A Christian Apologist and an Atheist Thrive in an Improbable Bond

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Patrick Arsenault, left, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and an atheist, was an editor of a religious book by his friend David Skeel, a Penn law professor and a Christian. (Credit Mark Makela for The New York Times)

OCT. 3, 2014
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

PHILADELPHIA — One morning in February 2012, Prof. David Skeel received an email from a stranger named Patrick Arsenault. The message contained a thumbnail photo of the equation for calculating kinetic energy, and the signature line identified the writer as a postdoctoral fellow at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. All of which gave Professor Skeel cause for curiosity.

The previous night, he had moderated a public conversation with John C. Lennox, an Oxford mathematician and committed Christian. The event was meant to show that faith and reason could be reconciled, not exactly an easy sell on campuses these days, and for his part, Professor Skeel was less a neutral facilitator than a partisan.

While his scholarly specialties at Penn’s law school were bankruptcy and corporate regulation, his spiritual life as a devoted Christian formed a significant part of his public profile. In both academic journals and op-ed essays, he advocated for the fruitful interaction of religion and law, exactly the kind of position that his foes saw as undermining the separation of church and state.

To use the theological term, Professor Skeel was a Christian apologist, one who explains and defends the faith against doubters. Dr. Arsenault was an atheist, as he explained in the email, who had attended the public discussion with his own humanist loyalties. Yet he wrote that he appreciated Professor Skeel “for choosing to pose the big difficult questions of Christianity.” The next day, Professor Skeel sent a note suggesting they have coffee and talk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/a-christian-apologist-and-an-atheist-thrive-in-an-improbable-bond.html?_r=0

[Jim__]

1. I think this is the video of the discussion between David Skeel and John Lennox

&feature=player_detailpage

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2. Thanks for finding that.