The Virtual Home of James N. Anderson
Westminster Seminary Press has kindly granted permission for me to post a preprint version of my essay, “Van Til Versus The Matrix: A Van Tilian Response to the Simulation Hypothesis,” originally published in The Future of Reformed Apologetics: Collected Essays on Applying Van Til’s Apologetic Method to a New Generation (2024). The essays are all based […]
I was recently invited to discuss the problem of evil with Pete Goulding and friends on the Theology for the Curious podcast. The episode can be found here. We covered various angles on the topic, many of which I treat in more detail in my essay “Whence This Evil? Toward a Biblical Theodicy” in the […]
Last summer saw the publication of a new ‘counterpoints’ book on methods for defending the faith, Understanding Christian Apologetics (Tyndale/Hendrickson). I had the privilege of explaining and defending the presuppositional method, most famously associated with Cornelius Van Til. Here’s the full line-up of contributors: Classical Apologetics – Melissa Cain Travis Evidential Apologetics – Sean…
Three decades ago, the Westminster Theological Journal published an article by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., with the modest title, “Some Epistemological Reflections on 1 Cor 2:6–16.” Gaffin’s main purpose was to provide some direct exegetical argument to support “several key emphases” in the epistemology of Cornelius Van Til. (Read the first page of the article […]
The messages from the recent Faithful Conference, hosted by Christ Covenant Church, Matthews, NC, with keynote speakers from Reformed Theological Seminary, are now available here. The conference theme was “The Courage to Be Protestant.” Here are the direct links to the YouTube videos: Chad Van Dixhoorn: “Rome No Longer Home: Why Luther’s Reformation Was Necessary […]
Unless you’ve been on a mission to Mars the last few years, you’ll be aware of the lively public debate over the relationship between religion and civil government, the proper roles of church and state, the place of the Bible in politics, and so on. Too many of the voices in the discussion offer little […]
Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian, bestselling author, public intellectual, and secular prophet (or ‘futurist’ as they prefer to be called). Speaking out of his Darwinian naturalist worldview, Harari recently offered this message on “International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia”: Nothing in nature has a purpose and nothing that exists is unnatural. Happy […]
[A short article originally written for the ILIAD Forum.] Logic is simply the science of reasoning and argumentation. In essence, the study of logic is concerned with inferences: what conclusions we should—or shouldn’t—draw from one or more premises (initial assumptions or claims). Logic distinguishes between good inferences (i.e., reliable forms of reasoning) and bad inferences […]
In his influential book, All That Is in God (Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), James Dolezal draws a sharp distinction between “classical Christian theism” and what he calls “theistic mutualism.” Dr. Dolezal criticizes a number of evangelical theologians, including some who identify with the Reformed tradition, for embracing theistic mutualism. One of his targets is John […]
Richard Muller is a brilliant historical theologian, although I’ve had cause to take issue with some of his claims about traditional Reformed views of human free will; specifically, that his remarks about ‘determinism’ and ‘compatibilism’ are based on idiosyncratic understandings of those terms, rather than the standard definitions in the contemporary philosophical literature on free […]