The Rational Theologian
Where Faith and Reason Meet
Pierre Gilbert, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emeritus
Canadian Mennonite University
A word of introduction
Theology and reason are not contradictory. As the Jewish radio talk show host and writer, Dennis Prager, demonstrates in his popular commentaries on the Torah, The Rational Bible, one doesn’t have to put the mind in neutral when reading the Bible or doing theology. The popular belief is that Christianity derides reason is simply false. The Judeo-Christian tradition privileges the heart and the mind in a way that seamlessly and powerfully integrates both. The God of the Bible reveals himself as a God of love and reason, who has created human beings with the capacity for both. It is, in fact, when men and women most fully give expression to the heart and the mind that they function best.
“Minority Report”: The Sequel. A Warning to the Canadian Church
Frontier Centre for Public Policy (April 9, 2024)
In the 2002 futuristic movie, “Minority Report,” viewers are introduced to a ground-breaking technology that allows law enforcement to preview a crime before it is committed. Then this determination becomes the basis for the arrest and the sentencing of the “pre-crime” perpetrator.In a case of life imitating art, on February 26, the Canadian government tabled legislation containing provisions that are eerily like the plot imagined in Tom Cruise’s blockbuster.
A Journey into the Creation Account
Part 1: only one God
MB Herald (Nov. 2023)
The renowned Oxford mathematician and apologist, Professor John Lennox, often points out that the existence of God cannot be mathematically proven. This is not to say that such evidence does not exist. There is in fact a class of arguments, which taken together, make a powerful case for the existence of God.
A Journey into the Creation Account
Part 2: The Death of the Gods and the Rise of Science
MB Herald (Dec. 2023)
The belief in the existence of supernatural powers that can be manipulated for one’s benefit is nearly as old as humanity itself. And for most of human history, men and women have feared those who claimed to have such powers. Because such beliefs fundamentally distorted how humans were to relate to nature, they represented a critical threat to Israel’s survival as God’s people in the Promised Land. The Genesis creation account was, in great part, written to challenge the underlying worldview these beliefs reflected.
Israel, the Church, and Cultural Witness
January 4, 2024
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” C. S. Lewis.
We all like to think of ourselves as courageous. Church leaders today are quick to disparage earlier generations of Christians, who in their opinion failed to stand with the oppressed, be they the victims of slavery, racial segregation, or the Nazi genocidal regime. If only they had been there, they would not have looked the other way. While rear-view courage may be sincere and noble, is it of any real value?
Is Your Church Going Woke? And Why it Matters.
Frontier Centre (Sept. 6, 2023)
The “woke” phenomenon seems to be everywhere these days. Universities, businesses and government agencies annually spend millions of dollars to promote wokeness, which, in those settings goes under the well-known DEI acronym: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
A Journey into the Creation Account
Part 3: Transcendence
MB Herald (Jan 2024)
We owe the Jewish people a debt of gratitude that will forever remain unpaid...
Did you know that about 22 percent of all Nobel prizes given between 1901 and 2023 were awarded to Jewish people? In and of itself, this is remarkable. But what’s even more stunning is that the Jews represent only about 0.2 percent of the world’s population.
Unity in a time of crisis: a Torah perspective.
The Messenger (May 2023).
Can the gospel still unite the church at a time when ideological and theological factions are intensifying? I have no doubt it can, but it doesn’t have to.
Let me explain what I mean by examining three texts found in the Torah: the Shema Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4–5), the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21), and the creation account (Genesis 1–3).
A Journey into the Creation Account
Part 4: Reassurance
MB Herald (March 2024)
Ruach, the Hebrew word for spirit can also denote the wind. That Moses would use a term that can refer both to the wind and a personal entity is not surprising. Ancient Near Eastern people were familiar with the wind as a primordial force. The winds of Babylonian mythology embodied the forces of violence and anarchy. [3] They announced humanity’s enslavement and symbolized terror and ill fortune.
A Journey into the Creation Account
The interview above brings together three eminent scholars: mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox, philosopher of science and intelligent design proponent Stephen Meyer, and biochemist Michael Behe, Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson asks a question few intellectuals would even privately contemplate, let alone formulate publicly.