In 1973 the great Reformed theologian J.I. Packer delivered a very influential Tyndale Lecture titled “What did the cross achieve? The logic of penal substitution.” In that address Packer eloquently summarized and defended a theory of atonement which has been so influential in the western church that many Christians have simply identified atonement with penal substitution. […]
Oliver Crisp
40. Oliver Crisp on the God of the Philosophers and the God of the Bible
The day was November 23, 1654, when Blaise Pascal, philosopher, mathematician, public intellectual, and one of the great minds of western history, experienced his conversion. He wrote a summary of that conversion which he sewed into the lining of his jacket to keep it ever close to his heart. The account begins: “From about half-past […]
8. A conversation on the Incarnate God with theologian Oliver Crisp
In May, 2013 I attended the Logos Conference at Notre Dame University. While there, I had an opportunity to sit down with my personal friend Oliver Crisp, Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. I got to know Oliver fourteen years ago when we were both doing PhDs at King’s College, London. Since […]
Can analytic philosophy save theology?
Theology today is beset by a problem, one that is shared by many disciplines in the humanities. The problem is multi-layered. In fact it is a number of problems. Let me take a moment to identify three of them. 1. Skepticism: Many theologians write in the shadow of Kant’s “Copernican Revolution”. There is an enormous and […]
