2018 Christianity and Contemporary Culture Conference

Thank you to everyone who attended Faith, Science and the Christian: The 2018 Christianity and Contemporary Culture Conference.

Audio from lectures and Q&A sessions is available here.

“One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.” ― atheist Richard Dawkins in “The God Delusion”

“Faith is not a leap in the dark; it’s the exact opposite. It’s a commitment based on evidence… It is irrational to reduce all faith to blind faith and then subject it to ridicule. That provides a very anti-intellectual and convenient way of avoiding intelligent discussion.”
― Christian professor John C. Lennox, author of “God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?”

Modern culture claims that valid truth is only produced through scientific inquiry. Christianity points to the Bible as the source of ancient, eternal truth about the origins of the world and humanity. Are faith and science in conflict with one another? Can they get along?

At Redeemer, we believe that Christians should be the first to engage questions about the natural world with curiosity and wonder. But often, this perceived tension between faith and science can lead Christians to either avoid science entirely or view it as a hostile field, a pursuit incompatible with belief.

February 16th and 17th at Redeemer’s 2018 Christianity and Contemporary Culture Conference, “Faith, Science and the Christian,” Redeemer is thrilled to host Dr. C. John “Jack” Collins, who will lead us in an exploration of how faith and science inform each other and shape our Christian response to the world around us. The conference will encompass topics including the relationship between science and the Bible and how thinking Christians should evaluate scientific claims about the age of the Earth, creation and evolution.

This conference presents a wonderful opportunity not just for Christians to engage with these questions, but to invite non-Christian or skeptical friends to join us in thoughtfully considering a topic that shapes how we approach all of life, whether we realize it or not.

Jack Collins is the author of “Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?” and is widely known for his contributions to the field of Old Testament scholarship as well as his writings on the intersection of faith and science. He is a professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis and holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. and M.S.), Faith Evangelical Lutheran Seminary (M.Div.) and the University of Liverpool (Ph.D.). Collins also served as Old Testament chair on the translation committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible, and Old Testament Editor for the ESV Study Bible.

Prominent Christian author and theologian J.I. Packer says of Collins’ book, “Collins maps the entire interface between faithful biblical interpretation and questions of all sorts posed in the name of the sciences. [Collins’ book is] interesting, fair-minded, shrewd, and clear from start to finish.”

There will be three main sessions in the conference, with opportunities for question and answer. We invite you to mark your calendars and join us for this important time together.

Conference schedule:

Friday, February 16th, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, February 17th, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Sunday, February 18th, discussion session during the 10:45 a.m. Christian Education hour, following the 9 a.m. worship service.