A First Things Partner Feature

released 1/15/2026

In this October 2019 lecture, historian and New Testament scholar N. T. Wright examines the epistemology of love and how it counters the reductionism of Enlightenment and Epicurean ways of knowing. First addressing the negative consequences of the Enlightenment’s false antithesis between “objective” and “subjective” knowing, Wright explains how love, as the ultimate form of knowing, leads a way out of the reductionism, idolatry, and power struggles that can never account for the fullness of reality. An epistemology of love based on Jesus and the reality of his resurrection will enrich our understanding of science, history, politics, economics, and theology.

This lecture is provided courtesy of First Things magazine, which sponsors the annual Erasmus Lecture series in New York City.

63 minutes

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