If you saw a picture of John Lennox or heard his Irish accent on one of his many YouTube videos, you would be reminded of an old-time movie character actor who always seemed to play bartenders rather than the world-renowned mathematician that he is.
You would also learn that Lennox is one of the best Christian apologists on the planet.
When I first came upon his videos, I did some math of my own. Irish accent (albeit Northern Irish) plus a precise and astounding combination of fide/ratio theology must equal Roman Catholic.
As with most of my ventures into math, I got it wrong. I wish he were Catholic. I wish everyone were Catholic. But Lennox is a prime example of the Church’s encouragement toward all of us to celebrate the truth where we find it, even if not in complete union with Holy Mother Church.
When it comes to Lennox, that premise is easy to embrace, as I have found so little in his videos and writings that differ from the magisterial teaching of the Church.
Lennox was born in Northern Ireland in 1943, which means he knows all about how religious culture, politics, and pathologies can go sideways, leading to many un-Christian things. He credits his parents, who were devout Christians but not affiliated with either side in Northern Ireland.
This might explain his nondenominational status, as both sides of the “Irish Problem” Lennox grew up in claimed Christianity as their foundational essence while they went about brutalizing one another.
He has debated notable atheists like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens and always held his own. If there is a video of Lennox being mean-spirited or full of loathing toward his debate challengers, I have not seen it. He is never adversarial, taking no offense even when it is obvious his counterparts think him a fool for believing in God.
He is a joyful warrior and a stark contrast to men who have a pall of cynicism to their personas, due to the fact they must stipulate their very existence is the result of absurd accidents of happenstance.
He does get opposition from certain elements of the evangelical Christian view due to his nonliteral interpretation of the six days of creation — another element that makes him more Catholic than not.
Lennox retired from his mathematician position at Oxford University and now pursues his “hobby” of diving deep into his Christian faith full time. He is a shining example to us all who, regardless of how we butter our bread, should take the responsibility, as Lennox has, to go deeper into our faith and be strong defenders of it.
He was also made for social media in an age when “science” is becoming deified by the likes of pop culture astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has made quite a name for himself by seeing only unmoored actions and reactions in the universe, whereas Lennox sees the hand of God.
Lennox may look like a refugee from an old Hollywood casting call for a happy-go-lucky Irishman, and his baseline temperament of joy may even make him come off as “soft.” But when you read his words and listen to his wisdom, you know his faith in Christ is granite-like. And you will also know it is not blind faith, but one rooted in faith-informed rationalism.
Lennox has the same high-octane educational pedigree of another faithful philosopher/theologian, C. S. Lewis, someone else who may have dipped a toe in the Tiber but never made the full journey across. But he is in lockstep with one of Catholicism’s great thinkers, G.K. Chesterton, who straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and ruminated on what faith means in much the same way as Lennox does. “Our faith is not a blind grasping of beliefs that seem pleasant to us. It is grounded in knowledge, beginning with the knowledge that there is a God.”
Even if Lennox never enters into full communion with the Church — and I pray he does — we should all be thankful for such a great Christian witness. He lets us know that whether we sell cars, wash windows, or teach within the halls of one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the Western world, we can — and must — all become theologians.
