Spring Newsletter 2025
Lots of news to share this Spring!
To begin with, I’m excited about the recent, long awaited publication of my peer-reviewed paper on “Christian Leadership in 3D: Leading and Following in the Spiritual Footsteps of Jesus” in the Scandinavian Journal for Leadership and Theology, a project that’s taken nearly three years from concept to publication!
www.peterswilliams.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WilliamsChristianLeadershipin3D.pdf
June 2025 is the last month of my long-standing part-time job with NLA University College in Norway. However, I’m pleased to announce that I will continue an association with NLA as an “Adjunct Professor in Communication & Worldviews.” In this capacity, I’m still attached to The Legacy of Adam video series (www.thelegacyofadam.com) through Damaris Norway, producing Q&A apologetic material dealing with questions Muslim viewers of the series might ask. I’m currently finishing off the season focused on the saga of the Old Testament King’s Saul and David for an August deadline. Over the following 12 months I aim to produce material covering the seasons focused on Jesus. NLA College hope to use me on a project by project basis for piece-work going forward, though there’s still nothing concrete on this front as yet.
A project now moving forward after being stalled for a while is the production of a twelve episode podcast series based on my book Outgrowing God? A Beginner’s Guide to Richard Dawkins and the God Debate. The series (which its worth noting is in English!) is titled The God Question – has our civilization outgrown God?, and is being co-produced by BioCosmos Norway and Damaris Norway. After months trying to assemble amateur voice actors to record the script, series editor and script co-author Børge Elliot Bentsen had the bright idea of using A.I. to voice our five characters. The A.I. does a pretty creditable job in five distinct but clearly understandable accents! We’re currently going through the audio equivalent of copy-editing the A.I. recordings, after which Børge will mix in the incidental music (i.e. opening music, various in-episode transitions and end title theme music) that I have composed for the series.
I had the honour of speaking once again at the European Leadership Forum conference in Poland this May. After months of research and power-point preparation, I very much enjoyed presenting a pre-forum two day conference on the veracity of the Old Testament historical narratives, from Genesis 1:1 to the Jew’s return from exile in Babylon. Then, during the conference proper, I did a talk on “Archaeological Evidence for Jesus”
(http://podcast.peterswilliams.com/e/archaeological-evidence-and-jesus-elf-2025/). I got to repeat this talk as a stand-in for a speaker who couldn’t make it to the “academics network.” I also participated in the “Apologetics, Advanced” network, acting as a mentor. It was especially encouraging to see a contingent of young Finnish apologists in the network this year. I also had a lovely breakfast mentoring session, encouraging a young lady taking her first steps into apologetic ministry.
After the conference, a little group of attendees discovered we were all staying overnight in the same hotel near Krakow airport to catch flights the following evening, and a couple of trips into Krakow were organized. Several folks generously covered various costs associated with these trips for me, so I was able to get Uber rides, dine out and accompany folks on a guided tour of Krakow!
After flying back to Gatwick airport in the UK, I got home at 3 am, and spent the next couple of days unpacking, washing clothes, etc., and generally catching up on sleep! I also had the excitement of various deliveries gradually assembling the components of a new home computer generously supplied by someone who discovered my old iMac was on its last legs (demanding software updates it would refuse because its Operating System was out of date and no longer upgradable on the available hardware). So, after a day of transferring data and wrestling with Microsoft Office’s re-authentication process, I now have a new “work-horse” for all my writing, power-point making, audio-editing, etc.
My forthcoming book – Stepping Stones to Christianity: Reflections on Intelligent Design Natural Theology and the Historical Jesus – is progressing on schedule, with much effort going into the bibliography of late. I was able to have a helpful conversation at ELF with philosopher Dr Andrew Ter Ern Loke, about a particular objection to the design argument from cosmic fine-tuning; a conversation that confirmed my response to the objection in question, and which has resulted in the addition of a couple of paragraphs to my discussion of fine-tuning in Chapter One. I recently received the following endorsement:
Stepping Stones is exactly that, a look at the credibility of Christian claims about Jesus one step at a time in a world that does not know what to do with him. Whether we think about the world we live in, its design, or what we can know about Jesus, the world portrays much uncertainty about who we are, where we came from, and why we are here. This book helps to point us in a solid direction for all those key questions. So read this book and take a step in a most useful direction. – Dr Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary.
I’m continuing to seek opportunities for hiring out my services. For example, chatting to folks at ELF provided me with a couple of institutions willing to receive a C.V.
Finally, I’ve recently become a trustee of the Montgomery Trust, (www.montgomerytrust.org.uk) who provide a variety of speakers to churches whilst covering travel expenses on speaker fees. I myself am a Montgomery lecturer, so if this is something that is of interest to you, have a look at my speaker profile page @ www.montgomerytrust.org.uk/book-a-lecturer/lecturer-profiles/peter-s-williams/
Have a great summer!
Yours, Peter S. Williams