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Christian apologetics
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Christian apologetics (Greek: ἀπολογία, "verbal defence, speech in defence")[1] is a field of Christian theology which present reasoned bases for the Christian faith, defending the faith against objections.
Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism. Blaise Pascal was active before and during the Age of Enlightenment, and in the modern period Christianity was defended through the efforts of many authors such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. In contemporary times Christianity has been defended through the work of figures such as Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, Doug Wilson, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Henry M. Morris, Alister McGrath, Ken Ham, Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig.
Apologetics have based their defense of Christianity on historical evidence, philosophical arguments, and arguments from other disciplines. Christian polemics is a branch of apologetics advocating for the correctness of the Christian belief system, while discrediting a contradictory belief system.[2][3]
Contents [hide]
1 Terminology and origin 1.1 Christian polemics
2 Biblical basis
3 History 3.1 Modern apologetics
4 Varieties 4.1 Historical and legal evidentialism
4.2 Defense of miracles
4.3 Prophetic fulfillment
4.4 Biblical apologetics
4.5 Philosophical apologetics 4.5.1 Presuppositional apologetics
4.6 Moral apologetics
4.7 Scientific apologetics
4.8 Creationist apologetics
4.9 Experiential apologetics
5 Colleges and universities offering Christian apologetics programs
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Terminology and origin[edit]
The Greek apologia (ἀπολογία, from ἀπολογέομαι, apologeomai, "speak in return, defend oneself") was a formal defense, either in response to prosecution in a court of law or by extension as a literary mode. The defense of Socrates as presented by Plato and Xenophon was an apologia against charges of "corrupting the young, and … not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel".[4]
The use of the literary form in early Christian discourse is an example of the integration of educated Christians into the cultural life of the Roman Empire, particularly during the "little peace" of the 3rd century,[5] and of their participation in the Greek intellectual movement broadly known as the Second Sophistic.[6] The Christian apologists of the early Church did not reject Greek philosophy, but attempted to show the positive value of Christianity in dynamic relation to the Greek rationalist tradition.[7] Christianity, however, privileged divine revelation above human reason and apologetic literature often maintains a tension between the two.[8]
In the 2nd century, apologetics was both a defense and an explanation of Christianity,[9] addressed to those who had attacked it, but also to those yet to form an opinion, such as emperors and other authority figures, or potential converts.[10] The earliest martyr narrative has the spokesman for the persecuted present a defense in the apologetic mode: Christianity was a rational religion that worshipped only God as "the supreme ruler of the cosmos", and although Christians were law-abiding citizens willing to honor the emperor, their belief in a single divinity prevented them from taking the loyalty oaths that acknowledged the emperor's Genius or divine aspect.[11]
The apologetic historiography in the Acts of the Apostles presented Christianity as a religious movement at home within the Roman Empire and no threat to it, and was a model for the first major historian of the Church, Eusebius.[12] Apologetics might also be directed toward insiders, helping Christians already within the community explain their beliefs and justify their position.[10] Origen's apologetic Contra Celsum, for instance, took on the arguments of a critic who had been dead for decades, but was intended to address vacillating Christians who might lack immediate answers to the kinds of questions he had raised. Apologetic literature was thus an important medium for the formation of early Christian identity.[13]
In addition to Origen and Tertullian, early Christian apologists include Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus.[14] Augustine of Hippo was a significant apologist of the Patristic era.[15] Some scholars regard apologetics as a distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies of argumentation. Others view it primarily as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and purpose.[16]
Christian polemics[edit]
In its strictest sense, an apologia is a defense against a prior attack, whether actual or merely perceived: Christian apologetics would arise from anti-Christian polemic. Christian polemic is an attack against other belief systems, and not framed as a direct rebuttal of criticism. In a mode similar to polemic are treatises that attack or argue against Christian beliefs regarded as heretical.[17] In practice, apologetics may veer into polemic.[18] Tertullian, called a "master of the apologetic genre", was nevertheless inclined toward counter-attack, minimizing common ground between Romans and Christians.[19]
In the forced Disputation of Barcelona (1263) at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon, the Dominican friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, failed to prove the truth of Christianity from the Torah, Talmud and other rabbinical writings. His adversary was the leading medieval Jewish scholar, physician, philosopher, kabbalist and biblical commentator, Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi (Nachmanides or Ramban). Nachmanides hinted that the prophecies of the Messianic Age, universal peace and justice, had not yet been fulfilled by Jesus. He also argued that Pablo Christiani's polemics were per-se false apologetics, because Judaism would not allude that man-God Jesus was Messiah while, at the same time, explicitly opposing the idea of the divinity of the Messiah as such:
"Does he mean to say that the sages of the Talmud believed in Jesus as the messiah and believed that he is both human and divine, as held by the Christians? However, it is well known that the incident of Jesus took place during the period of the Second Temple. He was born and killed prior to the destruction of the Temple, while the sages of the Talmud, like R. Akiba and his associates, followed this destruction. Those who compiled the Mishnah, Rabbi and R. Nathan, lived many years after the destruction. All the more so R. Ashi who compiled the Talmud, who lived about four hundred years after the destruction. If these sages believed that Jesus was the messiah and that his faith and religion were true and if they wrote these things from which Friar Paul intends to prove this, then how did they remain in the Jewish faith and in their former practice? For they were Jews, remained in the Jewish faith all their lives, and died Jews—they and their children and their students who heard their teachings. Why did they not convert and turn to the faith of Jesus, as Friar Paul did? ... If these sages believed in Jesus and in his faith, how is it that they did not do as Friar Paul, who understands their teachings better than they themselves do?"[20]
Today this kind of Christian polemics against the Jews has its reverberation in the light of organized evangelical conversion of Jews to Christianity,[21] and Jewish counter-missionary initiatives.[22][23]
Biblical basis[edit]
Several biblical passages have historically motivated Christian apologetics. R. C. Sproul, quoting the First Epistle of Peter ([1 Pet3:15]), writes that "The defense of the faith is not a luxury or intellectual vanity. It is a task appointed by God that you should be able to give a reason for the hope that is in you as you bear witness before the world."[24] The verse quoted here reads in full: "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."
Another passage sometimes used as a Biblical basis for Christian apologetics is God's entreaty in the Book of Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together."[Is 1:18][25] Other scriptural passages which have been taken as a basis for Christian apologetics include Psalm 19, which begins "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,"[Ps 19:1] and Romans 1, which reads "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."[Rom 1:20][26]
Some scholars regard apologetics as a distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies of argumentation. Others view it primarily as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and purpose.[16]
History[edit]
Thomas Aquinas, an influential Catholic philosopher, presented five ways, or arguments for God's existence, in the Summa Theologica, while his Summa contra Gentiles was a major apologetic work.[27][28] Blaise Pascal outlined an approach to apologetics in his Pensées: "Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true."[29][30]
Modern apologetics[edit]
Christian apologetics continues in modern times in a wide variety of forms. The Roman Catholics Fr. Robert Barron, G. K. Chesterton,[31] Ronald Knox, Karl Keating, Peter Kreeft, and Dr. Scott Hahn, the Anglican C. S. Lewis (who popularized the argument now known as Lewis's trilemma).[32] The evangelical Norman Geisler, the Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery, and the Presbyterian Francis Schaeffer were among the most prolific Christian apologists in the 20th century, while Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til started a new school of philosophical apologetics called presuppositionalism, which is popular in Calvinist circles.
Others include Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Hugh Ross, Lee Strobel, Hugo Anthony Meynell, Timothy J. Keller, R. C. Sproul, Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, Francis Collins, Vishal Mangalwadi, Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans, Darrell Bock, Gary Habermas, Dr. James White (theologian), and John Lennox.
Varieties[edit]
There are a variety of Christian apologetic styles and schools of thought. The major types of Christian apologetics include: historical and legal evidentialist apologetics, presuppositional apologetics, philosophical apologetics, prophetic apologetics, doctrinal apologetics, biblical apologetics, moral apologetics, and scientific apologetics.
Historical and legal evidentialism[edit]
Various arguments have been put forth by legal scholars such as Simon Greenleaf and John Warwick Montgomery and others claiming that Western legal standards argue for the historicity of the resurrection of Christ.[33][34] In addition, legal authorities' opinions regarding the resurrection of Christ are appealed to.[35] Christian scholar Edwin M. Yamauchi and others argue against the pagan myth hypothesis for the origin of Christianity.[36][37]
Sherwin-White states:
For Acts, the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming. Yet Acts is, in simple terms and judged externally, no less of a propaganda narrative than the Gospels, liable to similar distortions. But any attempt to reject its basic historicity, even in matters of detail, must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.... The agnostic type of form-criticism would be much more credible if the compilation of the Gospels were much later in time.... Herodotus enables us to test the tempo of myth-making, [showing that] even two generations are too short a span to allow the mythical tendency to prevail over the hard historic core.[38]
Defense of miracles[edit]
See also: Miracles of Jesus
C. S. Lewis,[39] Norman Geisler,[40] William Lane Craig and Christians who engage in jurisprudence Christian apologetics have argued that miracles are reasonable and plausible wherever an all-powerful Creator is postulated.[41][42][43]
Prophetic fulfillment[edit]
See also: Postdiction
In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner argues that only God knows the future and that Biblical prophecies of a compelling nature have been fulfilled.[44] Apologist Josh McDowell documents the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Christ, relating to his ancestral line, birthplace, virgin birth, miracles, death and resurrection.[45] Apologist Blaise Pascal believed that the prophecies are the strongest evidence for Christianity. He notes that Jesus not only foretold, but was foretold, unlike in other religions, and that these prophecies came from a succession of people over a span of four thousand years.[46]
Biblical apologetics[edit]
Biblical apologetics include issues concerned with the authorship and date of biblical books, biblical canon and biblical inerrancy. Christian apologists defend and comment on various books of the Bible. Some scholars who have engaged in the defense of biblical inerrancy include Robert Dick Wilson, Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler and R. C. Sproul. There are several resources that Christians offer defending inerrancy in regard to specific verses.[citation needed] Authors defending the reliability of the Gospels include Craig Blomberg in The Historical Reliability of the Gospels,[47] Mark D. Roberts in Can We Trust the Gospels?[48] Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans and Darrell Bock.
Philosophical apologetics[edit]
Philosophical apologetics concerns itself primarily with arguments for the existence of God, although they do not exclusively focus on this area. They do not argue for the veracity of Christianity over other religions but merely for the existence of a Creator deity. Omnipotence and omniscience are inferred in these arguments to greater or lesser degrees: some argue for an interventionist god, some are equally relevant to a Deist conception of god.
They do not support hard polytheism, but could be used to describe the first god who created many other gods; however, the arguments are only relevant when applied to the first god (the First Cause, Pure Act and Unmoved Mover; it is a contradiction a priori to suppose a plurality of "Pure Acts" or "First Causes" or "Unmoved Movers").
These arguments can be grouped into several categories:
1.Cosmological argument – Argues that the existence of the universe demonstrates that God exists. Various primary arguments from cosmology and the nature of causation are often offered to support the cosmological argument.[49][50][51]
2.Teleological argument – Argues that there is a purposeful design in the world around us, and a design requires a designer. Cicero, William Paley, and Michael Behe use this argument as well as others.[52]
3.Ontological argument – Argues that the very concept of God demands that there is an actual existent God.
4.Moral Argument – Argues that there are objectively valid moral values, and therefore, there must be an absolute from which they are derived.[53]
5.Transcendental Argument – Argues that all our abilities to think and reason require the existence of God.
6.Presuppositional Arguments – Argues that the basic beliefs of theists and nontheists require God as a necessary precondition.
Other philosophical arguments include:
Alvin Plantinga's argument that belief in God is properly basic.[54]
Pascal's wager,[55] an argument that, given neither theism nor atheism has an evidential advantage, theism is the wiser position.
Presuppositional apologetics[edit]
Main article: Presuppositional apologetics
Presuppositional apologetics claims that presuppositions are essential to any philosophical position, and that there are no "neutral" assumptions from which a Christian can reason with a non-Christian.[56] There are two main schools of presuppositional apologetics, that of Cornelius Van Til (and his students Greg Bahnsen and John Frame) and that of Gordon Haddon Clark.
Van Til drew upon, but did not always agree with, the work of Dutch Calvinist philosophers and theologians such as D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, Herman Dooyeweerd, Hendrik G. Stoker, Herman Bavinck, and Abraham Kuyper. Bahnsen describes Van Til's approach to Christian apologetics as pointing out the difference in ultimate principles between Christians and non-Christians, and then showing that the non-Christian principles reduce to absurdity.[57] In practice this school utilizes what has come to be known as the transcendental argument for the existence of God.
Clark held that the Scriptures constituted the axioms of Christian thought, which could not be questioned, though their consistency could be discussed.[56] A consequence of this position is that God's existence can never be demonstrated, either by empirical means or by philosophical argument. In The Justification of Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not even attempt such proofs.
Moral apologetics[edit]
See also: The Bible and violence, Inquisition, Divine command and Biblical law in Christianity
Moral apologetics states that real moral obligation is a fact. Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft said, "We are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil."[58] In moral apologetics, the arguments for man's sinfulness and man's need for redemption are stressed. Examples of this type of apologetic would be Jonathan Edwards's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."[59] The Four Spiritual Laws religious tract (Campus Crusade for Christ) would be another example.[60]
Scientific apologetics[edit]
Many Christians contend that science and the Bible do not contradict each other, and that scientific fact supports Christian apologetics.[61][62] The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge... These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator."[63] The theologian and mathematician Marin Mersenne, used celestial mechanics as evidence in his apologetic work,[64] while Matteo Ricci engaged in scientific apologetics in China.[65] In modern times, the theory of the Big Bang has been used in support of Christian apologetics.[66][67]
Several Christian apologists have sought to reconcile Christianity and science in regard to the question of origins. Theistic Evolution claims that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution and that the Creator God uses the process of evolution. Denis Lamoureux, in Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution states that "This view of origins fully embraces both the religious beliefs of biblical Christianity and the scientific theories of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution. It contends that the Creator established and maintains the laws of nature, including the mechanisms of a teleological evolution."[68] The most radical example of a Christian-evolutionary synthesis is the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which was intended as apologetics to the world of science,[69] but which was later condemned by the Catholic Church.
Creationist apologetics[edit]
Main article: Creationism
Creation apologetics include young earth creationism, old earth creationism, and theistic evolution. Young Earth creationists believe the Bible teaches that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old, and reject the scientific consensus for the age of the Earth. Young Earth creationists also engage in Biblical apologetics with regard to various parts of the primordial history in Genesis 1–11 – such as the long life spans of people such as Methuselah.[70][71] the Flood,[72][73] and the Tower of Babel[74][75][76] Old Earth creationists believe it is possible to harmonize the Bible's six-day account of creation with the scientific evidence that the universe is 13.8 billion-years-old[77] and Earth is 4.54 billion-years-old.[78]
Other old Earth creationists, such as astrophysicist Hugh Ross, see each of the six days of creation as being a long, but finite period of time, based on the multiple meanings of the Hebrew word yom (day light hours/24 hours/age of time) and other Biblical creation passages.[79][80]
Experiential apologetics[edit]
Experiential apologetics is a reference to an appeal "primarily, if not exclusively, to experience as evidence for Christian faith."[81] Also, "they spurn rational arguments or factual evidence in favor of what they believe to be a self-verifying experience." This view stresses experience that other apologists have not made as explicit, and in the end the concept that the Holy Spirit convinces the heart of truth becomes the central theme of the apologetic argument.[82]
Colleges and universities offering Christian apologetics programs[edit]
School
Location
Program
Comments
Degrees awarded
Ref.
Biola University Southern California, USA Christian Apologetics M.A. [83]
Central India Theological Seminary Itarsi, India Christian Apologetics M.Th. [84]
[85]
Denver Seminary Colorado, USA Apologetics and Ethics M.A., M.Div. with Emphasis [86][87]
Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics Oxford, England Christian Apologetics M.Th., Doctoral Fellowships [88]
[89]
Westminster Theological Seminary Philadelphia, USA &
London, England
Apologetics M.Th. at London Campus, Doctoral, Masters, Certificate Programs at Philadelphia Campus [90]
South African Theology Seminary Johannesburg, South Africa Apologetics MTh [91]
See also[edit]
Christian countercult movement
Christian existential apologetics
Christian philosophy
Christian polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages
Evangelism
List of Christian apologetic works
Reformed epistemology
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "ἀπολογία". Blue Letter Bible-Lexicon. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
2.Jump up ^ Kahlos, Maijastina (2007). Debate and Dialogue : Christian and Pagan Cultures c. 360-430. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 7–9. ISBN 0-7546-5713-2.
3.Jump up ^ Ernestine, van der Wall (2004). "Ways of Polemicizing: The Power of Tradition in Christian Polemics". In T L Hettema and A van der Kooij. Religious Polemics in Context. Assen: Royal Van Gorcum. ISBN 90-232-4133-9.
4.Jump up ^ Plato, Apology 24b; compared to Christian apologetics by Anders-Christian Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies—Some Definitions," in Continuity and Discontinuity in Early Christian Apologetics (Peter Lang, 2009), p. 14.
5.Jump up ^ Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Getty Publications, 2003) p. 378.
6.Jump up ^ Graham Anderson, The Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire (Routledge, 1993, 2003), p. 203.
7.Jump up ^ Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, p. 6.
8.Jump up ^ Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, Simon Price and Christopher Rowland, introduction to Apologetics in the Roman Empire : Pagans, Jews, and Christians (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2002), pp. 10–11.
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65.Jump up ^ Jean Lacouture (tr. Jeremy Leggatt), Jesuits: A Multibiography, Counterpoint Press, 1997, ISBN 1-887178-60-0, p. 189.
66.Jump up ^ Louis Markos, Apologetics for the Twenty-First Century, Crossway, 2010, ISBN 1-4335-1448-6, p. 134.
67.Jump up ^ James Stroud, Mere Christian Apologetics, Xulon Press, 2011, ISBN 1-61379-449-5,p. 19.
68.Jump up ^ Evolutionary creation, Denis Lamoureux
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70.Jump up ^ Living for 900 years – Creation Magazine
71.Jump up ^ CH311: Vapor canopy's effect on lifespan
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73.Jump up ^ Get Answers: Noah's Flood
74.Jump up ^ Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel? – ChristianAnswers.Net
75.Jump up ^ CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES – Is there any reference in early Mesopotamian literature to what happened at the Tower of Babel?
76.Jump up ^ The Tower of Babel—Legend or History?
77.Jump up ^ "Cosmic Detectives". The European Space Agency (ESA). 2 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
78.Jump up ^ "The age of the Earth in the twentieth century: a problem (mostly) solved". The Geological Society of London 2001. 2001. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
79.Jump up ^ Ross, Hugh; Endara, Miguel (31 December 1990). "Response to Genesis and the Big Bang by Gerald Schroeder". Reasons To Believe.
80.Jump up ^ Russell, Ryan. "Day 1 (Genesis 1:1-5)". Genesis: verse-by-verse Bible Study. Christian Knowledge. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
81.Jump up ^ Geisler, Normal L. (1999). "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics". Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
82.Jump up ^ Lewis, Gordon R. (1990). "Testing Christianity's Truth Claims: Approaches to Christian Apologetics". Lanham, MD: University Press of America Inc.
83.Jump up ^ "Biola University". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
84.Jump up ^ "Central India Theological Seminary". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
85.Jump up ^ "MTh Programs at CITS". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
86.Jump up ^ "Denver Seminary Program Information". Retrieved 21 September 2014.
87.Jump up ^ September 2014 "Denver Seminary Program Information".
88.Jump up ^ "THEOCCA". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
89.Jump up ^ "RZIM". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
90.Jump up ^ "Westminster Theological Seminary". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
91.Jump up ^ "My SATS". Retrieved 25 July 2014.
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Christian apologetics
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Christian apologetics (Greek: ἀπολογία, "verbal defence, speech in defence")[1] is a field of Christian theology which present reasoned bases for the Christian faith, defending the faith against objections.
Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism. Blaise Pascal was active before and during the Age of Enlightenment, and in the modern period Christianity was defended through the efforts of many authors such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. In contemporary times Christianity has been defended through the work of figures such as Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, Doug Wilson, Lee Strobel, Francis Collins, Henry M. Morris, Alister McGrath, Ken Ham, Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig.
Apologetics have based their defense of Christianity on historical evidence, philosophical arguments, and arguments from other disciplines. Christian polemics is a branch of apologetics advocating for the correctness of the Christian belief system, while discrediting a contradictory belief system.[2][3]
Contents [hide]
1 Terminology and origin 1.1 Christian polemics
2 Biblical basis
3 History 3.1 Modern apologetics
4 Varieties 4.1 Historical and legal evidentialism
4.2 Defense of miracles
4.3 Prophetic fulfillment
4.4 Biblical apologetics
4.5 Philosophical apologetics 4.5.1 Presuppositional apologetics
4.6 Moral apologetics
4.7 Scientific apologetics
4.8 Creationist apologetics
4.9 Experiential apologetics
5 Colleges and universities offering Christian apologetics programs
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Terminology and origin[edit]
The Greek apologia (ἀπολογία, from ἀπολογέομαι, apologeomai, "speak in return, defend oneself") was a formal defense, either in response to prosecution in a court of law or by extension as a literary mode. The defense of Socrates as presented by Plato and Xenophon was an apologia against charges of "corrupting the young, and … not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel".[4]
The use of the literary form in early Christian discourse is an example of the integration of educated Christians into the cultural life of the Roman Empire, particularly during the "little peace" of the 3rd century,[5] and of their participation in the Greek intellectual movement broadly known as the Second Sophistic.[6] The Christian apologists of the early Church did not reject Greek philosophy, but attempted to show the positive value of Christianity in dynamic relation to the Greek rationalist tradition.[7] Christianity, however, privileged divine revelation above human reason and apologetic literature often maintains a tension between the two.[8]
In the 2nd century, apologetics was both a defense and an explanation of Christianity,[9] addressed to those who had attacked it, but also to those yet to form an opinion, such as emperors and other authority figures, or potential converts.[10] The earliest martyr narrative has the spokesman for the persecuted present a defense in the apologetic mode: Christianity was a rational religion that worshipped only God as "the supreme ruler of the cosmos", and although Christians were law-abiding citizens willing to honor the emperor, their belief in a single divinity prevented them from taking the loyalty oaths that acknowledged the emperor's Genius or divine aspect.[11]
The apologetic historiography in the Acts of the Apostles presented Christianity as a religious movement at home within the Roman Empire and no threat to it, and was a model for the first major historian of the Church, Eusebius.[12] Apologetics might also be directed toward insiders, helping Christians already within the community explain their beliefs and justify their position.[10] Origen's apologetic Contra Celsum, for instance, took on the arguments of a critic who had been dead for decades, but was intended to address vacillating Christians who might lack immediate answers to the kinds of questions he had raised. Apologetic literature was thus an important medium for the formation of early Christian identity.[13]
In addition to Origen and Tertullian, early Christian apologists include Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus.[14] Augustine of Hippo was a significant apologist of the Patristic era.[15] Some scholars regard apologetics as a distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies of argumentation. Others view it primarily as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and purpose.[16]
Christian polemics[edit]
In its strictest sense, an apologia is a defense against a prior attack, whether actual or merely perceived: Christian apologetics would arise from anti-Christian polemic. Christian polemic is an attack against other belief systems, and not framed as a direct rebuttal of criticism. In a mode similar to polemic are treatises that attack or argue against Christian beliefs regarded as heretical.[17] In practice, apologetics may veer into polemic.[18] Tertullian, called a "master of the apologetic genre", was nevertheless inclined toward counter-attack, minimizing common ground between Romans and Christians.[19]
In the forced Disputation of Barcelona (1263) at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon, the Dominican friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, failed to prove the truth of Christianity from the Torah, Talmud and other rabbinical writings. His adversary was the leading medieval Jewish scholar, physician, philosopher, kabbalist and biblical commentator, Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi (Nachmanides or Ramban). Nachmanides hinted that the prophecies of the Messianic Age, universal peace and justice, had not yet been fulfilled by Jesus. He also argued that Pablo Christiani's polemics were per-se false apologetics, because Judaism would not allude that man-God Jesus was Messiah while, at the same time, explicitly opposing the idea of the divinity of the Messiah as such:
"Does he mean to say that the sages of the Talmud believed in Jesus as the messiah and believed that he is both human and divine, as held by the Christians? However, it is well known that the incident of Jesus took place during the period of the Second Temple. He was born and killed prior to the destruction of the Temple, while the sages of the Talmud, like R. Akiba and his associates, followed this destruction. Those who compiled the Mishnah, Rabbi and R. Nathan, lived many years after the destruction. All the more so R. Ashi who compiled the Talmud, who lived about four hundred years after the destruction. If these sages believed that Jesus was the messiah and that his faith and religion were true and if they wrote these things from which Friar Paul intends to prove this, then how did they remain in the Jewish faith and in their former practice? For they were Jews, remained in the Jewish faith all their lives, and died Jews—they and their children and their students who heard their teachings. Why did they not convert and turn to the faith of Jesus, as Friar Paul did? ... If these sages believed in Jesus and in his faith, how is it that they did not do as Friar Paul, who understands their teachings better than they themselves do?"[20]
Today this kind of Christian polemics against the Jews has its reverberation in the light of organized evangelical conversion of Jews to Christianity,[21] and Jewish counter-missionary initiatives.[22][23]
Biblical basis[edit]
Several biblical passages have historically motivated Christian apologetics. R. C. Sproul, quoting the First Epistle of Peter ([1 Pet3:15]), writes that "The defense of the faith is not a luxury or intellectual vanity. It is a task appointed by God that you should be able to give a reason for the hope that is in you as you bear witness before the world."[24] The verse quoted here reads in full: "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."
Another passage sometimes used as a Biblical basis for Christian apologetics is God's entreaty in the Book of Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together."[Is 1:18][25] Other scriptural passages which have been taken as a basis for Christian apologetics include Psalm 19, which begins "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,"[Ps 19:1] and Romans 1, which reads "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."[Rom 1:20][26]
Some scholars regard apologetics as a distinct literary genre exhibiting commonalities of style and form, content, and strategies of argumentation. Others view it primarily as a form of discourse characterized by its tone and purpose.[16]
History[edit]
Thomas Aquinas, an influential Catholic philosopher, presented five ways, or arguments for God's existence, in the Summa Theologica, while his Summa contra Gentiles was a major apologetic work.[27][28] Blaise Pascal outlined an approach to apologetics in his Pensées: "Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true."[29][30]
Modern apologetics[edit]
Christian apologetics continues in modern times in a wide variety of forms. The Roman Catholics Fr. Robert Barron, G. K. Chesterton,[31] Ronald Knox, Karl Keating, Peter Kreeft, and Dr. Scott Hahn, the Anglican C. S. Lewis (who popularized the argument now known as Lewis's trilemma).[32] The evangelical Norman Geisler, the Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery, and the Presbyterian Francis Schaeffer were among the most prolific Christian apologists in the 20th century, while Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til started a new school of philosophical apologetics called presuppositionalism, which is popular in Calvinist circles.
Others include Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Hugh Ross, Lee Strobel, Hugo Anthony Meynell, Timothy J. Keller, R. C. Sproul, Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, Francis Collins, Vishal Mangalwadi, Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans, Darrell Bock, Gary Habermas, Dr. James White (theologian), and John Lennox.
Varieties[edit]
There are a variety of Christian apologetic styles and schools of thought. The major types of Christian apologetics include: historical and legal evidentialist apologetics, presuppositional apologetics, philosophical apologetics, prophetic apologetics, doctrinal apologetics, biblical apologetics, moral apologetics, and scientific apologetics.
Historical and legal evidentialism[edit]
Various arguments have been put forth by legal scholars such as Simon Greenleaf and John Warwick Montgomery and others claiming that Western legal standards argue for the historicity of the resurrection of Christ.[33][34] In addition, legal authorities' opinions regarding the resurrection of Christ are appealed to.[35] Christian scholar Edwin M. Yamauchi and others argue against the pagan myth hypothesis for the origin of Christianity.[36][37]
Sherwin-White states:
For Acts, the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming. Yet Acts is, in simple terms and judged externally, no less of a propaganda narrative than the Gospels, liable to similar distortions. But any attempt to reject its basic historicity, even in matters of detail, must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted.... The agnostic type of form-criticism would be much more credible if the compilation of the Gospels were much later in time.... Herodotus enables us to test the tempo of myth-making, [showing that] even two generations are too short a span to allow the mythical tendency to prevail over the hard historic core.[38]
Defense of miracles[edit]
See also: Miracles of Jesus
C. S. Lewis,[39] Norman Geisler,[40] William Lane Craig and Christians who engage in jurisprudence Christian apologetics have argued that miracles are reasonable and plausible wherever an all-powerful Creator is postulated.[41][42][43]
Prophetic fulfillment[edit]
See also: Postdiction
In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner argues that only God knows the future and that Biblical prophecies of a compelling nature have been fulfilled.[44] Apologist Josh McDowell documents the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Christ, relating to his ancestral line, birthplace, virgin birth, miracles, death and resurrection.[45] Apologist Blaise Pascal believed that the prophecies are the strongest evidence for Christianity. He notes that Jesus not only foretold, but was foretold, unlike in other religions, and that these prophecies came from a succession of people over a span of four thousand years.[46]
Biblical apologetics[edit]
Biblical apologetics include issues concerned with the authorship and date of biblical books, biblical canon and biblical inerrancy. Christian apologists defend and comment on various books of the Bible. Some scholars who have engaged in the defense of biblical inerrancy include Robert Dick Wilson, Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler and R. C. Sproul. There are several resources that Christians offer defending inerrancy in regard to specific verses.[citation needed] Authors defending the reliability of the Gospels include Craig Blomberg in The Historical Reliability of the Gospels,[47] Mark D. Roberts in Can We Trust the Gospels?[48] Richard Bauckham, Craig Evans and Darrell Bock.
Philosophical apologetics[edit]
Philosophical apologetics concerns itself primarily with arguments for the existence of God, although they do not exclusively focus on this area. They do not argue for the veracity of Christianity over other religions but merely for the existence of a Creator deity. Omnipotence and omniscience are inferred in these arguments to greater or lesser degrees: some argue for an interventionist god, some are equally relevant to a Deist conception of god.
They do not support hard polytheism, but could be used to describe the first god who created many other gods; however, the arguments are only relevant when applied to the first god (the First Cause, Pure Act and Unmoved Mover; it is a contradiction a priori to suppose a plurality of "Pure Acts" or "First Causes" or "Unmoved Movers").
These arguments can be grouped into several categories:
1.Cosmological argument – Argues that the existence of the universe demonstrates that God exists. Various primary arguments from cosmology and the nature of causation are often offered to support the cosmological argument.[49][50][51]
2.Teleological argument – Argues that there is a purposeful design in the world around us, and a design requires a designer. Cicero, William Paley, and Michael Behe use this argument as well as others.[52]
3.Ontological argument – Argues that the very concept of God demands that there is an actual existent God.
4.Moral Argument – Argues that there are objectively valid moral values, and therefore, there must be an absolute from which they are derived.[53]
5.Transcendental Argument – Argues that all our abilities to think and reason require the existence of God.
6.Presuppositional Arguments – Argues that the basic beliefs of theists and nontheists require God as a necessary precondition.
Other philosophical arguments include:
Alvin Plantinga's argument that belief in God is properly basic.[54]
Pascal's wager,[55] an argument that, given neither theism nor atheism has an evidential advantage, theism is the wiser position.
Presuppositional apologetics[edit]
Main article: Presuppositional apologetics
Presuppositional apologetics claims that presuppositions are essential to any philosophical position, and that there are no "neutral" assumptions from which a Christian can reason with a non-Christian.[56] There are two main schools of presuppositional apologetics, that of Cornelius Van Til (and his students Greg Bahnsen and John Frame) and that of Gordon Haddon Clark.
Van Til drew upon, but did not always agree with, the work of Dutch Calvinist philosophers and theologians such as D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, Herman Dooyeweerd, Hendrik G. Stoker, Herman Bavinck, and Abraham Kuyper. Bahnsen describes Van Til's approach to Christian apologetics as pointing out the difference in ultimate principles between Christians and non-Christians, and then showing that the non-Christian principles reduce to absurdity.[57] In practice this school utilizes what has come to be known as the transcendental argument for the existence of God.
Clark held that the Scriptures constituted the axioms of Christian thought, which could not be questioned, though their consistency could be discussed.[56] A consequence of this position is that God's existence can never be demonstrated, either by empirical means or by philosophical argument. In The Justification of Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not even attempt such proofs.
Moral apologetics[edit]
See also: The Bible and violence, Inquisition, Divine command and Biblical law in Christianity
Moral apologetics states that real moral obligation is a fact. Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft said, "We are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil."[58] In moral apologetics, the arguments for man's sinfulness and man's need for redemption are stressed. Examples of this type of apologetic would be Jonathan Edwards's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."[59] The Four Spiritual Laws religious tract (Campus Crusade for Christ) would be another example.[60]
Scientific apologetics[edit]
Many Christians contend that science and the Bible do not contradict each other, and that scientific fact supports Christian apologetics.[61][62] The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge... These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator."[63] The theologian and mathematician Marin Mersenne, used celestial mechanics as evidence in his apologetic work,[64] while Matteo Ricci engaged in scientific apologetics in China.[65] In modern times, the theory of the Big Bang has been used in support of Christian apologetics.[66][67]
Several Christian apologists have sought to reconcile Christianity and science in regard to the question of origins. Theistic Evolution claims that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution and that the Creator God uses the process of evolution. Denis Lamoureux, in Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution states that "This view of origins fully embraces both the religious beliefs of biblical Christianity and the scientific theories of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution. It contends that the Creator established and maintains the laws of nature, including the mechanisms of a teleological evolution."[68] The most radical example of a Christian-evolutionary synthesis is the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which was intended as apologetics to the world of science,[69] but which was later condemned by the Catholic Church.
Creationist apologetics[edit]
Main article: Creationism
Creation apologetics include young earth creationism, old earth creationism, and theistic evolution. Young Earth creationists believe the Bible teaches that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old, and reject the scientific consensus for the age of the Earth. Young Earth creationists also engage in Biblical apologetics with regard to various parts of the primordial history in Genesis 1–11 – such as the long life spans of people such as Methuselah.[70][71] the Flood,[72][73] and the Tower of Babel[74][75][76] Old Earth creationists believe it is possible to harmonize the Bible's six-day account of creation with the scientific evidence that the universe is 13.8 billion-years-old[77] and Earth is 4.54 billion-years-old.[78]
Other old Earth creationists, such as astrophysicist Hugh Ross, see each of the six days of creation as being a long, but finite period of time, based on the multiple meanings of the Hebrew word yom (day light hours/24 hours/age of time) and other Biblical creation passages.[79][80]
Experiential apologetics[edit]
Experiential apologetics is a reference to an appeal "primarily, if not exclusively, to experience as evidence for Christian faith."[81] Also, "they spurn rational arguments or factual evidence in favor of what they believe to be a self-verifying experience." This view stresses experience that other apologists have not made as explicit, and in the end the concept that the Holy Spirit convinces the heart of truth becomes the central theme of the apologetic argument.[82]
Colleges and universities offering Christian apologetics programs[edit]
School
Location
Program
Comments
Degrees awarded
Ref.
Biola University Southern California, USA Christian Apologetics M.A. [83]
Central India Theological Seminary Itarsi, India Christian Apologetics M.Th. [84]
[85]
Denver Seminary Colorado, USA Apologetics and Ethics M.A., M.Div. with Emphasis [86][87]
Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics Oxford, England Christian Apologetics M.Th., Doctoral Fellowships [88]
[89]
Westminster Theological Seminary Philadelphia, USA &
London, England
Apologetics M.Th. at London Campus, Doctoral, Masters, Certificate Programs at Philadelphia Campus [90]
South African Theology Seminary Johannesburg, South Africa Apologetics MTh [91]
See also[edit]
Christian countercult movement
Christian existential apologetics
Christian philosophy
Christian polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages
Evangelism
List of Christian apologetic works
Reformed epistemology
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "ἀπολογία". Blue Letter Bible-Lexicon. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
2.Jump up ^ Kahlos, Maijastina (2007). Debate and Dialogue : Christian and Pagan Cultures c. 360-430. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 7–9. ISBN 0-7546-5713-2.
3.Jump up ^ Ernestine, van der Wall (2004). "Ways of Polemicizing: The Power of Tradition in Christian Polemics". In T L Hettema and A van der Kooij. Religious Polemics in Context. Assen: Royal Van Gorcum. ISBN 90-232-4133-9.
4.Jump up ^ Plato, Apology 24b; compared to Christian apologetics by Anders-Christian Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies—Some Definitions," in Continuity and Discontinuity in Early Christian Apologetics (Peter Lang, 2009), p. 14.
5.Jump up ^ Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Getty Publications, 2003) p. 378.
6.Jump up ^ Graham Anderson, The Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire (Routledge, 1993, 2003), p. 203.
7.Jump up ^ Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, p. 6.
8.Jump up ^ Mark Edwards, Martin Goodman, Simon Price and Christopher Rowland, introduction to Apologetics in the Roman Empire : Pagans, Jews, and Christians (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2002), pp. 10–11.
9.Jump up ^ Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, p. 8.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, p. 14.
11.Jump up ^ Maureen A. Tillby, "North Africa", in Cambridge History of Christianity: Origins to Constantine (Cambridge University Press, 2006), vol. 1, p. 388, citing the Martyrum Scillitanorum Acta.
12.Jump up ^ Margaret M. Mitchell, "Gentile Christianity," p. 107, and "Emergence of the Written Record" p. 193, in Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 1.
13.Jump up ^ Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, p. 14 et passim.
14.Jump up ^ Dulles, Avery Robert Cardinal (2005). A History of Apologetics. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. pp. 31–42. ISBN 0898709334.
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16.^ Jump up to: a b Jacobsen, "Apologetics and Apologies, pp. 19–20.
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24.Jump up ^ Sproul, R C (2009). Defending Your Faith. Wheaton: Crossway Books. p. 9. ISBN 1-4335-0315-8.
25.Jump up ^ Geisler, Norman L (1988). Christian Apologetics (Paperback ed.). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. pp. 11–12. ISBN 0-8010-3822-7.
26.Jump up ^ Anderson, Owen (2008). Reason and Worldviews. Plymouth, U.K.: University Press of America. p. 2. ISBN 0-7618-4038-9.
27.Jump up ^ Dulles, Avery Robert Cardinal (2005). A History of Apologetics. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. p. 120. ISBN 0898709334.
28.Jump up ^ L Russ Bush, ed. (1983). Classical Readings in Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 275. ISBN 031045641X.
29.Jump up ^ Pascal, Blaise. Pensées [Thoughts]. p. 187.
30.Jump up ^ Groothuis, Douglas (2011). Christian Apologetics. Downers Grove: IVP Academic. pp. 25–31. ISBN 0830839356.
31.Jump up ^ Chesterton, G K (2008). The Everlasting Man. Radford: Wilder Publications. p. 180. ISBN 160459246X.
32.Jump up ^ Lewis, C S (2001). "The Shocking Alternative". Mere Christianity (HarperCollins ed.). San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco. pp. 54–56. ISBN 0060652888.
33.Jump up ^ Greenleaf, Simon. "Testimony of the Evangelists". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
34.Jump up ^ Montgomery, John Warwick (2004). "The Jury Returns: A Juridical Defense of Christianity". In John Warwick Montgomery. Evidence for Faith. Edmonton: Canadian Institute for Law, Theology, and Public Policy. ISBN 1896363172. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
35.Jump up ^ Ankerberg, John; John Weldon. "Could the Evidence Stand-Cross Examination in a Modern Court of Law?". The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ankerberg Theological Research Institute. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
36.Jump up ^ Yamauchi, Edwin. "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History". Retrieved 8 May 2012.
37.Jump up ^ "Refuting the Myth that Jesus Never Existed". James Hannam. 6 October 2001. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
38.Jump up ^ Sherwin-White, A N (1963). Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 189–190.
39.Jump up ^ Peters, Thomas C. (1997). Simply C. S. Lewis: A Beginner's Guide to the Life and Works of C. S. Lewis. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books. pp. 180–184. ISBN 0-89107-948-3.
40.Jump up ^ Geisler, Norman L. (1988). Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic. pp. 29, 30. ISBN 978-0-8010-7186-7.
41.Jump up ^ "Are Miracles Logically Impossible?". Come Reason Ministries, Convincing Christianity. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
42.Jump up ^ ""Miracles are not possible," some claim. Is this true?". ChristianAnswers.net. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
43.Jump up ^ Paul K. Hoffman. "A Jurisprudential Analysis Of Hume's "in Principal" Argument Against Miracles" (PDF). Christian Apologetics Journal, Volume 2, No. 1, Spring, 1999; Copyright ©1999 by Southern Evangelical Seminary. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
44.Jump up ^ Chapter 2, Science Speaks, Peter Stoner
45.Jump up ^ McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. chapter 8.
46.Jump up ^ Pascal, Blaise (1966). Pensées. England: Penguin Group. pp. x,xii,xiii.
47.Jump up ^ Bloomberg, Craig (1987). The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. Downeres Grove: Inter-Varsity Press. ISBN 0-87784-992-7.
48.Jump up ^ Roberts, Mark D. (2007). Can We Trust The Gospels. Crossway. ISBN 978-1-58134-866-8.
49.Jump up ^ Evidences for God from Space
50.Jump up ^ Apologetics Press – "So Long, Eternal Universe; Hello Beginning, Hello End!”
51.Jump up ^ Keith H. Wanser, physics
52.Jump up ^ A brief history of design
53.Jump up ^ Morality Apart From God: Is It Possible?
54.Jump up ^ Intellectual Sophistication and Basic Belief in God
55.Jump up ^ Challenging Believers to Think and Thinkers to Believe
56.^ Jump up to: a b John M. Frame (2006). "Presuppositional Apologetics". In W. C. Campbell-Jack, Gavin J. McGrath, and C. Stephen Evans. New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-2451-9. Retrieved 12 March 2007.
57.Jump up ^ Greg Bahnsen, Van Til's Apologetic, P&R Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-87552-098-7, pp. 275–77.
58.Jump up ^ Kreeft, Peter (1994). Handbook of Christian Apologetics. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-8308-1774-3.
59.Jump up ^ Select Sermons | Christian Classics Ethereal Library
60.Jump up ^ The Four Spiritual Laws – English
61.Jump up ^ Jitse M. van der Meer and Scott Mandelbrote, Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: Up to 1700, BRILL, 2009, ISBN 90-04-17191-6, p. 295.
62.Jump up ^ Kenneth Boa and Robert M. Bowman, Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith, Biblica, 2006, ISBN 1-932805-34-6,p. 173.
63.Jump up ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. #287.
64.Jump up ^ Avery Cardinal Dulles, A History of Apologetics, 2nd ed., Ignatius Press, 2005, ISBN 0-89870-933-4, p. 159.
65.Jump up ^ Jean Lacouture (tr. Jeremy Leggatt), Jesuits: A Multibiography, Counterpoint Press, 1997, ISBN 1-887178-60-0, p. 189.
66.Jump up ^ Louis Markos, Apologetics for the Twenty-First Century, Crossway, 2010, ISBN 1-4335-1448-6, p. 134.
67.Jump up ^ James Stroud, Mere Christian Apologetics, Xulon Press, 2011, ISBN 1-61379-449-5,p. 19.
68.Jump up ^ Evolutionary creation, Denis Lamoureux
69.Jump up ^ Dulles, p. 297 ff.
70.Jump up ^ Living for 900 years – Creation Magazine
71.Jump up ^ CH311: Vapor canopy's effect on lifespan
72.Jump up ^ Why Does Nearly Every Culture Have a Tradition of a Global Flood?
73.Jump up ^ Get Answers: Noah's Flood
74.Jump up ^ Is there archaeological evidence of the Tower of Babel? – ChristianAnswers.Net
75.Jump up ^ CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES – Is there any reference in early Mesopotamian literature to what happened at the Tower of Babel?
76.Jump up ^ The Tower of Babel—Legend or History?
77.Jump up ^ "Cosmic Detectives". The European Space Agency (ESA). 2 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
78.Jump up ^ "The age of the Earth in the twentieth century: a problem (mostly) solved". The Geological Society of London 2001. 2001. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
79.Jump up ^ Ross, Hugh; Endara, Miguel (31 December 1990). "Response to Genesis and the Big Bang by Gerald Schroeder". Reasons To Believe.
80.Jump up ^ Russell, Ryan. "Day 1 (Genesis 1:1-5)". Genesis: verse-by-verse Bible Study. Christian Knowledge. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
81.Jump up ^ Geisler, Normal L. (1999). "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics". Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
82.Jump up ^ Lewis, Gordon R. (1990). "Testing Christianity's Truth Claims: Approaches to Christian Apologetics". Lanham, MD: University Press of America Inc.
83.Jump up ^ "Biola University". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
84.Jump up ^ "Central India Theological Seminary". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
85.Jump up ^ "MTh Programs at CITS". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
86.Jump up ^ "Denver Seminary Program Information". Retrieved 21 September 2014.
87.Jump up ^ September 2014 "Denver Seminary Program Information".
88.Jump up ^ "THEOCCA". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
89.Jump up ^ "RZIM". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
90.Jump up ^ "Westminster Theological Seminary". Retrieved 16 July 2014.
91.Jump up ^ "My SATS". Retrieved 25 July 2014.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_apologetics
Apologetics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the systematic defense of a position. For the Christian parody band, see ApologetiX. For other uses, see Apology (disambiguation).
Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Religion 2.1 Bahá'í
2.2 Buddhism
2.3 Christianity 2.3.1 Mormonism
2.3.2 Roman Catholicism
2.4 Hinduism
2.5 Islam
2.6 Judaism
2.7 Pantheism
3 Literature
4 Notable apologists 4.1 American apologists
4.2 Native Americans
5 See also
6 References
Etymology[edit]
The term apologetics etymologically derives from the Classical Greek word apologia. In the Classical Greek legal system, two key technical terms were employed: the prosecution delivered the kategoria (κατηγορία), and the defendant replied with an apologia. To deliver an apologia meant making a formal speech or giving an explanation to reply and rebut the charges, as in the case of Socrates' defense.
This Classical Greek term appears in the Koine (i.e. common) Greek of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul employs the term apologia in his trial speech to Festus and Agrippa when he says "I make my defense" (Acts 26:2). A cognate term appears in Paul's Letter to the Philippians as he is "defending the gospel" (Philippians 1:7), and in 1 Peter 3:15 believers must be ready to give an "answer" for their faith. The word also appears in the negative in Romans 1:20: unbelievers are αναπολόγητοι (anapologētoi) (without excuse, defense, or apology) for rejecting the revelation of God in creation.
Early uses of the term (in the first sense) include Plato's Apology (the defense speech of Socrates from his trial) and some works of early Christian apologists, such as St. Justin Martyr's two Apologies addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the Roman Senate.
An additional early use of the term, is Augustus Caesar's apologia or defense of his accomplishments as Roman Emperor inscribed outside of his tomb, at his death in 14 AD on pillars of bronze, called The Deeds of the Divine Augustus (in Latin: Res Gestae Divi Augusti). They were widely copied and distributed throughout the Roman Empire. It is regarded as one of the more important apologias of the ancient world.[2]
The legal nuance of apologetics was reframed in a more specific sense to refer to the study of the defense of a doctrine or belief. In this context it most commonly refers to philosophical reconciliation. Religious apologetics is the effort to show that the preferred faith is not irrational, that believing in it is not against human reason, and that in fact the religion contains values and promotes ways of life more in accord with human nature than other faiths or beliefs.
In the English language, the word apology is derived from the Greek word, but its use has changed; its primary sense now refers to a plea for forgiveness for a wrong act. Implicit in this is an admission of guilt, thus turning on its head the "speaking in defense" aspect of the original concept. An uncommon secondary sense refers to a speech or writing that defends the speaker or author's position.
Religion[edit]
As the world's religions have encountered one another, apologetics and apologists from within their respective faiths have emerged. Some of these apologetics respond to or fight back against the arguments of other religions and secularism; others are pure defense.
Bahá'í[edit]
Main article: Bahá'í apologetics
Many apologetic books have been written in response to attacks on the history and teachings of the Bahá'í Faith. The religion's founders themselves wrote several books in response to such questioning presenting proofs of their religion, among them are the Báb's Seven Proofs and Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Íqán.[3] Later Bahá'í authors wrote prominent apologetic texts, such as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl's The Brilliant Proof and Udo Schaefer et al.'s Making the Crooked Straight;.[4]
Buddhism[edit]
One of the earliest Buddhist apologetic texts is The Questions of King Milinda, which deals with ethical and intellectual problems. In the British colonial era, Buddhists in Sri Lanka wrote tracts that rejected Christianity. In the mid-19th century, encounters between Buddhists and Christians in Japan prompted the formation of a Buddhist Propagation Society. In recent times, A. L. De Silva, an Australian convert to Buddhism, has written a book, Beyond Belief, designed to refute the arguments of Christian evangelists.[5] Gunapala Dharmasiri has challenged the Christian concept of God from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective.
Christianity[edit]
The Scutum Fidei, a diagram frequently used by Christian apologists to explain the Trinity.
Main article: Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics combines Christian theology, natural theology,[6] and philosophy to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, to defend the faith against objections and misrepresentation, and to expose error within other religions and world views.[citation needed]
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries. In the Roman Empire, Christians were severely persecuted, and many charges were brought against them. J. David Cassel[7] gives several examples: Tacitus wrote that Nero fabricated charges that Christians started the burning of Rome.[8] Other charges included cannibalism (due to a literal interpretation of the Eucharist) and incest (due to early Christians' practice of addressing each other as "brother" and "sister"). Saul of Tarsus, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and others often defended Christianity against charges that were brought to justify persecution.
Later apologists have focused on providing reasons to accept various aspects of Christian belief. Christian apologists of many traditions, in common with Jews, Muslims, and some others, argue for the existence of a unique and personal God. Theodicy is one important aspect of such arguments, and Alvin Plantinga's arguments have been highly influential in this area. Many prominent Christian apologists are scholarly philosophers or theologians, frequently with additional doctoral work in physics, cosmology, comparative religions, or other fields. Others take a more popular or pastoral approach. Some prominent modern apologists are Frederick Copleston, John Lennox, Walter R. Martin, Dinesh D'Souza, Douglas Wilson, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, Francis Schaeffer, Greg Bahnsen, Edward John Carnell, James White, Hank Hanegraaff, Ravi Zacharias, Alister McGrath, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Peter Kreeft, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Hugh Ross, David Bentley Hart, Gary Habermas, Norman Geisler and Scott Hahn.[9]
Christian apologists employ a variety of philosophical and formal approaches, including ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments. Many Christian apologists also note, however, that the Gospel is the best defense and living a life according to the tenets of Jesus' teachings is the best argument.
Mormonism[edit]
Further information: Mormon studies § Apologetics
There are notable Latter-day Saint apologists who focus on the defense of Mormonism, including early church leaders such as Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, B. H. Roberts, James E. Talmage and more modern figures such as Hugh Nibley, Orson Scott Card, and Jeff Lindsay.
Several well-known Mormon apologetic organizations, such as the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (a group of scholars at Brigham Young University) and the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (an independent, Mormon-run, not-for-profit group), have been formed to defend the doctrines and history of the Latter Day Saint movement in general and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular.
Roman Catholicism[edit]
Notable apologists within the Roman Catholic Church include Fr. Robert Barron,[10] G. K. Chesterton,[11] Dr. Scott Hahn, Kenneth Hensley,[12] Karl Keating, Ronald Knox, Peter Kreeft, and Gus Lloyd. Topics regarding Catholic history and doctrine presented by apologists and various lecturers are often made available via CD and digital download by Lighthouse Catholic Media. Probably the best known Catholic apologetics website is Catholic Answers.
Hinduism[edit]
Hindu apologetics was an inevitable consequence of the confrontation with Christianity during the British colonial period. A number of Indian intellectuals had become critical of the British tendency to devalue the Hindu religious tradition. As a result these Indian intellectuals, as well as a handful of British Indologists, were galvanized to examine the roots of the religion as well as to study its vast arcana and corpus in an analytical fashion. This endeavor drove the deciphering and preservation of Sanskrit. Many translations of Hindu texts were produced which made them accessible to a broader reading audience.
A range of Indian philosophers, including Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghose, have written rational explanations regarding the values of the Hindu religious tradition. More modern proponents such as the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have also tried to correlate recent developments from quantum physics and consciousness research with Hindu concepts. The late Reverend Pandurang Shastri Athavale has given a plethora of discourses regarding the symbolism and rational basis for many principles in the Vedic tradition. In his book The Cradle of Civilization, David Frawley, an American who has embraced the Vedic tradition, has characterized the ancient texts of the Hindu heritage as being like "pyramids of the spirit". A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada translated over sixty volumes of classic Vedic scriptures including the biography and conclusions of the famous 16th century bhakti scholar Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; many of these translations and commentaries have been further translated into as many as eighty languages, producing over half a billion books distributed throughout the world. Such individuals have tried to construct an intellectual defense of Hinduism during a phase when the fundamentalistic elements of other faiths have sought to denigrate the ancient religion in an effort to gain converts.
Islam[edit]
Islamic apologists have also challenged both Jewish and Christian beliefs. Although by definition, an apologist defends a position rather than merely deconstructing a differing position, the late South African, Ahmed Deedat, is regarded as an Islamic apologist. He was a prolific popular writer who debated Christian evangelists by arguing over discrepancies in the Bible.[13]
Judaism[edit]
See also: Jewish polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages
Jewish apologetic literature can be traced back as far as Aristobulus of Paneas, though some discern in the works of Demetrius the chronographer (3rd.century BCE) traces of the style of 'questions' and 'solutions' typical of the genre. Aristobulus was a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria and the author of an apologetic work addressed to Ptolemy VI Philometor. Josephus's Contra Apion is a wide-ranging defense of Judaism against many charges laid against Judaism at that time, as too are some of the works of Philo of Alexandria.[14]
Pantheism[edit]
Some pantheists have formed organizations such as the World Pantheist Movement and the Universal Pantheist Society to promote and defend the belief in pantheism.[15]
Literature[edit]
Similar to religious apologies, this form of writing often appears historically in literature. Dissimilarly, however, literary apologies defend either poetic and aesthetic qualities, or the author's ability to write about the subject directly following the apology. Plato's Apology may be read as both a religious and literary apology; however, more specifically literary examples may be found in the prefaces and dedications, which proceed many Early Modern plays, novels, and poems. Eighteenth century authors such as Colley Cibber, Frances Burney, and William Congreve, to name but a few, prefaced the majority of their poetic work with such apologies. In addition to the desire to defend their work, the apologetic preface often suggests the author's attempt to humble his- or herself before the audience.[16]
Notable apologists[edit]
Tertullian was a notable early Christian apologist. He was born, lived and died in Carthage. He is sometimes known as the "Father of the Latin Church". He introduced the term Trinity (Latin trinitas) to the Christian vocabulary[17] and also probably[citation needed] the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" (itself from the Koine Greek "treis Hypostaseis, Homoousios"), and also the terms Vetus Testamentum (Old Testament) and Novum Testamentum (New Testament).
In his Apologeticus, he was the first who qualified Christianity as the vera religio ("true religion"), and symmetrically relegated the classical Empire religion and other accepted cults to the position of mere 'superstitions'.
Arngrímur Jónsson was an Icelandic scholar who wrote the book Brevis commentarius de Islandia in Latin as a "defense of Iceland" where he criticized the works of numerous authors who had written about the people and the country of Iceland.
John Henry Newman (February 21, 1801 – August 11, 1890) was an English convert to Roman Catholicism, later made a cardinal, and beatified in 2010. In early life he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England back to its Catholic roots. Eventually his studies in history persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. When John Henry Newman entitled his spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua in 1864, he was playing upon both this connotation, and the more commonly understood meaning of an expression of contrition or regret.
American apologists[edit]
At the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century a group of conservative American economists and social scientists became known as the American Apologists. Their different theoretical orientations notwithstanding, they were apologists for the status quo and rose to defend the new industrial age and condemn unions and populist causes.[18]
They included Simon Newcomb at Johns Hopkins, John Bates Clark at Columbia, James Laurence Laughlin at Chicago, Charles F Dunbar and Frank William Taussig at Harvard, Arthur T. Hadley and William Graham Sumner at Yale, and controlled the American university system in the East. This was backed by the cleansing of socialist reformers from American higher education after the Haymarket affair, an 1886 incident in Chicago.
Native Americans[edit]
In a famous speech called "Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red" in 1805, Seneca chief Red Jacket gave an apologetic for native American religion.[19]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Religion portal
Christian countercult movement
Christian existential apologetics
Existence of God
List of apologetic works
Presuppositional apologetics
Problem of evil
Theodicy
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Apologists". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
2.Jump up ^ Lewis N. & Reinhold M., Roman Civilization, vol ii, pp. 9–19, New York: Columbia University Press (1955)
3.Jump up ^ Smith, Peter (2000). "apologetics". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. pp. 39–40. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
4.Jump up ^ Bahá'í Studies Review, Volume 8, 1998
5.Jump up ^ A.L. De Silva (1994) Beyond Belief: A Buddhist Critique of Fundamentalist Christianity, Three Gems Publications ISBN 978-0-6462-1211-1
6.Jump up ^ Brent, James. "Natural Theology". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
7.Jump up ^ J. David Cassel. "Defending the Cannibals: How Christians responded to the sometimes strange accusations of their critics." http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1998/issue57/57h012.html
8.Jump up ^ Tacitus, Annals XV.44
9.Jump up ^ Catholic Education Resource Center: The Scott Hahn Conversion Story
10.Jump up ^ http://www.wordonfire.org/about/fr-robert-barron/ WordOnFire.com Fr. Robert Barron
11.Jump up ^ Chesterton, G K (2008). The Everlasting Man. Radford: Wilder Publications. p. 180. ISBN 160459246X.
12.Jump up ^ http://catholicapologeticsacademy.com/faculty/kenneth-hensley/ Catholic Apologetics
13.Jump up ^ Obituary (Archive): Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (1918–2005): by Goolam Vahed, Department of History, University of KwaZulu Natal
14.Jump up ^ John Granger Cook (2000) The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman paganism p.4., Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tuebingen, Germany
15.Jump up ^ "The Pantheist Credo". World Pantheist Movement.
16.Jump up ^ "Apology". Britannica Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
17.Jump up ^ A History of Christian Thought, Paul Tillich, Touchstone Books, 1972. ISBN 0-671-21426-8 (p. 43)
18.Jump up ^ The American Apologists History of Economic Thought Website at The Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Research , New School University. Accessed January 2009
19.Jump up ^ Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologetics
Apologetics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the systematic defense of a position. For the Christian parody band, see ApologetiX. For other uses, see Apology (disambiguation).
Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Religion 2.1 Bahá'í
2.2 Buddhism
2.3 Christianity 2.3.1 Mormonism
2.3.2 Roman Catholicism
2.4 Hinduism
2.5 Islam
2.6 Judaism
2.7 Pantheism
3 Literature
4 Notable apologists 4.1 American apologists
4.2 Native Americans
5 See also
6 References
Etymology[edit]
The term apologetics etymologically derives from the Classical Greek word apologia. In the Classical Greek legal system, two key technical terms were employed: the prosecution delivered the kategoria (κατηγορία), and the defendant replied with an apologia. To deliver an apologia meant making a formal speech or giving an explanation to reply and rebut the charges, as in the case of Socrates' defense.
This Classical Greek term appears in the Koine (i.e. common) Greek of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul employs the term apologia in his trial speech to Festus and Agrippa when he says "I make my defense" (Acts 26:2). A cognate term appears in Paul's Letter to the Philippians as he is "defending the gospel" (Philippians 1:7), and in 1 Peter 3:15 believers must be ready to give an "answer" for their faith. The word also appears in the negative in Romans 1:20: unbelievers are αναπολόγητοι (anapologētoi) (without excuse, defense, or apology) for rejecting the revelation of God in creation.
Early uses of the term (in the first sense) include Plato's Apology (the defense speech of Socrates from his trial) and some works of early Christian apologists, such as St. Justin Martyr's two Apologies addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the Roman Senate.
An additional early use of the term, is Augustus Caesar's apologia or defense of his accomplishments as Roman Emperor inscribed outside of his tomb, at his death in 14 AD on pillars of bronze, called The Deeds of the Divine Augustus (in Latin: Res Gestae Divi Augusti). They were widely copied and distributed throughout the Roman Empire. It is regarded as one of the more important apologias of the ancient world.[2]
The legal nuance of apologetics was reframed in a more specific sense to refer to the study of the defense of a doctrine or belief. In this context it most commonly refers to philosophical reconciliation. Religious apologetics is the effort to show that the preferred faith is not irrational, that believing in it is not against human reason, and that in fact the religion contains values and promotes ways of life more in accord with human nature than other faiths or beliefs.
In the English language, the word apology is derived from the Greek word, but its use has changed; its primary sense now refers to a plea for forgiveness for a wrong act. Implicit in this is an admission of guilt, thus turning on its head the "speaking in defense" aspect of the original concept. An uncommon secondary sense refers to a speech or writing that defends the speaker or author's position.
Religion[edit]
As the world's religions have encountered one another, apologetics and apologists from within their respective faiths have emerged. Some of these apologetics respond to or fight back against the arguments of other religions and secularism; others are pure defense.
Bahá'í[edit]
Main article: Bahá'í apologetics
Many apologetic books have been written in response to attacks on the history and teachings of the Bahá'í Faith. The religion's founders themselves wrote several books in response to such questioning presenting proofs of their religion, among them are the Báb's Seven Proofs and Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Íqán.[3] Later Bahá'í authors wrote prominent apologetic texts, such as Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl's The Brilliant Proof and Udo Schaefer et al.'s Making the Crooked Straight;.[4]
Buddhism[edit]
One of the earliest Buddhist apologetic texts is The Questions of King Milinda, which deals with ethical and intellectual problems. In the British colonial era, Buddhists in Sri Lanka wrote tracts that rejected Christianity. In the mid-19th century, encounters between Buddhists and Christians in Japan prompted the formation of a Buddhist Propagation Society. In recent times, A. L. De Silva, an Australian convert to Buddhism, has written a book, Beyond Belief, designed to refute the arguments of Christian evangelists.[5] Gunapala Dharmasiri has challenged the Christian concept of God from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective.
Christianity[edit]
The Scutum Fidei, a diagram frequently used by Christian apologists to explain the Trinity.
Main article: Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics combines Christian theology, natural theology,[6] and philosophy to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, to defend the faith against objections and misrepresentation, and to expose error within other religions and world views.[citation needed]
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries. In the Roman Empire, Christians were severely persecuted, and many charges were brought against them. J. David Cassel[7] gives several examples: Tacitus wrote that Nero fabricated charges that Christians started the burning of Rome.[8] Other charges included cannibalism (due to a literal interpretation of the Eucharist) and incest (due to early Christians' practice of addressing each other as "brother" and "sister"). Saul of Tarsus, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and others often defended Christianity against charges that were brought to justify persecution.
Later apologists have focused on providing reasons to accept various aspects of Christian belief. Christian apologists of many traditions, in common with Jews, Muslims, and some others, argue for the existence of a unique and personal God. Theodicy is one important aspect of such arguments, and Alvin Plantinga's arguments have been highly influential in this area. Many prominent Christian apologists are scholarly philosophers or theologians, frequently with additional doctoral work in physics, cosmology, comparative religions, or other fields. Others take a more popular or pastoral approach. Some prominent modern apologists are Frederick Copleston, John Lennox, Walter R. Martin, Dinesh D'Souza, Douglas Wilson, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, Francis Schaeffer, Greg Bahnsen, Edward John Carnell, James White, Hank Hanegraaff, Ravi Zacharias, Alister McGrath, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Peter Kreeft, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Hugh Ross, David Bentley Hart, Gary Habermas, Norman Geisler and Scott Hahn.[9]
Christian apologists employ a variety of philosophical and formal approaches, including ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments. Many Christian apologists also note, however, that the Gospel is the best defense and living a life according to the tenets of Jesus' teachings is the best argument.
Mormonism[edit]
Further information: Mormon studies § Apologetics
There are notable Latter-day Saint apologists who focus on the defense of Mormonism, including early church leaders such as Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, B. H. Roberts, James E. Talmage and more modern figures such as Hugh Nibley, Orson Scott Card, and Jeff Lindsay.
Several well-known Mormon apologetic organizations, such as the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (a group of scholars at Brigham Young University) and the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (an independent, Mormon-run, not-for-profit group), have been formed to defend the doctrines and history of the Latter Day Saint movement in general and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular.
Roman Catholicism[edit]
Notable apologists within the Roman Catholic Church include Fr. Robert Barron,[10] G. K. Chesterton,[11] Dr. Scott Hahn, Kenneth Hensley,[12] Karl Keating, Ronald Knox, Peter Kreeft, and Gus Lloyd. Topics regarding Catholic history and doctrine presented by apologists and various lecturers are often made available via CD and digital download by Lighthouse Catholic Media. Probably the best known Catholic apologetics website is Catholic Answers.
Hinduism[edit]
Hindu apologetics was an inevitable consequence of the confrontation with Christianity during the British colonial period. A number of Indian intellectuals had become critical of the British tendency to devalue the Hindu religious tradition. As a result these Indian intellectuals, as well as a handful of British Indologists, were galvanized to examine the roots of the religion as well as to study its vast arcana and corpus in an analytical fashion. This endeavor drove the deciphering and preservation of Sanskrit. Many translations of Hindu texts were produced which made them accessible to a broader reading audience.
A range of Indian philosophers, including Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghose, have written rational explanations regarding the values of the Hindu religious tradition. More modern proponents such as the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi have also tried to correlate recent developments from quantum physics and consciousness research with Hindu concepts. The late Reverend Pandurang Shastri Athavale has given a plethora of discourses regarding the symbolism and rational basis for many principles in the Vedic tradition. In his book The Cradle of Civilization, David Frawley, an American who has embraced the Vedic tradition, has characterized the ancient texts of the Hindu heritage as being like "pyramids of the spirit". A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada translated over sixty volumes of classic Vedic scriptures including the biography and conclusions of the famous 16th century bhakti scholar Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; many of these translations and commentaries have been further translated into as many as eighty languages, producing over half a billion books distributed throughout the world. Such individuals have tried to construct an intellectual defense of Hinduism during a phase when the fundamentalistic elements of other faiths have sought to denigrate the ancient religion in an effort to gain converts.
Islam[edit]
Islamic apologists have also challenged both Jewish and Christian beliefs. Although by definition, an apologist defends a position rather than merely deconstructing a differing position, the late South African, Ahmed Deedat, is regarded as an Islamic apologist. He was a prolific popular writer who debated Christian evangelists by arguing over discrepancies in the Bible.[13]
Judaism[edit]
See also: Jewish polemics and apologetics in the Middle Ages
Jewish apologetic literature can be traced back as far as Aristobulus of Paneas, though some discern in the works of Demetrius the chronographer (3rd.century BCE) traces of the style of 'questions' and 'solutions' typical of the genre. Aristobulus was a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria and the author of an apologetic work addressed to Ptolemy VI Philometor. Josephus's Contra Apion is a wide-ranging defense of Judaism against many charges laid against Judaism at that time, as too are some of the works of Philo of Alexandria.[14]
Pantheism[edit]
Some pantheists have formed organizations such as the World Pantheist Movement and the Universal Pantheist Society to promote and defend the belief in pantheism.[15]
Literature[edit]
Similar to religious apologies, this form of writing often appears historically in literature. Dissimilarly, however, literary apologies defend either poetic and aesthetic qualities, or the author's ability to write about the subject directly following the apology. Plato's Apology may be read as both a religious and literary apology; however, more specifically literary examples may be found in the prefaces and dedications, which proceed many Early Modern plays, novels, and poems. Eighteenth century authors such as Colley Cibber, Frances Burney, and William Congreve, to name but a few, prefaced the majority of their poetic work with such apologies. In addition to the desire to defend their work, the apologetic preface often suggests the author's attempt to humble his- or herself before the audience.[16]
Notable apologists[edit]
Tertullian was a notable early Christian apologist. He was born, lived and died in Carthage. He is sometimes known as the "Father of the Latin Church". He introduced the term Trinity (Latin trinitas) to the Christian vocabulary[17] and also probably[citation needed] the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" (itself from the Koine Greek "treis Hypostaseis, Homoousios"), and also the terms Vetus Testamentum (Old Testament) and Novum Testamentum (New Testament).
In his Apologeticus, he was the first who qualified Christianity as the vera religio ("true religion"), and symmetrically relegated the classical Empire religion and other accepted cults to the position of mere 'superstitions'.
Arngrímur Jónsson was an Icelandic scholar who wrote the book Brevis commentarius de Islandia in Latin as a "defense of Iceland" where he criticized the works of numerous authors who had written about the people and the country of Iceland.
John Henry Newman (February 21, 1801 – August 11, 1890) was an English convert to Roman Catholicism, later made a cardinal, and beatified in 2010. In early life he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England back to its Catholic roots. Eventually his studies in history persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. When John Henry Newman entitled his spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua in 1864, he was playing upon both this connotation, and the more commonly understood meaning of an expression of contrition or regret.
American apologists[edit]
At the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century a group of conservative American economists and social scientists became known as the American Apologists. Their different theoretical orientations notwithstanding, they were apologists for the status quo and rose to defend the new industrial age and condemn unions and populist causes.[18]
They included Simon Newcomb at Johns Hopkins, John Bates Clark at Columbia, James Laurence Laughlin at Chicago, Charles F Dunbar and Frank William Taussig at Harvard, Arthur T. Hadley and William Graham Sumner at Yale, and controlled the American university system in the East. This was backed by the cleansing of socialist reformers from American higher education after the Haymarket affair, an 1886 incident in Chicago.
Native Americans[edit]
In a famous speech called "Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red" in 1805, Seneca chief Red Jacket gave an apologetic for native American religion.[19]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Religion portal
Christian countercult movement
Christian existential apologetics
Existence of God
List of apologetic works
Presuppositional apologetics
Problem of evil
Theodicy
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Apologists". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
2.Jump up ^ Lewis N. & Reinhold M., Roman Civilization, vol ii, pp. 9–19, New York: Columbia University Press (1955)
3.Jump up ^ Smith, Peter (2000). "apologetics". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. pp. 39–40. ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
4.Jump up ^ Bahá'í Studies Review, Volume 8, 1998
5.Jump up ^ A.L. De Silva (1994) Beyond Belief: A Buddhist Critique of Fundamentalist Christianity, Three Gems Publications ISBN 978-0-6462-1211-1
6.Jump up ^ Brent, James. "Natural Theology". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
7.Jump up ^ J. David Cassel. "Defending the Cannibals: How Christians responded to the sometimes strange accusations of their critics." http://www.ctlibrary.com/ch/1998/issue57/57h012.html
8.Jump up ^ Tacitus, Annals XV.44
9.Jump up ^ Catholic Education Resource Center: The Scott Hahn Conversion Story
10.Jump up ^ http://www.wordonfire.org/about/fr-robert-barron/ WordOnFire.com Fr. Robert Barron
11.Jump up ^ Chesterton, G K (2008). The Everlasting Man. Radford: Wilder Publications. p. 180. ISBN 160459246X.
12.Jump up ^ http://catholicapologeticsacademy.com/faculty/kenneth-hensley/ Catholic Apologetics
13.Jump up ^ Obituary (Archive): Ahmed Hoosen Deedat (1918–2005): by Goolam Vahed, Department of History, University of KwaZulu Natal
14.Jump up ^ John Granger Cook (2000) The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman paganism p.4., Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tuebingen, Germany
15.Jump up ^ "The Pantheist Credo". World Pantheist Movement.
16.Jump up ^ "Apology". Britannica Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
17.Jump up ^ A History of Christian Thought, Paul Tillich, Touchstone Books, 1972. ISBN 0-671-21426-8 (p. 43)
18.Jump up ^ The American Apologists History of Economic Thought Website at The Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Research , New School University. Accessed January 2009
19.Jump up ^ Red Jacket on Religion for the White Man and the Red
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