Jim Beilby
Email: james-beilby@bethel.edu
Job title
-
Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies
Biblical & Theological Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Highlight
Systematic and philosophical theology, apologetics, and ethics
Started at Bethel
1999
Education
- Northwestern College - B.S. in Biblical Studies, Social Science, 1991
- Bethel Theological Seminary - M.A.T.S. in Systematic Theology, 1994
- Marquette University - Ph.D. in Theology and Philosophy, 2002
Courses taught
THE201: Christian Theology
THE265L: Christian Apologetics
THE363: Christian Social Ethics
PHI305G: Philosophy of Religion
BIB101: Intro to Bible
GES130: Christianity and Western Culture
GES414P: Theology of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis
Publications
Books (selected list)
Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views, co-editor with Paul Eddy. InterVarsity Academic, 2001.
Naturalism Defeated? Essays on Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, editor. Cornell University Press, 2002.
Epistemology as Theology: An Evaluation of Plantinga’s Religious Epistemology. Ashgate, 2005.
The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, co-editor with Paul Eddy. InterVarsity Academic, 2006.
The Historical Jesus: Five Views, co-editor with Paul Eddy. InterVarsity Academic, 2009.
Thinking About Christian Apologetics: What It Is and Why We Do It. InterVarsity Academic, 2011.
Routledge Companion to Modern Theology, co-editor with Chad Meister. Routledge, 2013.
Understanding Transgender Identities: Four Views, co-editor with Paul Eddy. Baker Academic, 2019.
Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death. InterVarsity Academic, 2021.
Problem of God in Alvin Plantinga. Elements Series. Cambridge University Press, 2026.
Articles and Essays (selected list)
“William Rowe on the Evidential Value of Appearances,” Faith and Philosophy 12 (April 1995) 251-259.
“Does the Empirical Argument from Evil Prove that Theism is Improbable?” Religious Studies 32 (September 1996) 315-323.
“Is Naturalism Self-Defeating?” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 42 (October 1997) 69-78.
“The Relationship Between Faith and Evidence in St. Augustine,” Sophia 41/1 (May 2002) 19-32.
“Plantinga’s Pox on Metaphysical Naturalism,” Philosophia Christi 5/1 (2003) 131-142.
“Divine Freedom, Divine Aseity: A Conceptual Problem for Edwardsian Calvinism,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47/4 (December 2004) 647-658.
“The Implications of Postmodernism for Theology: On Meta-narratives, Foundationalism, and Realism,” The Princeton Theological Review 12/1 (Spring 2006) 11-16.
“Plantinga’s Model of Warranted Christian Belief” in Alvin Plantinga, edited by Deane-Peter Baker, Contemporary Philosophy in Focus series, 125-165. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
“Externalism, Skepticism, and Knowledge: An Argument Against Internalism.” Philosophia Christi 10/1 (2008) 75-86.
“On Revelation and Divine Perception: A Response to William J. Abraham.” Philosophia Christi 10/2 (2008) 345-352.
“Contemporary Religious Epistemology: Some Key Aspects for the Scripture Project,” in The Scripture Project: The Bible and Biblical Authority in the New Millennium, Volume II: Philosophical and Comparative Considerations, edited by D. A. Carson, 795-830. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.
“Understanding Transgender Experiences and Identities: An Introduction,” co-author with Paul Eddy, in Understanding Transgender Identities: Four Views, eds. James Beilby and Paul Eddy, 1-54. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019.
“The Implications of Religious Peer Disagreement for Religious Epistemology: A Response to Harold Netland,” Philosophia Christi 25/2 (2023) 193-201.
“Divine Hiddenness and the Afterlife: A Response to Aaron Rizzieri,” Perichoresis 21/4 (December 2023) 22-33
“Divine Hiddenness: Epistemic and Soteriological,” in Christianity Contested, edited by Paul Copan & Stewart Kelly, 120-147. Eugene, OR: Cascade/Wipf & Stock, 2024.
Presentations
Almost 40 academic presentations, given at a variety of venues and scholarly meetings
Nearly 300 popular presentations or sermons.
Hobbies and interests
Disc golf, golf, carpentry
Areas of expertise
Systematic and philosophical theology, apologetics, and ethics