Apologetics, Imagination, and Imaginative Apologetics
I’d like to continue sharing
some thoughts from a review article I wrote for Trinity Journal,[1]
a lengthy interaction with Imaginative
Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition, edited by
Andrew Davison.[2]
In my previous blog post, I sought to articulate some of the biblical mandate
for apologetics. In this post, we want
to look at just a few historical and contemporary apologetic trends.
In subsequent
posts, we’ll look at the place of imagination in Christian scholarship and
apologetics, focusing especially on Jamie Smith’s recent contributions. Down
the road, I will interact with the various articles in Imaginative Apologetics.
Situating Apologetics:
Historical Apologetics
Scripture commands
all believers to “always be prepared to give
an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have.”[3] I
suggest that a concise but descriptive definition of apologetics might be “the
defense and explanation of the truth of the Christian faith.”[4]
The practice of
apologetics, as the defense and explanation of Christianity’s truthfulness, has
always had a central place in the Church. In Imaginative
Apologetics, Craig Hovey notes that numerous early church fathers wrote
to counter misunderstandings of the fledgling faith, responding especially to
charges of atheism, cannibalism, and civic disloyalty.[5]
Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Minucius Felix are cited by N. T.
Wright as the pre-eminent early apologists.[6]
Justin Martyr, a Greek philosopher and teacher, wrote the first Christian
treatise on the resurrection, along with his two major apologies (First Apology and Second Apology) and
the apologetic Dialogue
with Trypho the Jew. Justin exemplifies an apologetic approach that not
only “saw . . . the need to rebut charges of immorality, sedition and indeed
atheism,” but also sought to “argue that Christianity was actually the truth
which made sense of the glimmers of light within paganism.”[7]
From the early church apologists, to the giant Christian philosopher Augustine
of Hippo, to medieval philosophers and apologists like Boethius and Anselm of
Canterbury, to early modern apologists like Abelard and Pascal, to late modern
apologists Joseph Butler, William Paley, and Soren Kierkegaard, apologetic
ministry has always had a place within the Church and the Christian academy.
New challenges to Christianity have arisen throughout eras—Islam, deism,
naturalism, atheism, postmodernism, relativism—but Christian thinkers have
always risen to the task of providing an informed and passionate response.
The past four
decades have seen a marked rise in apologetic enterprise. Earlier works by
Cornelius Van Til, E. J. Carnell, John Warwick Montgomery, and Francis
Schaeffer strongly influenced a new generation of Christian philosophers and apologists.[8]
Lee Strobel’s popular lay-oriented apologetic works both sparked and marked a
rise in apologetic interest in North American Christianity.[9]
Over the past decade, Christian high schools, colleges, universities, and
seminaries have responded by offering a larger number of courses in
philosophical and biblical apologetics.[10]
Accordingly, Christian scholars have produced more intentionally apologetic
treatises in science,[11]
philosophy,[12] history,[13]
biblical studies,[14]
and worldview.[15] The past eight years in
particular have seen a flood of new academic works in apologetics on the
market.[16]
Simply put, Christian apologetics, as an interdisciplinary approach to
explaining and defending the Christian faith, has matured and achieved a
measure of influence in the broader academic and ecclesiastic community.
Having situated
contemporary apologetics, it is time next to turn our attention to imagination,
then to engage with Imaginative
Apologetics. Stay tuned!
[1] Tawa J.
Anderson, “Apologetics, Imagination, and Imaginative
Apologetics,” in Trinity Journal
34 (2013): 229-51.
[2]
Andrew Davison, ed. Imaginative Apologetics:
Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012. 169 pp. $25.00.
[3]
1 Peter 3:15, NIV. Further
Scriptural references are to the NIV translation unless otherwise noted.
[4] Author’s
definition.
[5]
“Theological training has put me in touch with the early Church’s efforts to
defend the faith against misunderstanding from their pagan neighbours.” Craig
Hovey, “Christian Ethics as Good News,” in Imaginative
Apologetics, 98.
[6]
N. T. Wright, The
Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of
God, Volume Three (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), 500-10.
[8]
See, e.g., Cornelius Van Til, Christian
Apologetics (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 1976); Francis Schaeffer, He Is There and He Is Not
Silent (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1972); The
God Who Is There (Downers Grove: IVP, 1968).
[9]
Lee Strobel, The Case
for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998); The
Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000); The Case for a Creator (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2004); The
Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009).
[10]
See, e.g., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary (Ft. Worth, TX), Houston Baptist University,
Luther Rice Seminary (Georgia), Regent College (Vancouver, BC), Taylor Seminary
(Edmonton, AB), ACTS (Langley, BC), Providence College (Winnipeg, MB), Tyndale
University College & Seminary (Toronto, ON), California Baptist University,
Westminster Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,
Liberty University, Midwestern University, my own Oklahoma Baptist University,
and Biola University.
[11]
E.g., John Jefferson Davis, The
Frontiers of Science & Faith: Examining Questions from the Big Bang to the
End of the Universe (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002); Patrick Glynn, God—The Evidence: The
Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World (Roseville,
CA: Prima, 1997); Hugh Ross, The
Creator and the Cosmos (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001); Francis S.
Collins, The Language
of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (New York: Free Press,
2006); Michael J. Behe, William A. Dembski, and Stephen C. Meyer, Science and Evidence for
Design in the Universe: The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute
(San Francisco: Ignatius, 2000); William A. Dembski and Jonathan Wells, The Design of Life:
Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems (Dallas: The
Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 2008).
[12]
E.g., William Lane Craig, Reasonable
Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd ed. (Nashville:
Crossway, 2008); J. P. Moreland, Love
Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul
(Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997); Scaling
the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987);
Norman L. Geisler, Christian
Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1988); R. Douglas Geivett and
Gary R. Habermas, eds., In
Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God’s Action in History
(Downers Grove: IVP, 1997); Richard Swinburne, The
Existence of God, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press,
2004).
[13]
E.g., Colin Brown, Miracles
and the Critical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984); Graham H.
Twelftree, Jesus The
Miracle Worker: A Historical and Theological Study (Downers Grove: IVP,
1999); Craig S. Keener, The
Historical Jesus of the Gospels (Eerdmans, 2009); Paul W. Barnett, Jesus and the Logic of
History (Downers Grove: IVP, 1997); C. Stephen Evans, The Historical Christ &
The Jesus of Faith: The Incarnational Narrative as History (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996).
[14]
E.g., Craig L. Blomberg, The
Historical Reliability of the Gospels, 2nd ed. (Downers
Grove: IVP Academic, 2007); Richard Bauckham, Jesus
and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2006); Darrell L. Bock and Robert L. Webb, eds., Key Events in the Life of
the Historical Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009); Paul Rhodes Eddy
and Gregory A. Boyd, The
Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus
Tradition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007); N. T. Wright, Christian Origins and the
Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress)—Volume
One: The New Testament and the People of God (1992), Volume Two: Jesus and the
Victory of God (1996), Volume
Three: The Resurrection of the Son of God (2003); Craig S. Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of
the New Testament Accounts, Two Volumes (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic,
2011).
[15]
E.g., Steven B. Cowan, ed., Five
Views on Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000); James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A
Basic Worldview Catalog, 5th ed. (Downers Grove: IVP
Academic, 2009); Kenneth Richard Samples, A
World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007); Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to
Be an Atheist (Nashville: Crossway, 2004); William Lane Craig and Chad
Meister, eds., God is
Great, God is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible
(Grand Rapids: IVP, 2009); William A. Dembski and Jay Wesley Richards, eds., Unapologetic Apologetics:
Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies (Downers Grove: IVP,
2001); Avery Cardinal Dulles, A
History of Apologetics (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999); Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief
in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Dutton, 2008); Peter Kreeft and
Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook
of Christian Apologetics (Downers Grove: IVP, 1994); Louis Markos, Apologetics for the 21st
Century (Nashville: Crossway, 2010); Ronald H. Nash, Worldviews in Conflict:
Choosing Christianity in a World of Ideas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1992); K. Scott Oliphint, Reasons
for Faith: Philosophy in the Service of Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P
& R, 2006); Francis J. Beckwith, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland,
eds., To Everyone An
Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004);
Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr., Faith
Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity, 2nd
ed. (Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2005); Alex McLellan, A Jigsaw Guide to Making
Sense of the World (Downers Grove: IVP, 2012).
[16]
E.g., James K. Beilby, Thinking
About Christian Apologetics: What It Is and Why We Do It (Downers Grove:
IVP Academic, 2011); Norman Geisler, Christian
Apologetics, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013);
Alvin Plantinga, Where
the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2012); H. Wayne House and Dennis W. Jowers, Reasons for Our Hope: An
Introduction to Christian Apologetics (Nashville: B & H Academic,
2011); Malcolm Jeeves, Minds,
Brains, Souls and Gods (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2013); Myron
Bradley Penner, The
End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013); Mark Coppenger, Moral
Apologetics for Contemporary Christians: Pushing Back Against Cultural and
Religious Critics (Nashville: B & H Academic, 2011); Clifford
Williams, Existential
Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires & Emotions for Faith
(Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011); Harry L. Poe and Jimmy H. Davis, God and the Cosmos: Divine
Activity in Space, Time and History (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2012);
Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, Christian
Philosophy: A Systematic and Narrative Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2013); Michael R. Licona, The
Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove
IVP Academic, 2010); Paul Chamberlain, Why
People Don’t Believe: Confronting Seven Challenges to Christian Faith
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011); Christian
Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources, edited by Chad V. Meister
and Khaldoun A. Sweis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013); Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive
Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011); Graham H.
Twelftree, Paul and
the Miraculous: A Historical Reconstruction (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2013); Randal Rauser, The
Swedish Atheist, the Scuba Diver and Other Apologetic Rabbit Trails
(Downers Grove: IVP, 2012).
