Dr Paul Allen

  "On the third day, he rose from the dead." Etched in my memory from childhood are those lines from a familiar Easter hymn in evangelical circles, "He Lives": "You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart." Despite the warmth that such sentiment offers, it hardly fits the bill sketched out by the Apostle Peter: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" ( 1 Pet. 3:15 ).  Many ideas can be, and often are, embraced by the heart that are simply wrong. Santa Claus and the tooth fairy may be harmless childhood myths, but when we are making claims about eternal matters, emotionally useful fantasies will not suffice.  Eventually, we grow up, and if our understanding of the Christian truth-claims does not mature as well, we are likely to be blown about by the trendy gusts of whim. In an informal survey of evangelical Christians recently, nearly everyone agreed with the statem...

Western culture has been through what has been described as an Age of Faith, an Age of Enlightenment, an Age of Science, and so on. What label best describes our present age? Perhaps the Age of the Screen captures how, like no age prior, we live much of our conscious lives on glowing rectangles. Perhaps the Age of the Gavel to express how the ubiquitous judgmentalism, cancellations, and holier-than-thou attitudes have supplanted meaningful discourse, especially on social media. Perhaps the Age of Polarization to express just how incapable many have become of seeing any insight or moral value whatsoever in the opposing political party. There is truth in all of those. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor prefers the moniker of “the Age of Authenticity” to express that being true to ourselves has become the highest goal in the West. Princeton’s Robert George has called it the “Age of Feeling.” Both philosophers are correct to point out that allegiance to our emotions, is the idea that real...