Some have argued Winquist’s work is purely academic, at least regarding his posthumously published, “The Surface of the Deep”. And indeed, Winquist argued that a Christological witness cannot be relocated in "fundamental theology"—the philosophical, anthropological, scientific, and theological study to mediate faith’s meaning in culture—without destroying fundamental theology itself. But Winquist also explored how an authentic conversation created hope, developed and articulated in the conversation itself, "a hope that is intertwined with a faith that is always and already a part of the conversation".