I know it's rather inappropriate to immediately advertise, but I am actually speaking on this topic because of this book that's just come out, the light of Christ, an introduction of Catholicism.

And I would encourage you to buy it, to read yourself or give to someone else if you're interested in sort of the basic presentation of Catholic faith accessible to a non-specialist,

it presupposes a person interested in questions of science and religion, historical Jesus studies,

Catholic moral teaching, but it doesn't presuppose any expertise.

And so that's part of the kind of reason I'm interested in this question of the rationality of the mystery or the reasonability of the Christian religion and of Catholicism in particular in the 21st century.

So let me just say a few words about what this lecture is not.

So this is not a polemical lecture of, I'm aware of where I am, I'm at Baylor, it's a Baptist university. This is not a polemical lecture of i'm aware where i am i'm at baylor it's a baptist university

this is not a polemical protestant versus catholic kind of portrait i'm interested in

protestant catholic dialogue and dispute disputation i studied a lot of calvin and carl bart and

i'm myself in all honesty a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism.

So, I mean, I think seriously about Protestant objections to Catholicism, and I'm open to that in the Q&A.

If you want to ask me about the Virgin Mary and all those kinds of questions that one typically gets, I happily receive them.

But it's not about that. It's also actually not about an ecumenical engagement of what we have

in common as Protestants and Catholics, nor is it an apologetic defense of Catholicism and why

people should be Christian, although there's a little of that. It's actually just an exercise

in theology. I'm trying to think about the difficulties and challenges,

but also opportunities and possibilities

for believing in Catholic Christianity in the 21st century

and why I think the rationality of the mystery of Christ

and the rationality of the mystery of the church are convincing

or have an integrity to them intellectually for us as modern 21st century people.

So it's an exercise in thinking theologically about the mystery of Christ and the church.

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