Our next issue (6/3) will feature a major article by Erick Nelson, who has made important contributions to our publication in the past. The title: “Knowing and Showing: A Critique of William Lane Craig’s Position regarding How We Know Christianity is True.” Nelson criticises Craig’s “sharp contrast between knowing Christianity is true and showing it is true”–a contrast which is “beset with logical and epistemological problems” and “does not squarely face New Testament evidence to the contrary.”
To be sure, the Global Journal recognises William Lane Craig’s valuable contributions to the defense of the faith—his debates and iconic position in the Evangelical Philosophical Society. However, none of this justifies a muddy epistemology or an unfortunate reliance on the testimonium internum Spiritus sancti. (For a different approach, see the Editor’s Tractatus Logico-Theologicus, together with his article, “The Holy Spirit and the Defense of the Faith,” Bibliotheca Sacra, October-December, 1997.) It is also rather sad to note that Craig refused (1) to interact with Nelson’s article, or (2) to contribute to the forthcoming Festschrift for the Editor, to be published next year by Broadman & Holman under the editorship of intelligent design guru William Dembski and distinguished European evangelical theologian Thomas Schirrmacher. (Incidentally, Craig’s was the only refusal–which, however, made no difference considering the unexpected volume and impressive quality of the scholarly contributions.)
Our next issue will also contain a trenchant article on Evangelistic Politics by Bob Lockhart of the Northside Baptist Church, Del Rio, Texas, in which the author defends full-scale involvement in the sociopolitical area by serious believers–as well as a wonderful contribution by Dr Donald Williams: “The Everlasting Hobbit: Perspectives on the Human in Tolkien’s Mythos.”
