Christians disagree on doctrine, politics, church government, certain moral questions – just about everything under the sun, it can seem. Yet a unity remains, centered around a core outlook on God and the world that is common to all believers. Or at least, such an outlook should unite Christians of all theological and church backgrounds. However, alternate visions of reality often infect and corrupt Christians’ thinking.

In The Essentials of Christian Thought, A Video Study, together with the accompanying book The Essentials of Christian Thought, eminent theologian and church historian Roger Olson outlines the basic perspective on the world that all Christians, regardless of the place and time in which they were born, have historically held. This underlying metaphysic accords with all orthodox theologies, whether Calvinist or Arminian, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, but it separates Christianity from other religious and secular perspectives. It is, quite simply, the essential requirement of a Christian view of the world.

The Essentials of Christian Thought, A Video Study will prompt viewers to more consciously appropriate the core of their faith, guarding against ideas that subtly but necessarily invite compromise.

The Essentials of Christian Thought, A Video Study is part of the Zondervan Scholar Series, which is dedicated to bringing expert teaching from world’s best biblical scholars and theologians directly to interested learners. The Essentials of Christian Thought, A Video Study offers the chance to learn about the necessary principles of a Christian outlook on the world from one of today’s premier theologians.

Session titles and Runtimes:

1 – Introduction (11 min)

2 – Knowing Christianly: Seeing Reality through the Biblical Story (22 min)

3 – Interlude One (10 min)

4 – Ultimate Reality is Supernatural and Personal (But Not Human) (23 min)

5 – Interlude Two (13 min)

6 – The Biblical View of Ultimate Reality Retrieved (24 min)

7 – Interlude Three (11 min)

8 – Non-Biblical, Non-Christian Views of Reality (28 min)

9 – Interlude Four (14 min)

10 – The Biblical-Christian View of Ultimate Reality: God (24 min)

11 – Interlude Five (10 min)

12 – The Biblical Christian Perspective on the World (24 min)

13 – Interlude Six (12 min)

14 – Biblical-Christian Humanism (26 min)

15 – Interlude Seven (15 min)

16 – A Model for the Integration of Faith and Learning (13 min)