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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
Provides an accessible overview of the theory and practice of Christian Apologetics, written by one of the leading experts in the field Christian Apologetics is a compact yet comprehensive introduction to the theological discipline devoted to the intellectual defense of the truth of the Christian religion. Assuming no previous knowledge of Christian Apologetics, this student-friendly textbook clearly explains the major theoretical and practical aspects of the tradition while exploring its core themes, historical development, and current debates. Using a non-denominational approach, world-renowned Christian scholar Alister E. McGrath engages the ideas of a wide range of representative apologists and explores the ways they have been applied throughout history, and can still be used today. Concise, easy-to-digest chapters gradually build students' knowledge and confidence, moving from basic definitions and concepts to more advanced theory and practical application. Throughout the text, the author engages a variety of cultural concerns about religious belief, illustrates the real-life connection of apologetic studies and ministries in the Church, and offers clear explanations and vigorous defenses of the faith that students can adopt in their own writing and speaking. * Introduces the art and science of explaining and commending the Christian faith * Presents approaches to apologetics that emphasize the positive appeal of Christianity to the imagination and emotions * Covers the major approaches to apologetics, identifies their strengths and weaknesses, and discusses their key representatives * Helps readers in ministry and outreach defend Christianity against misunderstandings and misrepresentations * Addresses the real-world application of apologetics, including role models, good practice, and established wisdom * Features case studies of Christian apologists such as G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Tim Keller * Includes study questions, activities, further reading lists, full references, and links to video and audio resources developed by the author Designed to meet the needs of teachers looking for a clear and reliable introduction to the field, Christian Apologetics: An Introduction is an excellent textbook for undergraduate and graduate apologetics courses in colleges and seminaries, as well as church courses and study groups across Christian denominations.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
How to Use this Book: To the Reader
How to Use this Book: To the Teacher
1 Introducing Apologetics
The Core Elements of Apologetics
Five Types of Apologetics
Why Apologetics Matters – and How it Can go Wrong
Christianity as a “Big Picture”
How Does Apologetics Relate to Evangelism?
How Does Apologetics Relate to Theology?
For Further Reading
2 Apologetics
Early Christianity
Apologetics in the Early Islamic World
The Middle Ages
The “Age of Reason”
The Twentieth Century
Conclusion
Study Questions
For Further Reading
3 The Rationality of Faith
Setting the Context: Apologetics in a Post‐rationalist Age
Faith as Justified Belief
Faith, Evidence, and Uncertainty: From Clifford to Dawkins
Arguments for the Existence of God: Three Approaches
What is the Point of Arguments for the Existence of God?
Connecting up the Clues: C. S. Lewis and the Argument from Desire
Inference to the Best Explanation: Richard Swinburne
The Use of Rational Arguments: A Theological Concern
The Demand for Proof: The Problem with the “New Atheism”
Conclusion
Study Questions
For Further Reading
4 Connecting the Christian Faith with the Human Situation
Why Facts aren’t Enough: Apologetics and the Human Situation
Communicating Christian Complexity: Isaac Newton and Mary Midgley
Apologetic Aspects of Salvation
Apologetic Aspects of the Incarnation
Christianity and the Human Quest for Meaning
Study Questions
For Further Reading
5 Exploring Points of Contact for the Christian Faith
The Concept of a “Point of Contact”
Six “Points of Contact”: Reflection and Application
Plato’s Cave: A Neutral Framework for Framing “Points of Contact”
Study Questions
For Further Reading
6 Narrative Apologetics
The Rediscovery of Narrative Apologetics
Christianity as a Grand Narrative?
Narratives and Apologetics: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien
Apologetics as Telling a Better Story
The Apologetic Application of Biblical Narratives
The Apologetic Application of Narratives: Some Examples
Study Questions
For Further Reading
7 The Importance of the Audience
Greeks and Jews: The New Testament and the Importance of the Audience
Apologetics as an Art: The Balcony and the Road
Understanding the Audience: Thoughts from C. S. Lewis
Seekers and Dwellers: A New Context for Apologetics
Apologetics and Audiences: Three Case Studies
Theological Translation: Explaining Christianity to Secular Audiences
Study Questions
For Further Reading
8 Responding to Questions
God as Wish‐fulfilment? Freud’s Critique of Faith
Is Religion the Cause of Violence?
The Problem of Suffering
Enlightenment Rationalism: Reason has Displaced God
Belief and Proof: The Question of Certainty in Faith
The Trinity: An Irrational View of God?
Scientism: Only Science Can Answer Life’s Big Questions
Science and Religious Faith are Incompatible
The Question of Miracles
Reductionism: Human Beings are Nothing but Atoms
Study Questions
For Further Reading
9 Learning from the Wise
George Herbert: Apologetics through Poetry
G. K. Chesterton: Christianity as a Hypothesis
Dorothy L. Sayers: Apologetics and Detective Novels
Francis Schaeffer: Worldview Apologetics
Charles Taylor: Apologetics in a Secular Age
Conclusion: Moving On
Study Questions
For Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Sources of Citations
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 The journalist and apologist G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) as depi...
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 The remains of the ancient city of Alexandria, an important cente...
Figure 2.2 The Byzantine mosaic of
Christos Pantocrator
in the south dome of...
Figure 2.3 Anselm of Canterbury (left), depicted on the altar of Münsterschw...
Figure 2.4 Engraving by Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) showing the Jesuit mi...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 The British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and celebrity ...
Figure 3.2 The front cover of the 1559 edition of John Calvin’s
Institutes o
...
Figure 3.3 The English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882), author of
The
...
Figure 3.4 Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), fresco by Andrea di Buonaiuto, Spanis...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 The early Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo (354–430) in co...
Figure 4.2 Isaac Newton breaking down a beam of white light into its constit...
Figure 4.3 The philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), one ...
Figure 4.4 The novelist Marilyn Robinson pictured with President Obama in th...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The US philosopher Alvin Plantinga speaking at Notre Dame Univers...
Figure 5.2 The British theoretical physicist and theologian John Polkinghorn...
Figure 5.3 Monument to the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) in his home...
Figure 5.4 Statue of the philosopher Plato by the Italian sculptor Piccarell...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), author of
The Hobbit
and
The Lord o
...
Figure 6.2 The Oxford literary scholar and apologist C. S. Lewis in 1919, th...
Figure 6.3 Francis C. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 The noted preacher and writer John R. W. Stott (1921–2011), Recto...
Figure 7.2 The Areopagus, one of the most important buildings in ancient Ath...
Figure 7.3 The Czech academic and churchman Tomáš Halík (born 1948) at a new...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the Austrian neurologist and founder o...
Figure 8.2 Statue of the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) on Edin...
Figure 8.3 Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), the British philosopher and Nobel P...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 The British novelist and lay theologian Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1...
Figure 9.2 The US apologist Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) at the L’Abri Conf...
Figure 9.3 The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor (born 1931) speaking at a...
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
How to Use this Book: To the Reader
How to Use this Book: To the Teacher
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
Sources of Citations
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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Christian Apologetics
An Introduction
Alister E. McGrath
Oxford University
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For my colleagues and students at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics
2004–2013
How to Use this Book: To the Reader
This book, based on my lectures at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics from 2004–2013, introduces apologetics – the field of Christian thought that focuses on how best to defend and explain the core themes of the Christian faith, and communicate these effectively and faithfully to the wider world. It assumes you, its reader, knows little about the subject, and aims to give you a good working knowledge of the field, and to encourage you to explore it further.
The Greek word apologia (which is traditionally translated as “defense”) means something like a reasoned case proving the innocence of an accused person in court, or showing that a belief stands up to critical examination. We find this term used in 1 Peter 3:15, which many see as a classic New Testament statement of the importance of apologetics.
In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (Greek: apologia) to everyone who asks you to give the reason (Greek: logos) for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
Yet from the earliest of times, Christian apologetics has been understood more broadly than a mere “defense” of the Christian faith. Many Christian writers thought of apologetics as the explanation, communication, and defense of the core themes of the Christian faith. While older works on apologetics sometimes depict apologetics in primarily argumentative ways, this work reflects the growing recognition that many earlier forms of Christian apologetics appealed to the human reason, imagination, and experience. It thus supplements the rational defense of faith by highlighting the positive appeal of Christianity to the imagination, emotions, and feelings. Francis Spufford’s Unapologetic (2013) is remarkable on account of its explicit appeal to the emotional rationality of the Christian faith. Spufford shows how emotions that are “deeply ordinary and deeply recognizable to anybody who has ever made their way across the common ground of human experience” lie at the heart of the Christian life, and are given new depth by its structures and practices. For Spufford, apologetics aims to help outsiders grasp what faith feels like from the inside. It’s about allowing people to step inside the Christian faith, and experience the quality of life, thought, and experience that it enables.
Apologetics is both a science and an art. It involves both a solid understanding of the theory of the apologetics, linked to a wise application of this theory in practice. This is reflected in this textbook’s consideration of the approaches of some leading practitioners in the field – such as Tim Keller – so that readers can both learn about them and learn from them, so that they can use them wisely. Although I have my own views on the nature and application of apologetics, this book is primarily concerned to help its readers understand, learn from, and use a range of apologetic approaches developed by leading figures in the field, past and present.
Every effort has been made to ensure that this book is accessible in its presentation, and reliable in its assessments. The book does not tell you what you should think, but rather explores the ideas of leading Christian apologists to help you develop your own thinking on this matter. I will tell you what I have found helpful, in the hope it will help you as well. If you are using this book for private study, you will find it best to read the material in the order in which it is presented. If you are using this book in conjunction with a taught course, you should follow the guidance of the course leader. Most chapters include two concluding sections entitled “Study Questions” (designed to help you check you have understood that chapter’s contents) and “For Further Reading,” which makes suggestions for works you might find helpful in taking your exploration of these themes further. While many significant studies of apologetic themes were written before 2000, there has been a significant change in momentum and direction of scholarship since then, so that most of the works referenced in these sections date from the twenty‐first century. I hope to develop some video and audio resources to supplement this, and these will be freely available through the publisher’s website.
Both the author and publisher will welcome feedback from readers of this work, which will help us develop future editions.
Alister E. McGrath
Oxford
How to Use this Book: To the Teacher
This book is based primarily on a series of introductory lectures I gave to student audiences when I was President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics from 2006 to 2013. The audiences for those original lectures were drawn from a wide variety of nationalities and denominations. These have been substantially rewritten in response to student feedback, and expanded in the light of later lectures I have given on these themes worldwide, particularly an extended course of lectures delivered at Regent College Vancouver in May 2021 (now available to you and your students on my YouTube channel).
The book aims to introduce core apologetic themes and approaches to your students in an accessible and reliable way, allowing you – the course leader or instructor – to supplement these with your own material wherever you feel this is appropriate, or to offer additional viewpoints or perspectives to enrich and expand those that are presented in this work. Apologetics is taught and practiced in a variety of denominational contexts and in the light of a range of informing theological assumptions. In writing this book, I have tried to avoid privileging my own context and assumptions, so that its material can be adapted for a range of Christian denominations and theological perspectives. Like C. S. Lewis before me, I have tried to work within a broad consensual Christian orthodox theological framework, which you can easily adapt and expand for use in Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, evangelical, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Reformed teaching contexts. Specific denominational emphases, exemplars and concerns can easily be grafted onto this generous and vigorous framework.
This textbook encourages you, the teacher, to weave in your own assessments, judgements, and add further material you feel is helpful or appropriate. It is intellectually permissive and pedagogically hospitable, in that it allows you to add additional material of your choice and adapt it to your own teaching context without in any way compromising its approach. This textbook lays the foundations of a course on apologetics, while encouraging you to build on those foundations in ways you find helpful and appropriate. The book provides you with a scaffolding that has been tried and tested over a period of two decades, to which you can add your own material. You can easily draw on additional writers or preachers who you think connect well with a specific audience to the chapter dealing with “The Importance of the Audience,” engage some additional or alternative questions in the chapter on “Responding to Questions,” or expand the list of individuals I discuss in Chapter 9 entitled “Learning from the Wise.” You can enrich my examples or quotations with ones that you think are more appropriate, or would work particularly well for your students.
The book does not endorse any particular school of apologetics, although it references some of these (particularly presuppositionalism), as well as influential individual writers. The work makes frequent reference to C. S. Lewis, who has emerged as one of the most widely respected and quoted figures within the field at both the popular and academic levels in the past 25 years. Many students now see Lewis as an inspiration for, and a gateway to, the study of apologetics, and this book builds on his accessibility and reputation without limiting its scope or focus. The book is designed to allow you to build your own approach on the foundation laid in this work, enriching it from your own experience and wisdom.
Although I have my own ideas about apologetics, they are not promoted in this work, which rather aims to set out the ideas and approaches of a wide range of representative apologists, to which you are encouraged to add others that you think may be appropriate and helpful. I have tried to introduce and explain these approaches so that readers of this work can decide how to develop their own. You can help with this process of interaction and critical assessment – for example, by weaving into your teaching your own insights, observations, and judgements. You are welcome to add yourself to the group of writers I engage with, which will both extend the range of the book, and help personalize it for the needs of your students.
Finally, I need to emphasize that apologetics is both a science and an art. This book provides some useful resources for learning about the theory of apologetics, and introduces a generous range of theorists and practitioners to help students develop their understanding of the foundations of apologetics. What this book cannot do is help students develop the practice of apologetics, so that they can master apologetics as an art. This is where you, the teacher or instructor, have a critically important role to play in helping your students develop good apologetic practice.
For example, one of the tasks I set my students at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics around 2010 was to give a 10‐minute talk on a specific apologetic question aimed at a specific audience (such as students). Most students found this helpful in developing their speaking skills and working out how to deal with a complex issue. You will be able to help your students develop the practice of apologetics by setting them practical exercises that will help them move from theory to practice – something that this textbook is sadly not able to do, precisely because mentoring is such an important aspect of the art of apologetics.
Yet despite its limitations, I hope you will find this book a helpful resource in your teaching, and that you will feel able to provide both me and the publisher with any feedback that may be helpful in preparing future editions. While you will want to develop your own teaching resources, the publisher and I intend to produce some accompanying video and audio material that you may find helpful. This will be uploaded to the publisher’s website so that you can download it for your own use, free of charge.
Alister E. McGrath
Oxford
