3 Ways to Respond to Academic Critiques of Christianity

At the moment of writing, I am at Cambridge University. I have just had the privilege of hearing Dr. John Lennox lecture to a room full of eager students at Jesus College. Lennox is a world-renowned mathematician, scientist, and bestselling author of several books, including God, AI, and the End of History, Can Science Explain Everything?, and Cosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix? Lennox has taught at Oxford for decades. He heard C. S. Lewis deliver lectures in 1962. Many readers will know him from his public debates with some of the most influential atheists of our age, including Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens. Those exchanges have been viewed millions of times online. Students packed into the Webb Library to hear the veteran apologist reflect on a lifetime spent in the academy. The evening felt less like a formal lecture and more like an intimate fireside conversation between a wise grandfather and the next generation of Christian scholars. The line by Lennox that stayed with me afterward was simple: “Don’t fear them.” Lennox once spoke these words to another Christian apologist before a public debate with an outspoken opponent of Christianity. After decade...