So apologetics is the disciplines of offering an explanation of the Christian faith both to those who already believe and those who do not believe at all. It is not offering an "apology" in the way that we think of it today so much as engaging in thoughtful dialogue about issues of faith.
Cultural apologetics seeks to engage the issues of the time and the culture and discuss how Christian faith might speak to those issues. Today in a round-table type discussion, we engaged in a tour de force of cultural apologetics. What does the Christian story have to say about globalization, economics, the war in Iraq, China, global warming, human trafficking and current issues of Biblical criticism (by the way, Timothy Paul Jones responded to Royale's comments on Bart Ehrman on last Friday's post today if you want to check out some of his thoughts on Ehrman's approach to Biblical criticism)?
What do we do with a world that is asking those questions when so many of our churches are convinced that those things don't matter? What do I do with a Bible-belt culture that is so deeply committed to a "Christian right" political stance that they're often unwilling to seriously consider any other option?
And how in the world can I possibly know enough about all of these things to actually "hold my own" when at any point on any given day on campus I could get asked questions ranging from evolution to Paris Hilton?
Two things that were comforting in this respect: 1. the freedom (indeed, the obligation) to say "I don't know." and 2. The role and necessity of the Christian community, the body, working together to present the comprehensive apologetic. I don't know everything that there is to know about any of these subjects. So I need folks who do. And they're out there: in my church, working in local businesses, teaching on my campus.
It's cool that I am invited to think deeply and engage authentically with my faith in all these various ways. And it's really good to know that I've got a big posse that's got my back.
4 comments:
"globalization, economics, the war in Iraq, China, global warming, human trafficking and current issues of Biblical criticism....What do we do with a world that is asking those questions when so many of our churches are convinced that those things don't matter?"
Which churches? and why are they saying those things don't matter?
For me, any church that says those things don't matter would be an irrelevant church.
royale,
couldn't agree with you more...
Sadly, I must admit that I could list a dozen churches that would count those issues on their "irrelevant" lists. They are so closely allied with specific political perspectives that they---in my opinion---cannot wrestle adequately with these issues. Or, in some cases, they view the Gospel and the Kingdom of God so strictly in terms of the initial act of justification ("being saved") that they fail to glimpse the larger implications of the inbreaking of God's kingdom into the world in Jesus Christ.
Then again, I need first to look in the mirror, don't I? "Remove the beam from your own eye," a Jewish rabbi once commented. I must ask myself, "How, in my life, do I become so wrapped up in my perspectives that I fail to see where God desperately desires to work around and through me?"
Sigh.
It's hard to be like Jesus.
great stuff. i definitely think that there's a really powerful movement of historically conservative churches that are engaging the broader culture/world around us more thoughtfully.
i've got great hope for the church in this respect and i'm particularly encouraged that it's coming not only from odd or prophetic parts of the church community (i.e. "emergent churches") but also from some of the flagship evangelical churches like willow creek.
I think that there's some really great stuff happening here and it's coming from lots of corners of evangelicalism that in the end will make our witness more credible and our lives more in line with the wholistic nature of the gospel message that transforms both individual lives and whole cultures...indeed, the whole world.
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