I have heard of Malta but knew very little about this speck of rock between Europe and Africa. Until I visited this crossroads of Afro-Euro maritime civilization.

Western civilization is inextricably linked to Christianity. Although Jesus never left Israel and did not leave us any writings, Paul wrote half of the New Testament and traveled across the Roman Empire covering three sides of the Mediterranean Sea. Both Christianity and western civilization were shaped by Paul. It is impossible to understand Europe, the Americas, Australasia as well as much of Africa and Asia without a basic knowledge of Paul’s travels and thoughts.

In AD 60, Paul was shipwrecked and imprisoned in Malta. But his 3 month stay led to Malta becoming the first European community to embrace Christianity. Modern archaeology affirms this account. Today, Malta has 360 churches for a population of just 500,000 residents.

In October, I traced the Footsteps of Paul in Malta and visited St Paul’s Grotto, the cave where the Apostle was under arrest.

St. Augustine wrote that Christianity is FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING.

With the benefit of the science and technology of archaeology, we can separate the facts from fictions of faith. This is how Thinking Things Through leads to a Faith that Seeks Understanding.

This episode features a tribute to one of Ron’s mentors, Samuel H. Moffett of Princeton. Moffett was born inPyongyang, Korea to a missionary family. He was a pioneer in documenting the story of Christianity east of Jerusalem, in Asia. Sam passed away in 2015 at the age of 99.

This 10-minute episode captures Sam Moffett’s influence on Ron’s thought.

This episode features a tribute to one of Ron's teachers, Lamin Sanneh of Yale. Prof. Sanneh was born into a Muslim family in West Africa, converted to Christianity and spent his entire academic life investigating Christian-Muslim relations.

Ron was among his students at Yale from 2000-2002. He died suddenly in 2019. This 10-minute episode recalls Sanneh’s deep influence of Ron's thinking.