In this first of four articles, John MacDonald offers the suggestion that the historical Paul did not exist and was a literary creation of Acts in two ways. This then makes the Pauline letters fictive epistles like Seneca's moral epistles. First, as a theoretical framework MacDonald summarizes Nina Livesey's recent book arguing to this effect. Next, he uses that foundation to make the case that the converted Paul in Acts is a literary creation as the literary pair of the converted soldier at the cross in Luke—just as the forgiving dying Jesus is paired with the forgiving dying Stephen.

In the philosophy of religion, 'de jure objections' cover a wide variety of arguments for the conclusion that theistic belief is rationally impermissible, whether or not God exists. 'Modal Calvinism' counters these objections by proposing that 'if God exists, God would ensure that theistic belief is rationally compelling on a global scale', a modal conditional that is compatible with atheism. In this article Lok-Chi Chan and Shawn Standefer respond to this modal Calvinist argument by examining it through the lenses of probability, modality, and logic—particularly, with possible world semantics, Bayesian reasoning, and paraconsistent models. After examining various forms of the argument, we argue that none can compel atheists to believe that serious theistic possibilities worth considering would involve the purported divine measure. If successful, these arguments eliminate any significant threat from Alvin Plantinga's celebrated Warranted Christian Belief and block arguments that relativize reason by appealing to the presence of supernatural entities.

Miracle reports are often offered as corroboration for the Gospel message of salvation. For example, "doubting" Thomas was admonished for questioning reports that Jesus was raised from the dead: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And in other parts of the New Testament, faith in what one has not seen for himself is often praised: "We walk by faith, not by sight." Since an argument from the Bible assumes the soundness of an argument from miracles, if the latter fail, then all religions grounded in the biblical text are undercut.