Christian Apologists, you should be aware of Mark Lanier.
Mark is an “Attorney, Author, Teacher, Pastor and Expert Story Teller.” We are so excited to host him at the Stand Firm Apologetics conference (4/15-16 at Southwestern Seminary in Fort worth, Texas) where he will be giving a plenary talk. Let me tell you just a bit about him.
As an attorney, Mark and his team have won a variety of landmark cases with verdicts or settlements netting hundreds of millions of dollars for their clients, with a recent verdict against a large Pharmaceutical company amounting to 9 billion dollars! So he’s sort of successful.
Despite this “worldly” success (whatever that amounts to), Mark is a vocal Christian and makes his mark (sorry!) in the local church and academics, as well as a speaker and writer.
One thing worth mentioning that makes a weekend trip to Houston worth it for me, is that Mark built a 5th century Byzantine chapel and theological library in his front yard. You mean you don’t have a 5th century Byzantine chapel in your front yard?! The Lanier Theological Library has over 70,000 volumes and, among other things, houses one the best CS Lewis collections in the US.
Mark also teaches a very popular Sunday School class (700+) at his church and has a love of and expertise in Biblical languages.
He fits our Stand Firm conference given that he is the author of Christianity on Trial. This is a nicely done and provocative book, framed, as the title suggests, as Christianity’s trial. It begins with an opening statement, there is the defense, and finalizes with closing statement. The following is a presentation (at the Lanier Library, by the way) of the major contours of his project.
I’m always excited to see someone who is an expert in a particular field and bringing those particular talents to bear on issues of faith. Just think of the contributions of guys like Lee Strobel (journalist) and Jim Wallace (Cold Case detective) and many more still. They oftentimes get an audience philosophers will never get.
Check out Mark Lanier and tell me what you think: