Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Upcoming Radio Appearances

I'll be taking to the air, literally and figuratively, when I fly to London to record three shows with Premier Christian Media next month.

Two shows will be with Dr Craig Keener. He's a Professor of New Testament studies who has recently released Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. He's written fourteen other books including one which has sold over a half a million copies. His articles are published widely and he's taught in several countries.

For my part I have a blog.

In the first show we'll be discussing Keener's belief in modern-day miracles and my absence thereof. In the second, we'll discuss the miracles surrounding the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus.


Miracles is a weighty volume, at 1,200 pages it will likely be the longest book I'll read cover to cover. If you see a chap on the Luas reading an exceedingly large book with the dust cover pictured on the right do say hi.

My third show will be with Andrew Wilson. He's the author of Deluded by Dawkins. We'll be discussing his new book, If God Then What?, which I read on Monday evening. It's a notch above the sort of book I normally read for this blog. To find out how many notches I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the show.

The show's called Unbelievable? and it specialises in Christian and non-Christian debate. This most often means Christian versus atheist but they occasionally have Muslims, Hindus, Christians with differing opinions and those of other faiths. I'm a fan and check out the podcast most Mondays.

So, any tips?

6 comments:

junia said...

so exciting. hehe

Ronald said...

How did you get volunteered for this?

If you're at all interested, I'm currently working my way through Keener's book as well (though likely much more slowly), so if you want to bounce some ideas off someone, I'd be more than happy to have a dialogue.

When is the show being recorded? If you have time, you might consider picking up Keener's Historical Jesus book. There's a hefty sample available for the Kindle (and that is the extent that I've interacted with it).

Greatly looking forward to this, but tell me, did Premier at least foot the bill for the book?

Geoff said...

Justin Brierley (the moderator, for those who don't listen to the show) sent me an e-mail and asked me if I was interested in doing one show with Keener.

I'd planned on being in London the day after the proposed recording date (for a long weekend I've since had to cancel) so I booked an earlier flight and said yes.

The one show with Keener was split into two separate shows to better cover the two volumes of his book.

As for Wilson, Justin asked if I could recommend another atheist, no-one based in London sprang to mind so I said I was willing to look at a review copy. I got through it in an evening and felt I could do it justice, so Justin generously agreed to let me have a stab at that one too.

It's a rather full day, but if Paul can do those sort of hours in the heat of Athens it would be remiss of me to let my fellow atheists down by not attempting to emulate aspects of that feat.

Very kind of you to offer. I'm on page 127 so far; hopefully by the weekend I'll have a solid enough picture to ask reasonable questions. (I've skipped most of the footnotes.)

I read most of the Kindle sample of Historical Jesus before Miracles reached me. I like his writing style - humble, but with a really dry wit in places. He also has some Youtube material, mainly interviews, if you're interested.

Normally in these situations publishers provide review copies and that was the case with 'If God Then What?'. I could have gotten a free copy of 'Miracles' too but there was a minor delay with the publishers. I bought the book myself to get some more reading time. It would have been free if I'd waited a few days, but I like to be well prepared.

I've a shelf of free books from theists of one stripe or another, I don't mind buying one now and then!

MJ said...

Ooooh you must let me know when so we can meetup! :))) You cant be here and not at least have a drink with us!

Geoff said...

Hey! I'd love to meet up but unfortunately it's only a day trip. Next time!

Edwardtbabinski said...

Questions for Keener in the comments section of this post:

http://geoffsshorts.blogspot.com/2011/10/does-god-heal-today.html