Lenten campaign 2026
This content is free of charge, as are all our articles.
Support us with a donation and enable us to continue to reach millions of readers.
What if I told you that, not only does Jesus Christ make sense in light of 21st-century scientific developments — but that those modern scientific developments make even more sense in the light of Jesus Christ’s story?
That’s the argument I’m making at Hallow, in a new series called “The Big Questions.” It’s an offshoot of the Extraordinary Story podcast I’ve been doing about the life of Christ. As a partner with Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, Hallow asked me to take a deeper dive into the hard questions that are raised — and answered — by Christ’s life.
The first Big Question is: Are evolution and Christianity compatible?
The series goes through Christ’s life chronologically, but it begins before time — because Jesus existed before time. He is the Alpha and the Omega; he is the same yesterday today and forever; and he is “the image of the invisible God.”
We say of Jesus Christ “in him all things were created” — and that makes all the difference in the question evolution. It’s a lesson I tell via my uncle Chris, an artificial intelligence pioneer — and from The Essential Guide to Ratzinger, and the books it is based on, by theologian Matthew Ramage at Benedictine College.
The second Big Question is: What makes human beings different from other animals?
The Annunciation provides the next step in Christ’s story, and how “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” turns out to be a great entry point to our human difference — our ability to communicate with each other and with God.
In Hallow I use an analogy to how the human creature went from animal to human via communication — and I had the chance to run the analogy by another source of wisdom I drew on for the series, Christopher Baglow at Notre Dame, author of the book Creation.
The third Big Question is: Why is sin such a big deal to God?
The Nativity is next in the story of Jesus, and the series looks at it from God’s point of view, in Revelation 12, when a “woman clothed with the sun” is seen in heaven giving birth to a child “destined to rule the nations,” angering Satan so much that that he “pursued the woman” on earth.
It’s a great way to connect the drama of sin on earth, through Eve, with the drama happening outside of time, through Christ. Ultimately our sin is a big deal to God for the same reason Satan’s was: Because he wants so much for us.
The fourth Big Question is: Can we trust the Bible?
The Gospel text I use for this one is the very beginning of Luke’s Gospel, where the Evangelist describes what he is trying to do when he tells his story. It’s an important thing to look at, because when Luke tells the Christmas story, critics call many details into question.
I ask if we can trust the Bible or not — and speak of how Bart Ehrman rocked my world, and Dr. Ramage’s Jesus, Interpreted helped set my world straight again.
The fifth Big Question is: Why animal sacrifice? Is God primitive?
This question starts with the Presentation, and specifically the strange detail that Joseph and Mary sacrificed animals for Jesus.
In fact, they sacrificed two turtledoves — and the difference between the happy Christmas song and the bloody killing of birds is exactly my point. How is it okay that the Holy Family killed birds for Baby Jesus?
This was actually one of the most meaningful episodes to me, and I got to share exciting findings reported by psychologist Matthew Rossano about the origin of human societies, and the insights of theologian Larry Chapp about the significance Jesus Christ being the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Sixth is the question: What about other religions?
At Epiphany, the magi arrive onto the scene in the Gospel and raise Big Questions.
On the one hand, clearly, the presence of religious men from the East shows that other faiths find paths of truth. On the other hand, also clearly, what’s true about these paths is the degree they lead the magi to lay prostrate before Jesus Christ, the center of history. Does the same hold true today?
Seventh, and finally, I ask: Why is God hiding?
The Finding in the Temple is the Scripture passage here, and traveling with Mary and Joseph we find that A) It is easy to lose Jesus and B) There is one sure way to find him again.
But it’s a thought-provoking ending, I think, because it helps us see what exactly we should do with the Big Questions we continue to have about Jesus.
