Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

Episode 1: Craig Carter on Classical Theism

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Heaven & Earth features conversations between myself and another person who knows something fascinating. In these conversations, I play the role of the listener and ask questions to learn more about a topic. 

In this episode, professor Craig Carter and I talk about interpreting Scripture with the great tradition, Christian Platonism, and classical theism. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and/or Apple Podcasts. Also, see the host page at Anchor. And bookmark this page to see every episode. [Read more…] about Episode 1: Craig Carter on Classical Theism

Announcement: Heaven & Earth, a New Podcast (What, Another One?)

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For some time, I have been planning to start and release a new podcast. But I struggled to find the right process. I suppose it took the 2020 Pandemic to give me the motivation to start recording. And so I have, and I plan to start releasing episodes in June 2020!

But I suppose I need to explain why I am starting yet another podcast. As of May 3, 2020, there are 850,000 active podcasts. So why another one? Here is what I hope to accomplish and why I think it might fill in a gap that few podcasts fill right now. 

At the most basic level, the podcast is called Heaven & Earth and features conversations between myself and another person who knows something fascinating. In these conversations, I play the role of the listener and ask questions to learn more about a topic. 

Hopefully, this format helps you to find the joy of discovery. That forms the heart of Heaven & Earth because I am convinced most people learn through discussion, especially if the person they speak with has expertise in the topic at hand.  [Read more…] about Announcement: Heaven & Earth, a New Podcast (What, Another One?)

The Coming Crises over Christology (Our Anthropology Contradicts Our Christology)

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I want to argue a simple point. Since we don’t have a theological anthropology, our current Christology has little theological foundation; and, therefore, Christology will be the next theological battle that we have (and it already is).

How do we prevent this?  [Read more…] about The Coming Crises over Christology (Our Anthropology Contradicts Our Christology)

Should Christians Be Nice?

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Every now and again, I see a Christian make the argument that we do not need to be nice if we are Christians. Jesus turned over tables. Paul told his opponents to mutilate themselves. And therefore, boldness without the need for niceness must lead the way. 

In isolation, the argument seems to make sense. But once we start to think about what that means and compare it to the total message of Scripture, we soon realize that the argument falls to pieces. And further, the argument (when acted upon) makes Christians unidentifiable to the world. And in a very real sense, harshness (an opposite of niceness) takes the Lord’s name in vain. 

Why do I make such a strong and perhaps-unnice-statement? Am I a living contradiction? Well, I admit that I used strong language to make a rhetorical point, which I hope becomes clear later on. For now, let’s talk about being nice.  [Read more…] about Should Christians Be Nice?

My Age And My Mind: Why Hope Springs from Despair

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I have been alive for 32 years. Which itself is a weird thing to think about. One year marks the earth’s orbit around the sun during which time is spun for about 365 days. A day spans 24 units of the earth’s spin. All that to say, time has no real existence beyond measuring certain celestial movements. 

Why should I define my life and growth on the basis of the movement of planets and stars? Why do they get to tell me I am 32 of something? I am here on earth, existing, and the planet and star (the Sun) I am on and orbit define something essential to who I am. 

But do they really? Well, they do because I relate my growth, my change to a set of consistent rotations of the earth, whether it is the earth’s spin or its orbit of the sun.  [Read more…] about My Age And My Mind: Why Hope Springs from Despair

A Review of David Bentley Hart’s “That All Shall Be Saved”

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David Bentley Hart has faced the moral implications of the eternality of hell, found them wanting, and proposed that in the end, all shall be saved. At the heart of his argument lies, from his point of view, the moral hideousness of hell. 

Jason Micheli explains Hart’s moral vision well when recounting Hart’s experience of reading an article that detailed the death of a family:

The article highlighted a Sri Lankan father, who, in spite of his frantic efforts, which included swimming in the roiling sea with his wife and mother-in-law on his back, was unable to prevent his wife or any of his four children from being swept to their deaths. The father recounted the names of his four children and then, overcome with grief, sobbed to the reporter that “my wife and children must have thought, ‘Father is here . . . he will save us’ but I couldn’t do it.”

Hart wonders: If you had the chance to speak to this father in the moment of his deepest grief, what should you say? Hart argues that only a moral cretin would have approached that father with abstract theological explanation: “Sir, your children’s deaths are a part of God’s eternal but mysterious counsels” or “Your children’s deaths, tragic as they may seem, in the larger sense serve God’s complex design for creation” or “It’s all part of God’s plan.” 

This moral sensibility fills the pages of That All Shall Be Saved. Hart at once denounces the teaching of eternal conscious torment while affirming that in the end (even after a sojourn in hell) everyone shall be saved. 

Is he right?  [Read more…] about A Review of David Bentley Hart’s “That All Shall Be Saved”