Update on My Health and New Books Released!
April 22, 2018
It has been a long time since I posted a health update on my website, and I write now with a deeply grateful heart to those of you who have prayed for me and sent me notes of great kindness and appreciation. My family and I cannot adequately express to you our gratitude, but please know that your prayers have been effective.
Regarding my health, there is much to say. My prostate was removed in August, 2015, but some cancer was missed, so I just finished 38 radiation treatments and am on Lupron injections every three months (it blocks Testosterone and gives me hot flashes!). In 6 months I’ll have blood work drawn and I’ll know whether or not I still have the cancer. The good news is that it is slow growing, so at 70, even if it is still there, I’d have 10-15 years to live if we did nothing further. Regarding my colon cancer, I am now at the 2-year mark. Every 6 months I’ve had a PET/CAT scan and an endoscopy/colonoscopy, and all have been clear, so in a month, I am having surgery to remove the chemo-port in my chest. I have 3 years to go to be declared in remission, but the 2-year mark is a big one. I have a rare disease (Lynch Muir-Torre Syndrome) that is what caused me to get colon cancer and it also causes cancerous lesions to grown on my skin. They can metastasize, so I get checked every 2 months by a dermatologist. My pacemaker is working well and keeping my resting post at 60 (it was around 45 and I had no energy). I have the beginning signs of atrial flutter returning (I had surgery to get rid of it), but if it does, the surgery is not bad, and they can get rid of it again. Pray for my liver readings. I have non-alcoholic fatty liver, and my readings are really high. I have lost 10 pounds and hope to lose 5 more. In sum, it’s been an interesting 3 years, but to be honest, I’ve never been closer to Jesus nor had so much day-to-day peace and joy.
I wanted to tip you off to four books that have come out in the last several months. Each book is one I co-edited and to which I contributed chapters. First, Bill Craig and I produced a revised and greatly expanded version of our Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (IVP). The first version was a help and encouragement to many people, and this second edition is really different from the first one. We are excited about it. Second, I co-edited a 1000-page book entitled Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical and Theological Critique (Crossway). This book is being acclaimed as the most significant critique of both naturalistic and theistic evolution and defense of intelligent design ever written. Even if you are not interested in this subject, it is a crucial source to get for a friend or relative who is persuaded that theistic evolution or naturalistic evolution is true. Third, a new book I co-edited is hot off the press: Until Christ Is Formed In You: Dallas Willard and Spiritual Formation (Abilene Christian University Press). It is the first book attempting to interact with Dallas’s though on a more scholarly theological and philosophical level. Even so, it is easy to read for a “lay” audience, and it contains a lot of helpful insights and practical applications gleaned from interacting with Dallas’s thought. Finally, I am so excited to announce the release of The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, a book I co-edited. At the very top of academic prestige in professional philosophy stand two series: The Blackwell Companions and the Oxford Handbook series, with the former most likely the best one. All philosophers note when a new book comes out in either series, and they get a copy of one that is in their field of studies. No philosopher working in an area of the discipline can afford to neglect a relevant volume in either series. Now, one responsibility of a Christian scholar is to penetrate the culture with a Christian worldview, and this volume of ours does just that. It presents various views that defend the soul, critiques of those views, physicalist alternatives to the soul and critiques of those views.
Thank you for your interest in my life and work. We are a team and we all have a unique role to play in the Kingdom.
With gratitude,
JP Moreland
That is great to hear. You have done so much for so many of us whom you will likely never meet this side of glory.
God bless you brother, I hope you live much more years! You are really a blessing in my life!