Contributors

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  Dan Darling

  Pastor
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Team Members

Dan Darling
Pastor
Dan Darling is an author, pastor and Christian leader. He currently serves as the Director of The Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Assistant Professor of Faith and Culture at Texas Baptist College. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry from Dayspring Bible College and is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dan’s writing has appeared in numerous publications such as, World magazine, USA Today, Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, The Washington Post, CNN, Washington Times, and First Things. Dan is the author of several books, including The Original Jesus, The Dignity Revolution, A Way With Words and his latest, Agents of Grace: How to Bridge Divides and Love as Jesus Loves.
 
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  Bonnie Kristian

  Journalist
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Team Members

Bonnie Kristian
Journalist
Bonnie Kristian is the editorial director of ideas and books at Christianity Today and a fellow at Defense Priorities. She is a graduate of Bethel Seminary. Bonnie is the author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing on religion, foreign policy, the modern American right, civil liberties, electoral politics, and more has been published at outlets including The New York Times, The Week, USA Today, CNN, Politico, The New Atlantis, Reason, and The Daily Beast.
 
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  Randy Newman

  Senior Fellow for Apologetics and Evangelism, CSLI
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Team Members

Randy Newman
Senior Fellow for Apologetics and Evangelism, CSLI
Randy Newman (1956-2024) was the Senior Fellow for Apologetics and Evangelism at the C.S. Lewis Institute. He taught at several evangelical seminaries. After serving for over 30 years with Campus Crusade for Christ, he established Connection Points, a ministry to help Christians engage people’s hearts the way Jesus did. He has written seven books, Questioning Evangelism, Corner Conversations, Bringing the Gospel Home, Engaging with Jewish People, Unlikely Converts: Improbable Stories of Faith and What They Teach Us About Evangelism, Mere Evangelism. and his most recent, Questioning Faith: Indirect Journeys of Belief through Terrains of Doubt. Randy has also written numerous articles about evangelism and other ways our lives intertwine with God’s creation. He earned his MDiv and PhD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity International University. Randy went home to be with the Lord in May 2024.
 
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  Heather Holleman

  Author
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Team Members

Heather Holleman
Author
Heather Holleman is an associate teaching professor at Penn State, speaker, and author. Dr. Holleman attended the University of Virginia, graduating with the highest distinction for her thesis on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. She authored Seated with Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison. She also authored: This Seat’s Saved, written for middle-grade audiences, helping young readers discover they are already seated at the best table with Jesus, winning Christianity Today’s Book of the Year in the Young Adult category. Heather and her husband, Ashley, work with the missions organization (Cru) serving as the Executive Director of Graduate Student Ministry. Heather enjoys writing and speaks regularly to encourage audiences to connect deeply with Jesus and one another.
 
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  Aimee Riegert

  CSLI Fellow
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Team Members

Aimee Riegert
CSLI Fellow
Aimee Riegert, CSLI Fellow, earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and foreign language studies from Southern Methodist University. In addition to supporting various national security efforts in Northern Virginia, she has worked as an itinerant high school math teacher and drama coach, and has served in women’s ministries, praise teams, on the adult support team for Young Life and as a “mentor mom” for MOPS International ministries, as well as English instructor in several ESL programs in Japan. She is a graduate of the C.S. Lewis Institute Year One Fellows Program.
 
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  Alister McGrath

  Professor
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Team Members



Alister McGrath

Professor

Alister McGrath serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford. He has also served as the Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College in Oxford, the President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and associate priest in Cotswolds for a group of village parishes (Church of England.) McGrath’s best known books include The Twilight of Atheism, The Dawkins Delusion?, Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, A Scientific Theology and his most recent, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 7th Edition. He received his MA and DPhil from Oxford University.
 

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  Peter Kreeft

  Professor
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Team Members

Peter Kreeft
Professor
Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. He received his MA at Fordham University and completed his post-graduate studies at Yale University. He has written over 100 books on philosophy, theology, and apologetics. His many bestsellers include Making Sense of Suffering, Because God Is Real, Angels and Demons, Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing, Summa of the Summa, Christianity for Modern Pagans, and How to Destroy Western Civilization, and his most recent publication, The Mystery of Joy.
 
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  Andy Bannister

  Author and Speaker
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Team Members

Andy Bannister
Author and Speaker
Andy Bannister is an author, speaker, and broadcaster. He is currently the Director of the Solas Center for Public Christianity, an evangelism and training ministry, as well as the Adjunct Research Fellow at Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and has taught extensively at universities across the world on both Islam and Philosophy. Andy speaks regularly on Christianity to audiences of all faiths across Europe, Canada, the US, and further afield. He is an author of several books including: The Atheist Who Didn't Exist, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? and most recently, How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like an Idiot.
 
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  Jana Harmon

  Senior Fellow For Christian Apologetics, CSLI
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Team Members

Jana Harmon
Senior Fellow For Christian Apologetics, CSLI
Jana Harmon, Ph.D, is the Senior Fellow For Christian Apologetics for the C.S. Lewis Institute and a Teaching Fellow for C.S. Lewis Institute Atlanta. She serves on the Atlanta Advisory Board and as an Adjunct Professor of Cultural Apologetics at Biola University. Her doctoral research studied the religious conversion of atheists to Christianity looking at the perspectives and stories of 50 former Atheists. She views apologetics through a practical, evangelistic lens. She is the host of the podcast eX-skeptic for the C.S. Lewis Institute. Jana received her PhD from the University of Birmingham, England.
 
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  Lee Strobel

  Author
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Team Members



Lee Strobel

Author

Lee Strobel, Author, was educated at the University of Missouri (Bachelor of Journalism degree) and Yale Law School (Master of Studies in Law degree). He was a journalist for 14 years at The Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, winning Illinois' highest honor for public service journalism from United Press International. Lee joined the staff of Willow Creek Community Church in 1987 and later became a teaching pastor, eventually moving on to write books and host the national network TV program Faith Under Fire. He is a member of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. He has won Gold Medallions for The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator, which have been made into documentaries distributed by Lionsgate.
 

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  John Hopper

  Author
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Team Members

John Hopper
Author
John Hopper serves as Executive Director for Reach, the evangelism training arm of Search Ministries, and regularly encourages and facilitates gatherings and conversations aimed at helping others think more deeply about God and life. John earned a B.A. in Economics at Trinity University, an M.Ed. at the University of Houston, an M.A. in Transformational Leadership at Bethel University, and a D.Min. at Biola University, where he focused on Christian apologetics and worldview studies. He is the author of Questioning God: Answers to Questions Worth Asking.
 
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  Gary Thomas

  Pastor
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Team Members

Gary Thomas
Pastor
Gary Thomas received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Western Washington University in 1984. He studied under the Christian theologian J. I. Packer at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, receiving a master's degree in 1988 in systematic theology. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, in 2006 in recognition of his contributions made in the field of spiritual formation. Thomas is a regular teaching pastor at Second Baptist Church Houston, the fourth-largest church in the United States in 2013, with over 21,000 in weekly attendance. Thomas is the author of 20 published books. His most notable works include Sacred Marriage, Sacred Pathways, and Authentic Faith.
 
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  Cameron McAllister

  Director of Apologetics, CSLI
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Team Members

Cameron McAllister
Director of Apologetics, CSLICameron McAllister is Director of Apologetics for the C.S. Lewis Institute. He cofounded Thinking Out Loud, where he’s a speaker, writer and one half of the Thinking Out Loud podcast, a weekly podcast about current events and Christian hope. He and his father co-authored Faith That Lasts: A Father and Son on Cultivating Lifelong Belief. A staff writer with Christ & Pop Culture, Cameron’s writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, Think Christian, and Fathom Magazine. He holds a master’s degree in apologetics from Houston Baptist University. Cameron and his wife Heather live in the Atlanta area with their two children. Support the ministry of Cameron with CSLI.  
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  Michael Ward

  Professor
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Team Members

Michael Ward
Professor
Michael Ward is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford and Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. He studied English at the University of Oxford, theology at the University of Cambridge, and he earned his PhD in Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author and editor of multiple books, most notably the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis. On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death, Dr. Ward unveiled a permanent national memorial to Lewis in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London.