Norman Geisler
Norman L. Geisler is an evangelical scholar, Christian apologist, and the author/coauthor of over fifty Christian books defending the Christian faith by means of logic, evidence, and philosophy. He has also authored many scholarly articles on a wide range of theological and philosophical topics. Dr. Geisler has taught at the university and graduate level for over forty years. Geisler's work Baker Encyclopedia of Christan Apologetics has been well received and is considered a systematic and comprehensive work of Christian apologetics.
Dr. Geisler is also known for holding many debates with various scholars, as well as making frequent guest appearances on Christian radio programs. His views are broadly conservative and evangelical. And he participated in signing the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. He holds a B.A. and an Th.B from Wheaton College (1960), and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University (1970). Dr. Geisler is former president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, which he co-founded with Ross Rhoads in 1992.
Theology
Geisler maintains that he is a "moderate Calvinist," as outlined in his book Chosen But Free (1999).
He is widely considered a conservative evangelical, in spite of the misgivings that both Arminian and Calvinist polemicists have with his "moderate Calvinism". He rejects the classical Calvinist tenets of unconditional election, limited atonement and irresistible grace, yet retains modified versions of total depravity and perseverance of the saints. In response to this James R. White, a Calvinist pastor and apologist, wrote The Potter's Freedom (2000). One of White's contentions is that Geisler's "moderate Calvinism" appears to be an "inconsistent" Arminianism, in opposition to the more robust views espoused by John Calvin.
Dr. Geisler has also been an outspoken critic of "open theism", especially it's doctrine of "limited foreknowledge", which he maintains is a deeply flawed subversion of "classical theism." And while his own views are akin to Thomism in approach, especially in Thomas Aquinas: An Evangelical Appraisal (1991 Baker), he adamantly rejects Aquinas' Catholic Sacramentalism, the Papacy, Monasticism, veneration of Saints and Purgatory.