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The Surprising Rebirth of Belief with Justin Brierley

Justin Brierley, a broadcaster, author, and speaker, will join us September 22, 2023 at 7.00 pm in the Stone Chapel. He will offer a talk on his book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. The subtitle of the book is actually the big idea of the book: Why New Atheism Grew Old and Secular Thinkers Are Considering Christianity Again. 

Who is Justin Brierley? 

Justin lives in London.  For decades he has been hosting conversations between atheists and believers on his popular show, The Unbelieveable Show.  His show has been at the cutting edge of what is happening in culture. 

A few years ago, he had Mark Lanier as a guest on his show, and he recently came into our Houston orbit.  He is an amazing thinker, a gifted communicator, and hospitable host for people with differing worldviews.

To hear the podcast click here.

About Brierley’s first book

After hosting his show for ten years, he wrote his first book: Unbelievable: Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists I’m Still a Christian.  He shares some of that story here, in this podcast.

Here is what Philip Yancey has said of Justin’s upcoming book:

“[T]his wide-ranging and stimulating book sounds a hopeful note… a fearless engagement with the most daunting issues of our time.”

And John Lennox:

“Eminently readable… Brierley has done us a huge service… This is a first-rate book: get it, read it, and give it to others.”

The Surprising Rebirth of Belief podcast

This is a great podcast, one you will not want to miss.  He is addressing very pressing issues of our time. 

More Resources including The Surprising Rebirth of Belief book

For a link to his first book click here: Unbelievable: Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists I’m Still a Christian.

 For a link to his newest book (2023) click here: The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why New Atheism Grew Old and Secular Thinkers Are Considering Christianity Again.

To hear the podcast click here.

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Cultural Engagement with Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Wheaton College

I recently talked with Ed Stetzer for “The Stone Chapel Podcasts.”

To hear the podcast (20 minutes) click here.

Ed Stetzer is skilled in cultural engagement.  He is simply wired that way.  He is a professor and dean at Wheaton College where he also serves as Executive Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.

He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents. 

He has earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates.  He has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books.

Dr. Stetzer is Regional Director for Lausanne North America and is frequently cited in, interviewed by, and writes for news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. 

Ed joins David Capes on The Stone Chapel Podcast to talk about his concerns for the future of the evangelical church and its engagement with western culture. 

In fact, he is finishing up a book about that for InterVarsity Press.  It will be titled, The Future of Evangelicalism. Look for it next year at the Lanier Theological Library. 

America is experiencing a cultural convulsion unlike any we have seen since the 1960s.  And to all observers, America evangelicalism is uniquely influential around the world.

 Rather than thriving in the midst of this time, American evangelicals are themselves convulsing and sorting themselves along ideological lines. 

Stetzer observes: Some have gone “woke.”  Some have gone “political.”  Some have gone full on “Trump.”  Twenty years ago were certainly kinder and gentler times.

Dr. Stetzer is a unique voice for American Christians and has some interesting insights about where America is going and how best to be part of bringing about at least some “Shalom”/Peace for now. 

In the academic year 2022-23 Ed Stetzer is on sabbatical from Wheaton College and will be the guest of the Lanier Foundation staying, along with his wife Donna, at Yarnton Manor. 

He will be teaching two classes for Wycliffe Hall and finishing up yet another book entitled for now, “The Mission to Western Culture.”

You can read more about Ed Stetzer on his webpage: www.edstetzer.com.  He is witty and winsome, and that’s a good thing!  You can follow him on Twitter @edstetzer.

Be sure to stick around for a nugget of wisdom from Ed at the end of the podcast.

One of Ed’s more recent books is Christians in the Age of Outrage. It’s worth a read if we want to be our best when the world is at its worst.

To hear the podcast click here.

For more of cultural engagement at the Lanier Theological Library, click here.

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Atheism on Trial with Mark Lanier

Mark Lanier

Mark Lanier stops by to talk about his new book, Atheism on Trial: A Lawyer Examines the Case for Unbelief (IVP, 2022). 

Lanier is one of the top trial attorneys in the nation and he founded the Lanier Theological Library (along with his sweet wife, Becky).  Today, Lanier Foundation governs the mission and practices of this ministry.

Lanier has one foot in the world of law and another in the church. He seems to move seamlessly through both realms.

That’s why it made sense these days as unbelief is trendy and atheism is on the rise for Mark to put atheism, agnosticism, and unbelief on the scales of justice and see if they meet the burden of proof.  

This is book two in a trilogy of books that began with Mark’s first InterVarsity Press book, Christianity on Trial: A Lawyer Examines the Christian Faith(InterVarsity Press, 2015). 

That book has done extremely well since its publication.  Now Mark has submitted his manuscript for the third book in the trilogy.  You have to wait and see who and what is on trial next.

This is what I wrote about the book:

“In Atheism on Trial, Mark Lanier has produced a clear, concise, and worthy companion to Christianity on Trial. With the sensibilities and skills that come with being one of the most successful trial lawyers in US history, Lanier carefully dissects and deconstructs the arguments posed by advocates of atheism and its more congenial sister, agnosticism.  After closing arguments, the underpinnings of atheistic philosophy are found wanting, and a case for the Christian faith prevails.”

Mark will lecture on his book in the Stone Chapel during the weekend of Oct 7-9, 2022.  For more information about the lecture click here.  Be sure to register soon. We expect this lecture to fill up.

Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to hear Mark’s nugget of wisdom.

To see Mark’s 2015 lecture on “Christianity on Trial” click here.

For more books by Mark Lanier, click here.

For more information about attending Mark’s lecture or future lectures at the Library, click here. 

For a transcript of today’s podcast, click here.

To hear the podcast (20 min.) click here.

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Tom Holland

Tom Holland is a wonderful historian and writer who you need to know. He cut his teeth on Greek and Roman culture, which of course intersects with the origins of Christianity.

Here is a link to a good article and series of podcast videos that give a bit more information about him. One of those videos features N. T. Wright.

Tom Holland: “I began to realise that actually, in almost every way, I am Christian.”
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Ethiopia and Early Christianity

A team of archaeologists from various schools have been digging around in northern Ethiopia (from 2011 to 2016).  They have discovered the oldest known Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa: it dates back to the 4th century AD.  It and other discoveries indicate that Christianity came to the Aksumite kingdom earlier than anyone had thought.

The ruins of the church were found 30 miles NE of Aksum, the empire’s capital. Aksum emerged as a trading center in the first century AD linking the Mediterranean, east Africa, Arabia, and points east in extensive commerce.  The church was built in the 4th century AD, roughly during the time when the Roman emperor Constantine I decided to turn a more tolerant eye to Christianity.

The kingdom began to decline in the 8th to 9th centuries AD and rebuffed attempts to convert the population to Islam.

What researchers have discovered is the earliest physical evidence for Christianity in Ethiopia.  Today nearly 50% of all Ethiopians belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church.

The church is built on the footprint of a Roman era basilica (60’x40′).  Archaeologists found other things as well: a pendant made of stone carved with a cross and an inscription in Ethiopic asking “Christ [to be] favorable to us.”

For years we knew of a tradition which recounted that Christianity came to Ethiopia in the 4th century AD.  Most scholars, however, considered it more myth than fact.  Now there is hard evidence that Christianity existed there in the 4th century AD.  And if that is when the building is built, how much earlier are the first converts made?  Perhaps in the 3rd century AD.

For years scholars have known that trade routes played a key role in moving Christians and their gospel through and beyond the Roman Empire.