WHITNEY CURTIS | news editor

Renowed speaker, writer and philosopher, J.P. Moreland addresses the common struggle in Christian academia to converge the worlds of science and theology.

“[My hope is] that the Science Center can excel at integrating theological and scientific knowledge claims into a coherent worldview,” distinguished professor of philosophy at Biola University J.P. Moreland, Ph.D. said.

Moreland is a renowned philosopher, theologian, apologist, speaker and writer. His presentation on Wednesday night, Sept. 26, was the culmination of the day’s celebrations, beginning with the groundbreaking of the new Science Center.

“[I discussed] the different world views that are warring for allegiance of people’s minds,” Moreland said. “The integration of Christianity and science is important in that broader struggle.”

Although Moreland is outspoken about his faith now, he admits that he did not grow up with such strong convictions and it wasn’t until later in his life that he became a believer in Jesus Christ.

“I became a Christian in the Jesus Movement in the 1960s through Campus Crusade for Christ,” Moreland said. “It really changed my life. I began to share my life and disciple new believers and realized how important the world of ideas was. There was a vacuum of good Christian thought and I wanted to help fill that vacuum.”

For many years, Moreland continued to disciple new believers through the same organization that brought him to Christ. He worked for Campus Crusade for Christ for 10 years.

As for his desire to fill the “vacuum of good Christian thought,” Moreland has written over 70 books as well as a number of articles for magazines and journals and he has spoken and debated at over 200 colleges.

Moreland’s success and invitations to speak may be due to the fact that his views and language are known to be more understandable than the average philosopher’s.

“He would speak at my classes. He is so well read and so entrenched in this that you have to know a little about the words he’s using that when you engage J.P. you can follow along,” Video Production Manager of Media Services and Biola University alum Karl Morgan said. “But he does have a way of making this subject reachable.”

While many agree with the views of the 17-year professor and founder of Biola’s Masters of Philosophy program, others do not.

“J.P. Moreland represents a strand in Christian philosophy that emphasizes the notion of world history as a battleground of competing worldviews,” assistant professor of philosophy Teri Merrick said. “There are other Christian philosophers with less polemical models, meaning not automatically seeing culture or world history as a battle between opposing worldviews, but taking the historic creeds that have defined us as a Christian people throughout time and allowing that to inform our scholarship and our teaching.”

Executive Director of Faith Integration and professor of philosophy Craig Boyd, Ph.D. also disagrees with some of the views held by Moreland.

“I think that Moreland’s voice is one that represents an overly conservative reaction to much of academic culture,” Boyd said. “Although I think the impulse to defend the Christian faith is a good one and also a necessary task, I also think that his approach fails to speak to much of the evangelical culture as well as to much of the broader culture. In other words, I think evangelicals need to move beyond perpetually defending the faith to a more constructive engagement with culture.”

There are those, however, who do agree with Moreland and find his views helpful in defending the Christian faith and integrating Christianity and academics.

“I think he raises some good philosophical questions which should cause all of us to maybe rethink the way we think about approaching the integration of science and Christianity,” Director of the Center for Research in Science Leslie Wickman, Ph.D. said.