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Evangelicalism is committed to evangelism-that is, the proclamation of the gospel in the full confidence that it contains something God-given that will enable it to find a response in the hearts and minds of men and women. Evangelism is natural to evangelicals. "The church," wrote Emil Brunner, "lives by mission as a fire lives by burning." Evangelism is something intrinsic to the identity of the church-not an optional extra, but something that is part and parcel of its very being.

To give such an emphasis to evangelism is thus to recognize both the inherent rightness of the gospel and its intrinsic attractiveness. That attraction is supremely the person of Jesus Christ. It is a "pearl of great price," something that is recognized to be worth seeking and possessing, and whose possession overshadows everything else. Evangelicalism thus fosters an attitude of expectation-an expectation that the gospel will be a delight and joy to others. This is coupled with a systematic endeavor to uncover the ways in which the inherent appeal of the gospel can be best articulated, in the certainty that this appeal rests on a reliable and responsible historical and theological foundation.

It must be stressed that there is no question of altering the gospel to make it more attractive. For evangelicalism, that is the supreme error of liberalism-doing violence to the gospel itself in an attempt to make it more easily acceptable to modern culture. The issue is ensuring that the gospel is preached faithfully for all it is worth, without the misrepresentations that cause offense to so many.

Many secular writers respond to this emphasis on evangelism by reaching for the nearest cliche and writing of "Christian imperialism"; others suggest that the churches have become obsessed with marketing their product, presenting evangelism as some kind of religious public-relations industry.

Both these comments are deeply revealing of the failure of an increasingly secular society to understand the primary motivation for evangelism. The fundamental motivation for evangelism is generosity-the basic human concern to share the good things of life with those we love. It does not reflect a desire to sell or dominate; it arises from love and compassion on the part of those who have found something wonderful and want others to share in its joy. It is, as the old adage has it, like one beggar telling another where to find bread.

A central task of evangelism is to make Christianity credible in the modern world. The area of Christian thought that has dealt with this matter is apologetics-the "defense of the faith," to give a rough translation of the Greek word apologia, used in 1 Peter 3:15. A good working definition of apologetics would be "the attempt to create an intellectual climate favorable to Christian faith" or "a concern to enhance the public plausibility of the gospel." In the past, apologetics has been a significant aspect of the ongoing mission of the church, to which evangelicals have made a contribution.

Yet the situation in which the Western church finds itself has radically changed, with the dawn of a post-Enlightenment world. The rise of the movement usually called postmodernism is a telling sign of the loss of confidence in reason and "modern" ideas and values in today's culture. The rise of postmodernism reflects the seriously eroded credibility of a universal rationality once regarded as central to "liberal" theological method. As liberal commentator Eugene Borowitz remarks, "Liberalism lost its cultural hegemony largely because of the demythologization of its allies, universal rationalism and science. At one time we thought them not only our finest sources of truth but our surest means to human ennoblement. Today the sophisticated know that they deal only in possible 'constructions of reality,' and the masses sense that they commend ethical relativism more than necessary values and duties."

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June 19 1995, Vol. 39, No. 7