Language of God

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to our identities as Christians. We believe that Christ died for our sins and that he will come again one day. But we live in the times of social distancing, with Easter services that will happen remotely, with Easter hymns sung in our living rooms instead of in chapels. In this special episode, Jim reflects on what the resurrection—along with the suffering and death that precede it—means in this time of uncertainty and fear, in this time of coronavirus.

Find more coronavirus related content from BioLogos here.

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

In this episode, Jim Stump is joined by author, speaker, and professor Sean McDowell. They talk about how apologetics has changed from his father’s original work a generation ago and how to reach those leaving the church today. But their conversation centers around the science of evolution and whether Christians should accept it. They don’t necessarily see eye to eye on this topic, so what follows is a hearty discussion about where those disagreements come from.

Sean McDowell is an Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He speaks at churches, universities and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. He is the co-host for his own podcast, Think Biblically, and has authored numerous books.

Original music in this episode is from Carp.

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

It’s not every day that we come face to face with science in such a drastic way as we have with the coronavirus, sweeping through our communities and upending our routines. Many of us feel a great deal of anxiety and worry and we want to respond to some of that by reaching into the science with three interviews from scientists in the fields of microbiology, biochemistry, and infectious disease, all of them speaking from the Christian perspective. 

Ben McFarland teaches biochemistry and chemistry at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington.

Stephen Schaffner is a senior staff scientist and computational biologist at the broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and a visiting scientist at the Harvard Chan school of public health.

Praveen Sethupathy is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Center for Genomics at Cornell University

Find Ben McFarland's moving article on the coronavirus here.

Check out Ben McFarland's Youtube Channel here.

Find conversations about this episode or other topics on science and faith including the coronavirus on the BioLogos Forum.

Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist. And she’s a Christian. You may have noticed that climate change is not a topic that is often brought into the church because it often seems to divide people more than bring them together. But Katharine wants to change that. Her science doesn’t come in spite of her faith but because of it. She sits down with Jim Stump to talk specifically about some of the common misconceptions about climate change, the science of how we know about past climate changes, and the effects we see in the world today. She ends with some practical solutions and a call for rational hope. 

Katharine Hayhoe is the Political Science Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science, a director of the Climate Center, and an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Texas Tech University. She and her husband wrote A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, a book that untangles the complex science and tackles many long-held misconceptions about global warming. Her TED talk titled “the most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it” has been viewed over 2.5 million times.

Find Katharine on Twitter for any follow-up

Recommended Resources:

Climate Caretakers
Climate Stewards
The Evangelical Environmental Network
Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe
LIT Consulting for energy audits
Project Drawdown
World Evangelical Alliance Clean Energy Initiative
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

Find a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

In this episode, Jim Stump is joined by Professor Emeritus of Biology at Point Loma Nazarene University, Darrel Falk. Darrel reminisces about some of his experiences with the early genetic sciences as well as his role in the beginnings of BioLogos as an organization. They then dive into human identity, and how cooperation has had a role in shaping our genetic makeup.

Darrel Falk served as BioLogos’ president from 2010-2012. He recently wrote The Fool and the Heretic with Todd Wood. He is also the author of Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology and speaks frequently on the relationship between science and faith at universities and seminaries. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Genetics Society of America, and the American Scientific Affiliation.

Music in this episode is by Joseph McDade

Want to hear more from Darrel? You can find the articles he’s written for our website here.

Find a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

Kutter Callaway started leading youth ministry in Theater 5 with the big screen as a backdrop. Film, music, and art have always been one of his main entries into spirituality and led him to his position as Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Seminary. 

In this episode, Jim Stump and Kutter Calloway discuss how art and pop-culture have become an underlying meta-narrative for our culture and lens through which we understand our spirituality. They ask the question, how should a Christian participate in this culture of media and technology and art? Kutter proposes that rather than cutting ourselves off from the world, we engage and participate, being aware of where God is present and active.

This episode was made possible in part by the TheoPsych Project, hosted by Fuller Seminary’s office of Science, Theology, and Religion. 

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

In a small laboratory, a participant sits with electrodes attached to her brow and a heart rate monitor humming in the background as she considers a time in her life when someone did wrong to her. This is a glimpse into a study of forgiveness. The results of a study like this teach us a lot about what forgiveness is and how it works. And although it is a scientific endeavor, it has direct effects on our spiritual lives. 

Jim Stump sat down with Charlotte vanOyen-Witvliet, a psychologist from Hope College who has run studies like this, to learn about what forgiveness is, the increased health benefits of forgiveness and how this psychological pursuit can be fruitful toward a theological and spiritual journey. 

This episode is the third in a three part series we’re calling TheoPsych, an exploration of the intersection of psychology and theology. These episodes were made possible in part by the TheoPsych Project, hosted by Fuller Seminary’s office of Science, Theology, and Religion.

Find more information about the TheoPsych Project here.

Music in this episode is by Joseph McDade

Charlotte mentions the suicide hotline in this episode. If you're thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support you can go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org or call 1-800-273-8255.

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

From marriage and parenting to managing life in a world of social media, relationships are very central to our lives, and in some cases to our happiness and wellbeing. So what happens when problems arise in these huge aspects of our lives? In this episode, Jim Stump is joined by clinical psychologist Mari Clements whose work focuses on helping real people in real relationships with real problems. The conversation focuses on how the tools of psychology can be useful for working through some of these problems, in order to ensure the health of ourselves and our relationships with those we’re closest to.

Mari Clements is currently the Provost of Fuller Seminary. She has conducted research on the impact of marital conflict on family members. Her recent research has examined marital conflict in intact families, models of satisfaction and stability in marriage, and the effects of marital conflict on parent-child relationships and children’s peer relationships. Her work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, and she has also authored several book chapters and presented at various psychology association meetings around the country.

This episode is the second in a three part series we’re calling TheoPsych. These episodes were made possible in part by the TheoPsych Project, hosted by Fuller Seminary’s office of Science, Theology, and Religion. 

Find more information about the TheoPsych Project here.

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

Science helps us to explain many things in the natural world. When it comes to psychology, it may even be able to help us understand why we think, behave, and believe the way that we do. Sometimes people fear these explanations, and even psychology itself, because of the perceived potential to be used to explain away their belief in God. Experimental psychologist Justin Barrett joins Jim Stump in this episode to discuss why he believes in the opposite. He also tells all about the new project he’s directing, the TheoPsych Project which aims to bring theology into contact with the mind sciences by bringing theologians and psychologists together to learn and think and talk with each other.

Justin L. Barrett is the Thrive Professor of Developmental Science and Director of the Thrive Center for Human Development at Fuller Theological Seminary. He came to Fuller from the University of Oxford, where he taught and served as senior researcher for Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind.

This episode is the first in a three part series we’re calling TheoPsych. These episodes were made possible in part by the TheoPsych Project, hosted by Fuller Seminary’s office of Science, Theology, and Religion. Find more information about the TheoPsych Project here.

If you want to hear more from Justin, there’s another resource from him on our website.

Original music in this episode is by Carp.

Find a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.

April Maskiewicz Cordero joins Jim Stump and BioLogos’ Resources Editor, Kathryn Applegate, to discuss what it’s like to teach college biology at a Christian college. She touches on her personal experience with the climate of conflict between science and religion, and how that helps her to meet her students where they are. She shares some stories of students that give her hope and touches on her research that looks at teaching controversial issues like climate change and evolution to Christian students. April and Kathryn also talk about BioLogos INTEGRATE, the high school biology curriculum supplement that they’ve been working on.

April Maskiewicz Cordero, PhD, is a professor of biology at Point Loma Nazarene University. She gave a TEDx talk on evolution and faith and she was featured in “From the Dust,” a BioLogos sponsored documentary. She is also active in several professional development projects with schoolteachers as well as university biology faculty, and was one of four professors coordinating the PLNU/BioLogos Biology by the Sea Christian school teacher program.

Find more information about BioLogos INTEGRATE here.

We have a few resources from April Cordero on our website. You can find them here & here.

Join a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum!