C. John Collins

Fellow, Center for Science and Culture

Jack Collins is Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri. With degrees from MIT (SB, SM) and the University of Liverpool (PhD), he has been a research engineer, a church-planter, and, since 1993, a teacher. In addition to his early focus on Hebrew and Greek grammar, he also studies science and faith, how the New Testament uses the Old, and Biblical theology. He was Old Testament Chairman for the English Standard Version of the Bible, and is author of Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care, and Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1–11 (2018). He is currently writing commentaries on Numbers, Psalms, and Isaiah. During the 2016-17 academic year, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Carl Henry Center for Theological Understanding of Trinity International University. He and his wife have been married since 1979, and have two grown children.

Archives

Science and Faith

Friends or Foes?
Collins defines faith and science, shows their relation, and explains what claims each has concerning truth. He applies the biblical teaching on creation to the topics of "conflict" between faith and science, including the age of the earth, evolution, and miracles.

Science & Faith

Friends or Foes?
Many Christians worry that science undermines the Christian faith. Instead of fearing scientific discovery, Jack Collins believes that people of faith should study the natural world. Collins first explains that science is controversially defined, but that it is best viewed as "a discipline in which one studies features of the world around us, and tries to describe his observations systematically and critically." (pg. 34) In his definition of faith, Collins lauds a statement by C. S. Lewis who said, "Faith - is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes." (Quoting C.S. Lewis, pg. 38)

The God of Miracles

An Exegetical Examination of God's Action in the World
Part of the debate over the existence of God centers on questions about the possibility and “provability” of miracles. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. C. John Collins, a Discovery Institute Fellow, provides a thorough exegetical foundation for discussing God’s action in the world within the framework of biblical Christian theology. Collins begins by presenting and contrasting the options within traditional Christian theism. Supernaturalism “affirms the reality of God’s action in both the “natural events” (created things upheld by divine preservation and concurrence) and the “supernatural” ones (qualitatively special divine action).” (pg. 123) God’s actions are typically not detectable until He performs miracles and