. However, the Byzantine hierarchy during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) convicted several thinkers of applying "human" logic to "divine" matters. Peter Abelard's work encountered similar ecclesiastical resistance in the West in the same period. Petrarch (1304–1374) is also considered a father of humanism. The traditional teaching that humans are made in the image of God, or in Latin the Imago Dei, also supports individual worth and personal dignity.

Background[link]

Humanists were involved with studia humanitatis and placed great importance on studying ancient languages, namely Greek and Latin, eloquence, classical authors, and rhetoric. All were important for educational curriculum. Christian humanists also cared about scriptural and patristic writings, Hebrew, ecclesiastical reform, clerical education, and preaching.

During the Renaissance[link]

Christian humanism saw an explosion in the Renaissance, emanating from an increased faith in the capabilities of Man, married with a still-firm devotion to Christianity. Plain Humanism might value earthly existence as something worthy in itself, where as Christian humanism would value such existence, so long as it were combined with the Christian faith. One of the first texts regarding Christian humanism was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man, in which he stressed that Men had the free will to travel up and down a moral scale, with God and angels being at the top, and Satan being at the bottom. Christian principles took effect in places other than Italy, during what is now called the Northern Renaissance. Italian universities and academia stressed Classical mythology and writings as a source of knowledge, whereas universities in the Holy Roman Empire and France based their teachings on the Church Fathers.

Sparks of Christian humanism[link]

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the civilization of barbarians, there were thoughts of a more Christianized humanity for society. Western Christian clerics controlled education, since only the monasteries remained as seats of learning. Charlemagne requested that scholars set up places of learning that would become universities in the twelfth century. Eastern Christians meanwhile continued the late Antique practice of studying in the homes of secular masters, studying the same curriculum of "classical" Greek authors as their predecessors in the Roman period: Homer's Iliad, Plato's dialogues, Aristotle's Categories, Demosthenes' speeches, Galen, Dioscurides, Strabo and others. Christian education in the East largely was relegated to learning to read the Bible at the knees of one's parents and the rudiments of grammar in the letters of Basil or the homilies of Gregory Nazianzus. Western universities including Padua and Bologna, Paris and Oxford resulted from the so-called Gregorian Reform, which encouraged a new kind of cleric clustered around cathedrals, the secular canon. The cathedral schools meant to train clerics for the growing clerical bureaucracy soon served as training grounds for talented young men to train in medicine, law, and the liberal arts of the quadrivium and trivium, in addition to Christian theology. Classical Latin texts and translations of Greek texts served as the basis of non-theological education. A primitive humanism actually started when the papacy began protecting the Northern Cluniacs and Cistercians and the Church formed a unifying bond. Monks and friars went on crusades and St. Bernard counseled kings. Priests were frequently Lord Chancellors in England and in France. Christian views became present in all aspects of society. There was a stressed importance that one must serve God and others. Furthermore, there was a view of human nature that was both hopeful and Christian. All offices, civil, and academic works had religious elements. For example, during the Middle Ages, guilds or livery companies resembled modern-day trade unions. In addition, religion influenced medicine with the Good Samaritan of the Gospels and St. Luke. The idea of free people under God came from this time and spread from the West to other areas of the world.

Current use[link]

As there are no notable organizations of Christian humanists, claimants of the title are not easily generalized: prominent web pages include both The Christian Humanist: Religion, Politics, and Ethics for the 21st Century, which claims that it is possible to be a Christian without a belief in God, and Teaching Christian Humanism, First Things, which ignores the current use of the term "humanism" in favor of humanities studies. The term is also used sometimes to indicate Renaissance humanists that supported the Catholic Church,^[3] such as Thomas More, Johann Reuchlin and John Colet, as opposed to those known primarily for their secular contributions to Renaissance philosophy, like Giordano Bruno or Francis Bacon. It also applies to more ambivalent thinkers like Desiderius Erasmus whose equivocal position with respect to the Catholic Church and worship appears in works like the Colloquies, but also in his famous "I'll put up with this church until I see a better one."

Literary criticism[link]

Christian humanism finally blossomed out of the Renaissance and was brought by devoted Christians to the study of the philological sources of the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible. The confluence of moveable type, new inks and widespread paper-making put potentially the whole of human knowledge at the hands of the scholarly community in a new way, beginning with the publication of critical editions of the Bible and Church Fathers and later encompassing other disciplines. This project was undertaken at the time of the Reformation in the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam (who remained a Catholic), Martin Luther (who was an Augustinian priest and led the Reformation, translating the Scriptures into his native German), and John Calvin (who was a student of law and theology at the Sorbonne where he became acquainted with the Reformation, and began studying Scripture in the original languages, eventually writing a text-based commentary upon the entire Christian Old Testament and New Testament except the Book of Revelation). John Calvin was the most prominent of the many figures associated with Reformed Churches that proliferated in Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and portions of Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland. Each of the candidates for ordained ministry in these churches had to study the Christian Old Testament in Hebrew and the New in Greek in order to qualify. This continued the tradition of Christian humanism.

Armed with new technologies, Christians from the time of Justin Martyr onwards continued to the present to engage the historical and cultural bases of Christian belief, leading to a spectrum of philosophical and religious stances on the nature of human knowledge and divine revelation. The Enlightenment of the mid-eighteenth century in Europe brought a separation of religious and secular institutions that has led to a false rift between Christianity and humanism. The declining dependence of philosophers upon religious foundations have led to experiments in various political and social arrangements of the past few centuries around the world, including Internationalist Communism, National Socialism, Fascism, Anarchism, Theocracy, Caesaropapism and various utopian communities. Christians have participated in all of these movements to varying degrees as individuals and institutionally, as have a variety of Deists and Materialists. The broader tradition extends the zone of usage of the term "Christian humanism" and continues to be used widely to describe the vocations of Christians such as Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, G. K. Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor, Henri-Irénée Marrou, Dostoevsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Prominent Christian humanists[link]

• A. J. Cronin
• Blaise Pascal
• Boris Pahor
• Charles Péguy
• Christopher Dawson
• Christopher Fry
• Desiderius Erasmus
• Dietrich von Hildebrand
• Dorothy L. Sayers
• Emmanuel Mounier
• H. Richard Niebuhr
• Immanuel Kant
• Jacques Maritain
• John Henry Newman
• Jim Wallis
• Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II)
• Paul Tillich
• Reinhold Niebuhr
• Søren Kierkegaard
• Thomas Merton
• Thomas More
• Tony Campolo
• T. S. Eliot

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Image of God (Imago Dei)
• Personalism
• Religious humanism
• Sea of Faith

References[link]

• Arnold, Jonathan. "John Colet — Preaching and Reform at St. Paul's Cathedral, 1505–1519." Reformation and Renaissance Review: Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 5, no. 2 (2003): 204–9.
• D'Arcy, Martin C. Humanism and Christianity. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1969
• Lemerle, Paul. Byzantine humanism: the first phase: notes and remarks on education and culture in Byzantium from its origins to the 10th century trans. Helen Lindsay and Ann Moffatt. Canberra, 1986.

External links[link]

• No Christian humanism? Big mistake., Online Catholics, by Peter Fleming. (Accessed 6 May 2012)
• Christian Humanism, a website maintained by John P. Bequette, Ph.D., Historical Theology
• Christian Humanist. Arthur G. Broadhurst. http://christianhumanist.net/ 

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (April 2010)

Paris Reidhead (May 30. 1919 - March 23, 1992) was a Christian missionary, teacher, writer, and advocate of economic development in impoverished nations.

Reidhead was born in a Minnesota farming community in 1919. When in his late teens, he committed himself to a life of Christian service.

In 1945, Reidhead took an assignment with the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), surveying and analyzing indigenous languages in preparation for evangelistic and educational efforts near the Sudan-Ethiopia border. His proficiency in tribal languages was noted by his contemporaries. Reidhead's experiences in Sudan deeply impacted the core values that would later guide his life.

A spiritual crisis during this period—as he described two decades later in what is probably his best-known recorded teaching, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt"^[1]--left Reidhead with the conviction that much of evangelicalism had adopted utilitarian and humanistic philosophies contradictory to Biblical teaching. The end of all being, he came to believe, was not the happiness of man, but the glorification of God. This theme would recur throughout his later teaching.

Upon his return to the United States in 1949, Reidhead was appointed Deputation Secretary of the SIM. He associated himself with the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement and in 1953 began teaching at national conferences. Three years later he took a position as pastor at New York City's Gospel Tabernacle, which had been established in 1887 by A. B. Simpson. While in New York, he drew on informational resources at the United Nations to pioneer a program through which government and private funds were used for economic development in the Third World. His efforts to implement local programs on this model took him to mission fields in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Reidhead's involvement with the Sudanese also inspired him to seek a means to enable impoverished people in developing nations to help themselves and their families rise out of poverty. Third World development became his full-time commitment in 1966. His vision of public-private funding for economic development led, in 1971, to the formation of the Institute for International Development which has served as the model for about 90 evangelical organizations. In 1985, he helped found Enterprise Development International (EDI), a nonprofit Christian faith-based organization that works in partnership with local Christian groups to transfer the necessary training and capital to help entrepreneurs start sustainable family businesses.

Paris Reidhead died in Woodbridge, Virginia in 1992.

References[link]

Enterprise Development International. "Mission". http://www.endpoverty.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=12808. Retrieved 2007-02-04. 

Reidhead, Marjorie. "Paris Reidhead, 1919-1992". http://www.bibleteachingministries.org. Retrieved 2007-02-04. 

Sanderson, Lilian (1976). "The Sudan Interior Mission and the Condominium Sudan, 1937-1955". Journal of Religion in Africa 8: 13–40. DOI:10.1163/157006676X00156. 

Books by Paris Reidhead[link]

• Beyond Petition; Six Steps to Successful Praying. Minneapolis: Dimension Books, 1974.
• Beyond Believing. Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1976.
• Getting Evangelicals Saved. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1989.

External links[link]

• Paris Reidhead Bible Teaching Ministries
• "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" formatted for printing (free download, non-commercial site)

References[link]

• "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" free audio recording

1. ^ Ten Shekels and a Shirt - Audio

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Paul Kurtz
Born	(1925-12-21) December 21, 1925 (age 86) Newark, New Jersey, United States
Alma mater	New York University Columbia University
Known for	Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Council for Secular Humanism

Paul Kurtz (born December 21, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey) is a prominent American skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism."^[1] He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.

Kurtz has published of over 800 articles or reviews and has authored and edited over 50 books. Many of his books have been translated into over 60 languages. They include "The Transcendental Temptation," "Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism," "The Courage to Become," and "Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda." His published bibliography of writings from 1952 to 2003 runs over 79 pages.^[2]

Kurtz founded the publishing house Prometheus Books in 1969. He is also the founder and past chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry. On May 18, 2010, he resigned from all these positions.^[3] Moreover, the Center for Inquiry accepted his resignation as chairman emeritus and board member, the culmination of a years-long "leadership transition," thanking him "for his decades of service" while alluding to "concerns about Dr. Kurtz’s day-to-day management of the organization."^[4]

At the Council of Secular Humanism's Los Angeles conference (7–10 October 2010), tension over the future of humanism was on display as Kurtz urged a more accommodationist approach to religion while his successors argued for a more adversarial approach.^[5]

He was editor in chief of Free Inquiry magazine, a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. He was co-president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Humanist Laureate and president of the International Academy of Humanism. As a member of the American Humanist Association, he contributed to the writing of Humanist Manifesto II. Former editor of The Humanist, 1967-78. The asteroid (6629) Kurtz was named in his honor.

Early years[link]

Kurtz received his bachelor's degree from New York University, and the Master's degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University. Kurtz was left-wing in his youth, but has said that serving in the United States Army in World War II taught him the dangers of ideology. He saw the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps after they were liberated, and became disillusioned with Communism when he encountered Russian slave laborers who had been taken to Nazi Germany by force but refused to return to the Soviet Union at the end of the war.^{[citation needed]}

Secular humanism[link]

Kurtz was largely responsible for the secularization of humanism.^{[citation needed]} Before Kurtz embraced the term "secular humanism," which had received wide publicity through fundamentalist Christians in the 1980s, humanism was more widely perceived as a religion (or a pseudoreligion) that did not include the supernatural. This can be seen in the first article of the original Humanist Manifesto which refers to "Religious Humanists" and by Charles and Clara Potter's influential 1930 book Humanism: A New Religion.

Kurtz used the publicity generated by fundamentalist preachers to grow the membership of the Council for Secular Humanism, as well as strip the religious aspects found in the earlier humanist movement. He founded the Center for Inquiry in 1991. There are now some 40 Centers and Communities worldwide, including in Los Angeles, Washington, New York City, London, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Moscow, Beijing, Hyderabad, Toronto, Dakar, Buenos Aires and Kathmandu.

In 1999 Kurtz was given the International Humanist Award by the IHEU.

Kurtz believes that the nonreligious members of the community should take a positive view on life. Religious skepticism, according to Paul Kurtz, is only one aspect of the secular humanistic outlook.

On 18 May 2010 the Boards of Directors of the Council for Secular Humanism, its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, and another supported organization, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, issued a statement announcing that it accepted Dr. Kurtz's resignation as chairman emeritus, as a member of each board, and as editor in chief of Free Inquiry.

Neo-Humanism[link]

On March 2, 2010 Kurtz issued a new "Neo-Humanist Statement of Secular Principles and Values: Personal, Progressive, and Planetary."

The Paul Kurtz Lecture Series[link]

In June 2010 the State University of New York at Buffalo announced the establishment of the Paul Kurtz Lecture Series. The series will bring notable speakers to the University's campus in Amherst, New York to speak on topics relevant to the philosophy of humanism and philosophical naturalism. Kurtz made the bequest and charitable gift annuity to the University, where he taught from 1965 to 1991, to help aid the development of critical intelligence of future generations of UB students. On November 5, 2010 the University announced that cognitive scientist Steve Pinker would inaugurate the new Paul Kurtz Lecture Series on Dec. 2, 2010.

Eupraxsophy[link]

Kurtz coined the term eupraxsophy (originally eupraxophy) to refer to philosophies or lifestances such as secular humanism and Confucianism that do not rely on belief in the transcendent or supernatural. A eupraxsophy is a nonreligious lifestance or worldview emphasizing the importance of living an ethical and exuberant life, and relying on rational methods such as logic, observation and science (rather than faith, mysticism or revelation) toward that end. The word is based on the Greek words for "good", "practice", and "wisdom." Eupraxsophies, like religions, are cosmic in their outlook, but eschew the supernatural component of religion, avoiding the "transcendental temptation," as Kurtz puts it. Although critical of supernatural religion, he has attempted to develop affirmative ethical values of naturalistic humanism.^[6] Kurtz's Eupraxophy, then, is a practical analysis of morality that has much in common (if it is not identical to) the philosophy behind the science of morality.

Critique of the paranormal[link]

Another aspect in Kurtz’s legacy is his critique of the paranormal. In 1976 CSICOP started Skeptical Inquirer, its official journal. Like Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, James Randi and others, Kurtz has popularized scientific skepticism and critical thinking about claims of the paranormal. Kurtz wrote:

[An] explanation for the persistence of the paranormal, I submit, is due to the transcendental temptation. In my book by that name, I present the thesis that paranormal and religious phenomena have similar functions in human experience; they are expressions of a tendency to accept magical thinking. This temptation has such profound roots within human experience and culture that it constantly reasserts itself.^[7]

In The Transcendental Temptation, Kurtz analyzes how provable are the claims of Jesus, Moses, Muhammad as well as the founders of religions on American soil such as Joseph Smith and Ellen White. He also evaluates the antics of the most famous modern psychics and what he believes are the fruitless researches of parapsychologists. The Transcendental Temptation is considered among Kurtz's most influential writings.^[8]

On 19 April 2007 Kurtz appeared on Penn & Teller's television show Bullshit! arguing that exorcism and Satanic cults are merely "hype and paranoia."^[9]

Bibliography[link]

• The Humanist Alternative (Paul Kurtz, editor), 1973, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-013-8
• Exuberance: An Affirmative Philosophy of Life 1978, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-293-4
• A Secular Humanist Declaration 1980, ISBN 0-87975-149-5
• In Defense of Secular Humanism 1983, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-228-9
• The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal, 1986 ISBN 0-87975-645-4
• A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (Paul Kurtz, editor), 1985, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-300-5
• Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism, 1988, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-455-5
• The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge, 1992, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-766-3
• Challenges to the Enlightenment: In Defense of Reason and Science by Paul Kurtz, et al., 1994 ISBN 0-87975-869-4
• Living Without Religion: Eupraxophy, 1994, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-929-1
• Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz (Tim Madigan, editor; Vern Bullough, Introduction), 1994, Transaction, ISBN 1-56000-118-6
• The Courage to Become, 1997, Praeger/Greenwood, ISBN 0-275-96016-1
• Embracing the Power of Humanism, 2000, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0-8476-9966-8
• Humanist Manifesto 2000, 2000, ISBN 1-57392-783-X
• Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm, 2001 ISBN 0-7658-0051-9
• Science and Religion by Paul Kurtz, et al., 2003 ISBN 1-59102-064-6
• Affirmations: Joyful And Creative Exuberance, 2004 ISBN 1-59102-265-7
• What Is Secular Humanism?, 2006 ISBN 1-59102-499-4

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• Center for Inquiry
• Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
• Council for Secular Humanism
• Critical thinking
• Free Inquiry (magazine)
• Humanist Manifesto II
• Prometheus Books
• Secular Humanism
• Scientific skepticism
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

• Madigan, Timothy J. (ed.). Promethean love: Paul Kurtz and the humanistic perspective on love. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006. xii, 327 p.

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• PaulKurtz.net - official website
• Paul Kurtz page at the Council for Secular Humanism site
• A Vigorous Skeptic of Everything but Fact The New York Times, June 19, 2002 (requires registration)
• Citation of Rationalist International Award 2000 to Paul Kurtz
• A critical 1981 article about Kurtz and CSICOP by a former colleague and CSICOP board member
• What is Secular Humanism?, speech by Paul Kurtz to the Freethought Association
• In Defense of Eupraxophy by Paul Kurtz, Humanism Today Vol 6, 1991.
• Eupraxsophy Revisited by Paul Kurtz, republished from Free Inquiry, Vol 24, Num 6, June/July 2006

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)

Norman L. Geisler (born 1932) is a Christian apologist and the co-founder of Southern Evangelical Seminary outside Charlotte, North Carolina, where he formerly taught. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University. Geisler is well known for his scholarly contributions to the subjects of Christian apologetics, philosophy, and moderate Calvinism and is the author, coauthor, or editor of over 60 books and hundreds of articles.

Biography[link]

Geisler left the Evangelical Theological Society in 2003, after it did not expel Clark Pinnock, who advocates open theism.^[1] Geisler testified in McLean v. Arkansas, defending creationism.^[2] In the late 20th Century, Geisler entered the Mormon arena. In 1997 he co-authored When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretation, with Ron Rhodes. 47 of the articles listed in the index, regarded Mormonism. In 1998, he helped put together a book entitled The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, published by Harvest House publishers in Eugene, Oregon. Danel W. Bachman has accused Geisler of plagiarism.^[3] In 2009, Geisler co-founded Veritas Evangelical Seminary in Murrieta California. The seminary offers masters degrees in Theology, Apologetics & Divinity. Geisler currently serves as Chair of Christian Apologetics at the school.^[4]

Education[link]

Geisler's education includes a diploma (1955) and Th.B. (1964) from William Tyndale College, B.A. in philosophy (1958) and M.A. in theology (1960) from Wheaton College, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University. He had additional graduate work at Wayne State University, the University of Detroit, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.^[5]

Moderate Calvinism[link]

Geisler claims to be a "moderate Calvinist".^[6] Geisler rejects the traditional Calvinistic concepts of unconditional election (arguing that there is no condition only on God's part), irresistible grace (arguing instead that God persuades those who are "receptive to God's work") and limited atonement (arguing that the atonement is limited only in result). Yet critics reject the term "moderate Calvinism". James White calls it "merely a modified form of historic Arminianism."^[7] Michael Horton notes that historically "moderate Calvinism" referred to Amyraldianism, but "Geisler’s position is much further from Calvinism than Amyraldianism."^[8] While Geisler contrasts his position with what he calls "extreme" Calvinism, he does concede that "theologians we classify as extreme Calvinists consider themselves simply ‘Calvinists’ and would probably object to our categorizing them in this manner."^[9] Geisler contributed to the book Four Views on Eternal Security (ISBN 0310234395) under the term "moderate Calvinism" but the general editor did not allow Geisler to use the term "extreme Calvinism", only "strong Calvinism".^[10]

Graded absolutism[link]

This section relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (January 2012)

Geisler advocates the view called graded absolutism, which is a theory of moral absolutism which resolves the objection to absolutism that in moral conflicts we are obligated to opposites.^[11] Moral absolutism is the ethical view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong regardless of other contexts such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Graded absolutism is moral absolutism but clarifies that a moral absolute, like "Do not kill," can be greater or lesser than another moral absolute, like "Do not lie". According to graded absolutism, in moral conflicts, the dilemma is not that we are obligated to opposites, because greater absolutes are not opposites of lesser absolutes, and evil is not the opposite of good but is instead the privation of good. Since evil is the privation of good, only the privation of the greater good counts as evil, since whenever there is a moral conflict, we are only obligated to the greater good. The real dilemma is that we cannot perform both conflicting absolutes at the same time. 'Which' absolutes are in conflict depends on the context, but which conflicting absolute is ‘greater’ does not depend on the context. That is why graded absolutism is also called 'contextual absolutism' but is not to be confused with situational ethics. The conflict is resolved in acting according to the greater absolute. That is why graded absolutism is also called the 'greater good view', but is not to be confused with utilitarianism.^{[citation needed]}

Publications[link]

• General Introduction to the Bible (Moody Press, 1968; revised and expanded, 1986);
• Ethics: Alternatives and Issues (Zondervan, 1971);
• The Christian Ethic of Love (Zondervan, 1973);
• Philosophy of Religion (Zondervan, 1974; revised 1988);
• From God to Us (Moody Press, 1974);
• To Understand the Bible—Look for Jesus (Moody Press, 1975);
• Christian Apologetics (Baker Book House, 1976);
• A Popular Survey of the Old Testament (Baker Book House, 1977);
• The Roots of Evil (Zondervan, 1978);
• Inerrancy (Zondervan, 1979);
• Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective (Baker, 1980);
• Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics (Baker Book House, 1981);
• Biblical Errancy: Its Philosophical Roots (Zondervan, 1981);
• Decide for Yourself: How History Views the Bible (Zondervan, 1982):
• The Creator in the Courtroom—Scopes II (co-author, Baker, 1982);
• What Augustine Says (Baker Book House, 1982);
• Is Man the Measure? (Baker Book House, 1983);
• Cosmos: Carl Sagan's Religion for the Scientific Mind (Quest Publications, 1983);
• Religion of the Force (Quest, 1983);
• To Drink or Not to Drink: A Sober Look at the Problem (Quest, 1984);
• Perspectives: Understanding and Evaluating Today's World Views (Here's Life Publications, 1984);
• Video Series: Christianity Under Attack, in 6 parts (Quest, 1985); also in book: Christianity Under Attack (Quest, 1985);
• False Gods of Our Time (Harvest House, 1985);
• Reincarnation Sensation (Tyndale, 1986);
• Origin Science (Baker, 1987);
• Signs and Wonders (Tyndale, 1988);
• World's Apart (Baker 1989);
• Knowing The Truth About Creation (Servant, 1989);
• The Infiltration of the New Age (Tyndale, 1989);
• The Battle for the Resurrection (Thomas Nelson, 1989);
• Apologetics in the New Age (Baker, 1990);
• Come Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking (Baker, 1990);
• Gambling: A Bad Bet (Fleming H. Revell, 1990);
• The Life and Death Debate (Greenwood, 1990);
• In Defense of the Resurrection (Quest, 1991);
• Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal (1991);
• Matters of Life and Death: Calm Answers to Tough Questions about Abortion and Euthanasia (Baker, 1991);
• Miracles and the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles (Baker, 1991);
• When Critics Ask: A Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Victor, 1992);
• Miracles and the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles (Baker, 1992);
• Answering Islam (Baker, 1993);
• Roman Catholics and Evangelicals (1995);
• Love Is Always Right (Word, 1996);
• Creating God in the Image of Man? (Bethany House, 1997);
• When Cultists Ask (Baker, 1997);
• The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism (Harvest House, 1998);
• Legislating Morality (Bethany House, 1998);
• Baker’s Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker, 1999);
• Chosen But Free (Bethany, 1999);
• Unshakable Foundations (Bethany, 2001);
• Why I Am a Christian (Baker, 2001);
• Battle for God (Kregel, 2001);
• Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Broadman & Holman, 2002);
• Systematic Theology, Vol. 1 (Introduction – Bible) (Bethany, 2002); Vol. 2 (God - Creation) (Bethany, 2003); Vol. 3 (Sin - Salvation) (Bethany, 2004); Vol. 4 (Church - Last Things) (Bethany, 2005);
• I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Crossway, 2004);
• Is Your Church Ready? (Zondervan, 2003);
• Who Made God? (Zondervan, 2003);
• Bringing Your Faith To Work (Baker, 2005);
• Correcting The Cults (Baker, 2005);
• A Popular Survey of the Old Testament (Baker, 2008).
• A Popular Survey of the New Testament (Baker, 2008).
• Love Your Neighbor (Crossway, 2007);
• Essential Doctrine Made Easy (Rose Publishing, 2007).
• Conviction Without Compromise (Harvest House, 2008);
• Is Rome the True Church?: A Consideration of the Roman Catholic Claim (Crossway, 2008).
• When Skeptics Ask (Baker, 2008).
• The Big Book of Bible Difficulties (Baker, 2008).
• The Apologetics of Jesus (Baker, 2009).
• Making Sense of Bible Difficulties (Baker, 2009).
• If God, Why Evil? (Bethany, 2011).

External links[link]

• Geisler's official webpage
• "The Dating of the New Testament" by Geisler
• "Any Absolutes? Absolutely!" by Geisler
• "I Believe...in the Resurrection of the Flesh" by Geisler
• "Answering Islam", an interview with Geisler
• "The Battle for the Resurrection", an interview with Geisler by Ron Rhodes

Notes[link]

1. ^ Why I Resigned from The Evangelical Theological Society, Norman Geisler, November 20, 2003
2. ^ http://www.antievolution.org/projects/mclean/new_site/index.htm#Depositions
3. ^ Danel W. Bachman, "The Other Side of the Coin: A Source Review of Norman Geisler's Chapter," FARMS Review of Books, 12/1 (2000): 175-213.
4. ^ Veritas Evangelical Seminary
5. ^ "Norman L Geisler web page". http://www.normgeisler.com/about/default.htm. 
6. ^ Norman Geisler, Chosen but Free, 129.
7. ^ James White, The Potter's Freedom, 29.
8. ^ Michael Horton in J. Matthew Pinson (ed.), Four Views on Eternal Security, 113.
9. ^ Norman Geisler, Chosen but Free, 20.
10. ^ J. Matthew Pinson (ed.), Four Views on Eternal Security, 63
11. ^ Geisler, Norman L. "Any Absolutes? Absolutely!". Christian Research Institute. http://www.equip.org/articles/any-absolutes-absolutely-. Retrieved 24 November 2011. 

William Lane Craig

Born	(1949-08-23) August 23, 1949 (age 62)[1] East Peoria, Illinois[citation needed]
Era	21st-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy
Main interests	Philosophy of religion, natural theology, philosophy of time, Christian apologetics
Influenced by Alvin Plantinga, Francis Schaeffer, Edward John Carnell, Stuart Hackett, John Hick, Wolfhart Pannenberg
Influenced J. P. Moreland, Francis Beckwith
Website	reasonablefaith.org

William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949)^[1] is an American analytic philosopher, philosophical theologian, and Christian apologist.^[2] He is known for his work in the philosophy of religion, philosophy of time, and the defense of Christian theism.^[3] One of his most notable contributions to the philosophy of religion is his defense of the Kalām cosmological argument, which is the most widely discussed argument for the existence of God in contemporary Western philosophy.^[2][4] In theology, he has also defended Molinism and the belief that God is, since Creation, subject to time.^[2][5][6]

Craig has authored or edited over 30 books, including The Kalām Cosmological Argument (1979), The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (1980), Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (with Quentin Smith, 1993), Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (with J.P. Moreland, 2003) and Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (3d edition, 2008).

Academic background[link]

Craig received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1971 and two summa cum laude master's degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, in 1975, in philosophy of religion and ecclesiastical history.^[1] He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy under John Hick at the University of Birmingham, England in 1977 and a Th.D. under Wolfhart Pannenberg at the University of Munich in 1984.^[7]

From 1980 to 1986 he was an assistant professor of philosophy at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He briefly held the position of associate professor of religious studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, from 1986 to 1987. From 1987 to 1994 Craig pursued further research at the University of Louvain, Belgium. Since 1996 he has held the position of research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University in La Mirada, California.^[7]

Work[link]

Philosophy of religion[link]

Craig's primary contribution to philosophy of religion is his revival of the Kalām cosmological argument. In The Kalam Cosmological Argument, he formulates the argument in the following manner:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.^[8]

He defends the second premise by arguing that actual infinities and the formation of an actual infinite through continual addition are metaphysically impossible. Although he recognizes that axiomatized infinite set theory is logically consistent he maintains that the existence of actual infinities in the real world would lead to absurdities. For example, David Hilbert's famous "Hilbert's Hotel" thought experiment demonstrates how a fully occupied hotel would still be able to accommodate an infinite number of guests. Craig modifies the thought experiment by introducing operations such as subtraction and shows that subtracting identical quantities from identical quantities would have non-identical remainders.^[9] Since we have no evidence of such things in the actual world, Craig maintains that actual infinities are, for all intents and purposes, metaphysically impossible. Craig also argues that the thermodynamic properties of the universe and its expansion provide more evidence in support of premise two.^[10]

Craig also develops an a posteriori argument against actual infinities which rests on the A-theory of time. He gives Bertrand Russell's example of Tristam Shandy, who writes his autobiography so slowly that it takes him one year to write down the events of one day. A similar temporal sequence would have occurred in an eternal universe. No matter how long it takes, an eternal universe would still not be 'actually infinite' and must have begun to exist.

Craig has also contributed to the problem of divine foreknowledge (the compatibility of God's omniscience with human freedom). He analyzes current discussions of time travel, retrocausality, special relativity, and Newcomb's Paradox and brings them to bear on theological fatalism (most often supported by strongly Augustinian theologies, particularly Calvinism).^[11] Rejecting fatalism^[12] he defends the middle knowledge view (also known as Molinism).^[13] According to this solution, prior to actualizing a possible world, God knows everything that does or will happen as well as how free creatures would act if placed in any particular circumstance. Craig considers that this also provides the answer to the question of how God foreknows future contingents.^[14]

Philosophy of time[link]

Craig is a presentist and defends the A-series of time. He rejects J. M. E. McTaggart's famous argument against it, describing it as "an engaging and recalcitrant brain teaser that no one takes seriously," but also argues against hybrid A-B theorists because they are all refuted by McTaggart's paradox.^[15] He argues that McTaggart's objection does not succeed as it employs an incoherent combination of a B-theoretical ontology with A-theoretical temporal becoming.^[16] According to Craig, if one adopts a neo-Lorentzian interpretation of special relativity, the A-theory can be reconciled with the theory of relativity.^[17]

In terms of God's relationship to time, Craig argues that God must exist in time if he is to be regarded as a causal agent. He rejects the view that God could exist timelessly with creation as he did sans creation on the grounds that nothing outside time could have temporal interactions with the world. Critics such as Paul Helm maintain that Craig’s objections against divine timelessness is itself incoherent because "There can be no temporal 'and then' for a timelessly eternal God."^[18] Craig responds to this charge by arguing that God's timeless and temporal phases are not related to each other as "earlier" and "later."^[19]

Apologetics[link]

Craig has written a number of works of Christian apologetics.^[20] Fellow Evangelical apologist Robert M. Bowman, Jr. (writing with Kenneth D. Boa) described his Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics as "one of the best recent textbook introductions to the subject of apologetics."^[21] Catholic Cardinal Avery Dulles has described Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (with J.P. Moreland, 2003) as "monumental," but pointed out that Catholics will not necessarily agree with it.^[20]

Craig's work as a New Testament historian focuses on a defense of central Christian doctrines, specifically Jesus' resurrection from the dead.^[20] In books such as The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus, he reviews the historical debate and provides a critical analysis of David Hume's arguments against testimony of miracles, examines New Testament material dealing with the resurrection, and concludes that the resurrection is the most plausible explanation of the historical data.^[22][23] Craig uses the Shroud of Turin as part of his case.^[20]

Other views[link]

Craig is a critic of metaphysical naturalism^[24] and New Atheism^[25] as well as a defender of Reformed epistemology.^[26] He believes that scripture does not condemn homosexuals per se but does prohibit all homosexual acts, which he considers as “sacrilegious” as well as “self-destructive” to the same degree as heroin addiction or chain smoking whether engaged in by a homosexual or a heterosexual person.^[27] Craig maintains that the theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity.^{[28][page needed]} Although he does not fully endorse intelligent design,^[29] he thinks it may be a viable alternative to evolution.^[30] He is a fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture^[31] and a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID).^[32]

Debates[link]

Craig has publicly debated atheists Richard Carrier, Robert M. Price, Sam Harris, Antony Flew,^[33][34] A. C. Grayling,^[35] Lawrence Krauss,^[36][37] Victor Stenger,^[38] Peter Atkins,^[39] Walter Sinnott-Armstrong,^[40] and Christopher Hitchens,^[41] as well as liberal theologian Gerd Lüdemann,^[42] and prominent Muslims such as Shabir Ally and Jawal Badawi.^[43] Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has refused a rigorous debate with Craig (accusing him of self-promotion and of being an “apologist for genocide"),^[44] although Dawkins participated in a six-person discussion which included Craig.^[45]

The debates with Antony Flew, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Gerd Lüdemann have been published in book form.^{[40][42][46][47]}

Bibliography[link]

• The Kalām Cosmological Argument. London: MacMillan. 1979. ISBN 1-57910-438-X / ISBN 978-1-57910-438-2
• The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz. London: MacMillan. 1980. ISBN 1-57910-787-7 / ISBN 978-1-57910-787-1
• The Son Rises: Historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Chicago: Moody Press. 1981. ISBN 978-1-57910-464-1 / ISBN 978-1-57910-464-1
• Apologetics: An Introduction. Chicago: Moody Press. 1984. ISBN 0-8024-0405-7
• The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus during the Deist Controversy. Toronto: Edwin Mellen. 1985. ISBN 0-88946-811-7
• The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom. Grand Rapids: Baker Bookhouse. 1987. ISBN 1-57910-316-2 / ISBN 978-1-57910-316-3
• The Problem of Divine Foreknowledge and Future Contingents from Aristotle to Suarez. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 1988. ISBN 90-04-08516-5 / ISBN 978-90-04-08516-9
• Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection. Ann Arbor: Servant. 1988. ISBN 0-89283-384-X / ISBN 978-0-89283-384-9
• Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus. Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press. 1989. ISBN 0889466165/ ISBN 978-0-88946-616-6
• Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom: The Coherence of Theism I: Omniscience. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 1990. ISBN 90-04-09250-1 / ISBN 978-90-04-09250-1
• No Easy Answers. Chicago: Moody Press. 1990. ISBN 0-8024-2283-7 / ISBN 978-0-8024-2283-5
• Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (with Quentin Smith). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0-19-826383-8
• The Tensed Theory of Time: A Critical Examination. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-6634-4 / ISBN 978-0-7923-6634-8
• Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? A Debate Between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan. Grand Rapids: Baker Bookhouse. 1998.
• God, Are You There?. Atlanta: RZIM. 1999. ISBN 1-930107-00-5 / ISBN 978-1-930107-00-7
• The Tenseless Theory of Time: A Critical Examination. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2000. ISBN 978-0-7923-6635-5 / ISBN 978-0-7923-6635-5
• God, Time and Eternity. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2001. ISBN 978-1-58134-241-3 / ISBN 978-1-58134-241-3
• Time and The Metaphysics of Relativity. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2001. ISBN 0-7923-6668-9
• Time and Eternity: Exploring God's Relationship to Time. Wheaton: Crossway. 2001. ISBN 978-1-58134-241-3 / ISBN 978-1-58134-241-3
• What Does God Know? Atlanta: RZIM. 2002. ISBN 978-1-930107-05-2
• Hard Questions, Real Answers. Wheaton: Crossway Books. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58134-487-5 / ISBN 978-1-58134-487-5
• God?: A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist(with Walter Sinnot-Armstrong). New York: Oxford University Press. 2003.
• Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (with J.P. Moreland). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 2003.
• Creation out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration (with Paul Copan). Grand Rapids: Baker Bookhouse. 2004. ISBN 0-8010-2733-0
• Reasonable Faith. Wheaton: Crossway. 1994. rev. 3rd ed. 2008. ISBN 0-89107-764-2 / ISBN 978-0-89107-764-0
• Einstein, relativity and absolute simultaneity. London New York: Routledge. 2008. ISBN 0-415-59166-X. 
• On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook. 2010. ISBN 1-4347-6488-5 / ISBN 978-1-4347-6488-1

See also[link]

Biography portal

• List of American philosophers

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: William Lane Craig

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Lane Craig

• Reasonable Faith William Lane Craig's personal website
• Faculty webpage
• Comprehensive Debate list
• Interviews from the program Closer to Truth
• Works by or about William Lane Craig in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Audio files at bethinking.org