In the world of New Atheism and Theism there are a few people on each side of the divide who are readily brought to mind: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer and the late Christopher Hitchens on the side of anti-theism, and William Lane Craig, William Dembski and others as defenders of theism. (An offshoot of this–but not the subject of this post–is the debate between the various philosophies of naturalistic evolution and Intelligent Design.)
One especially gifted defender of the faith, though not as well known in the United States, is Dr. John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics, Philosophy of Science and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College of Oxford University. According to Wikipedia,
Upon completing his doctorate, Lennox moved to Cardiff, Wales, becoming a reader in Mathematics at the University of Wales, Cardiff. During his 29 years in Cardiff he spent a year at each of the universities of Würzburg, Freiburg (as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow) and Vienna and has lectured extensively in both Eastern and Western Europe, Russia and North America on mathematics, apologetics and the exposition of Scripture. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles on mathematics and co-authored two Oxford Mathematical Monographs and has worked as a translator of Russian mathematics.
I first discovered Lennox on YouTube watching debates. It’s very easy to be a Lennox fan: he’s jovial, kind, thoroughly evangelical, and exceedingly brilliant. He knows mathematics, philosophy, and theology deeply. Put him in a red suit and you have Jesus being defended by Santa Claus. He’s the rare scientist who will admit science cannot do all the New Atheists say that it does.
The talk below was given to the Veritas Forum at Harvard University and posted Friday, March 30, 2012. While it is lengthy, clocking in around an hour and 25 minutes, it displays everything that makes John Lennox so marvelous: humor, an astounding breadth of knowledge, audience connection, respect, logically coherent arguments and a straightforward explanation of the gospel. Be sure and watch the question and answer session after the initial lecture. Kudos to Harvard for bringing such a stalwart defender of Christianity into a place that once was just that. Sadly it no longer is.
Below the video are some books by John Lennox available on Amazon.com.
