Dr. David Basinger, professor of philosophy at Roberts Wesleyan College, explores the reasons why we offer petitionary prayers and the questions of theodicy that inevitably arise when God doesn't answer prayer in the way we expect.

Presented February 15, 2016

Learn more about the Templeton-funded project "Prayer, Love, and Human Nature: Analytic Theology for Theological Formation" here: www.analytictheologyfuller.org/.

For more theological reflection from Fuller's professors, visit www.Fuller.edu/Studio.


Petitionary Prayer: Why Petition an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Wholly Good God? | David Basinger

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James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin College, where he holds the Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. The award-winning author of Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? and Desiring the Kingdom, his most recent books include Imagining the Kingdom (2013), Discipleship in the Present Tense (2013), Who’s Afraid of Relativism? (2014), and How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (2014). His popular writing has appeared in magazines such as Christianity Today, Books & Culture, and First Things. He is a Senior Fellow of the think tank Cardus and serves as editor of Comment magazine. Jamie and his wife, Deanna, have four children.

Fuller Theological Seminary instituted the Payton Lectures in 1948, providing for a series of divinity lectures by a notable scholar outside the regular faculty. The lectureship is named for Dr. John E. and Mrs. Eliza Payton, parents of the late Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of seminary founder Charles E. Fuller. Recent Payton Lecturers include Miroslav Volf, Ellen Davis, Bernard McGinn, and Luke Timothy Johnson.

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Prior to joining the faculty of Fuller’s Graduate School of Psychology in 2012, Dr. Strawn was Professor of Psychology at Point Loma Nazarene University and also practiced as a clinical psychologist and served as Vice President for Spiritual Development and Dean of the Chapel at Southern Nazarene University.

Strawn recently published, with W. S. Brown, The Physical Nature of Christian Life: Neuroscience, Psychology, and the Church (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and is currently writing, with E. Bland, Christianity & Psychoanalysis: New Dialogues (InterVarsity Press). His numerous articles in journals, collections, and dictionaries include, most recently, with B. A. Strawn, “Prophecy and Psychology,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets (InterVarsity Press, 2012), and “Human Bodies and Church Bodies: Spiritual Flourishing and Formation,” in Pastoralpsychologie und Religionspsychologie im Dialog (Kohlhammer, 2011).

Strawn is a member of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies; Society for the Study of Psychology and Wesleyan Studies (founding member and officer); Society for the Exploration of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies and Theology (founding member and associate director); and the Brookhaven Institute for Psychoanalysis and Christian Theology (faculty member).

He is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene.

Fuller Theological Seminary instituted the Payton Lectures in 1948, providing for a series of divinity lectures by a notable scholar outside the regular faculty. The lectureship is named for Dr. John E. and Mrs. Eliza Payton, parents of the late Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of seminary founder Charles E. Fuller. Recent Payton Lecturers include Miroslav Volf, Ellen Davis, Bernard McGinn, and Luke Timothy Johnson.

Payton Lectures 2015: Lecture 1 Response - Brad Strawn

William Dyrness, professor of theology and culture, joined the Fuller faculty in 1990 and served as dean of the School of Theology from 1990 to 2000. He teaches courses in theology, culture, and the arts, and was a founding member of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts.

Dyrness has over 30 years of teaching experience in the United States, the Philippines, Kenya, and South Korea. He has published work in a variety of fields, including theology and culture, apologetics, theology and art, and global missions. His recent works include Poetic Theology (2010), A Primer in Christian Worship (2009), the Global Dictionary of Theology (co-edited with Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, 2008), Senses of the Soul: Art and the Visual in Christian Worship (2008), Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards (2004), Visual Faith (2001), Changing the Mind of Missions with James F. Engel (2000), and The Earth Is God's: A Theology of American Culture (1997). He has also served on the national boards of Christians in the Visual Arts (Wenham, MA), 1999 to 2005, and Development Associates International (Colorado Springs, CO), 2000 to the present, and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is currently at work on a major research project funded by the Henry Luce Foundation on the use of visual images in worship in Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim communities. Additionally, he is currently writing a book with art historian Dan Siedell on the religious influences of modern art.

Fuller Theological Seminary instituted the Payton Lectures in 1948, providing for a series of divinity lectures by a notable scholar outside the regular faculty. The lectureship is named for Dr. John E. and Mrs. Eliza Payton, parents of the late Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of seminary founder Charles E. Fuller. Recent Payton Lecturers include Miroslav Volf, Ellen Davis, Bernard McGinn, and Luke Timothy Johnson.

Petitionary Prayer: Why Petition an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Wholly Good God? | David Basinger

FULLER studio

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