Revisiting the Place of Apologetics

A while ago (a few months short of a year), I wrote a post titled “The Place of Apologetics”. In it, I discussed the what I believed was the proper use of apologetics (rational defenses of Christianity). I stated that apologetics is needed to make Christianity intellectually justifiable, but had no role beyond that.

I recently started reading Reasonable Faith, written by Dr. William Lane Craig. I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time, and finally got around to it. Dr. Craig is a well-known and highly-regarded Christian apologist, and Reasonable Faith is probably his best-known book, with a third edition just published this year. He also is the founder of a website that shares his book’s name, Reasonable Faith, which offers a variety of apologetics resources, including two podcasts, which of both I’ve been a regular listener at some time, and I highly recommend.

In the introduction to his book (readable online here), Dr. Craig discusses the same question I wrote about in my post: What good is apologetics?

Some people depreciate the importance of apologetics as a theoretical discipline. “Nobody comes to Christ through arguments,” they’ll tell you. “People aren’t interested in what’s true, but in what works for them. They don’t want intellectual answers; they want to see Christianity lived out.” I believe that the attitude expressed in these statements is both shortsighted and mistaken. Let me explain three vital roles which the discipline of apologetics plays today.

The first of the three roles of apologetics, Dr. Craig states, is “shaping culture.” He examines how modern western culture is becoming increasingly more secular and post-modern. Society is turning indifferent toward Christianity, and objective claims for religion in general. This is at least partially due to a fall in apologetics in the past. While some may say “no one comes to Christ through arguments,” if society comes to completely view Christianity as intellectually irrational and unjustified, evangelism will be severely hampered. Christianity might simply fall into the ranks of post-modernism, “no better” than any other belief. Apologetics serves the important role of raising Christianity out of the crowds of post-modernism by providing it with objective claims to truth.

The second role of apologetics, according to Dr. Craig, is to strengthen believers. As post-modernism rises and culture continues to turn hostile towards objective claims in the spiritual realm, many Christians (especially new or young believers) begin to question their faith. Although everyone has doubts sometimes, without apologetics these doubts may grow and eventually cause a believer to turn away from Christianity. Apologetics helps these people combat their doubts and ultimately become better Christians in the end.

The last of the three roles of apologetics presented by Dr. Craig is to evangelize unbelievers. Introducing this point, he writes:

Few people would disagree with me that apologetics strengthens the faith of Christian believers. But many will say that apologetics is not very useful in evangelism. As noted earlier, they claim that nobody comes to Christ through arguments. (I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this said.)

Now this dismissive attitude toward apologetics’ role in evangelism is certainly not the biblical view. As one reads the Acts of the Apostles, it’s evident that it was the apostles’ standard procedure to argue for the truth of the Christian worldview, both with Jews and pagans (e.g., Acts 17:2–3, 17; 19:8; 28:23–24). In dealing with Jewish audiences, the apostles appealed to fulfilled prophecy, Jesus’ miracles, and especially Jesus’ resurrection as evidence that he was the Messiah (Acts 2:22–32). When they confronted Gentile audiences who did not accept Jewish Scripture, the apostles appealed to God’s handiwork in nature as evidence of the existence of the Creator (Acts 14:17). Then appeal was made to the eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus to show specifically that God had revealed himself in Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30–31; 1 Cor. 15:3–8).

While not everyone will be convinced by apologetic arguments, they certainly can benefit evangelism. I won’t claim that rational reasons are required to be a good Christian (I don’t think they are), but I do believe that they are an important part of a believer’s training and offer tremendous benefit to Christianity as a whole.

As I read Reasonable Faith, expect to see quotes or topics from it popping up from time to time, much like when I was reading a lot of C. S. Lewis. And with apologetics, the most important thing to remember is what I concluded my old post with:

Apologetics can tell someone why we believe what we we believe, but it can’t tell someone the nature and strength of that belief. We can tell people time and time again why we believe what we do, that two thousand years ago one man who claimed to be the Son of God was killed and rose from the dead. We won’t get anywhere, however, until we start telling them what it means.