All Comments for: The Changing Face of Apologetics | Christianity Today

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2009 > June

Christianity Today, June, 2009 |

The Changing Face of Apologetics

Lee Strobel doesn't think the traditional methods work anymore.

Interview by Stan Guthrie | posted 6/11/2009 09:22AM

Lee Strobel has written many books—The Case for Faith, The Case for Christ, and The Case for the Real Jesus among them—that provide intellectual reasons, wrapped in stories, for the Christian ...

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Rate and Comment on this article

Displaying 1 - 25 of 31 comments.

Page: 1 2

Show All

LauraK

Posted: June 18, 2009 2:15 PM

I am getting burned out on all the talk--let's have some action in the church. Let's have the pastor stop begging us for money (we tithers especially are annoyed), and hound the poor to give offerings, and yet they stand on the platform in tailor-made suits, rolex watches, expensive cars, and gated communities. I thought they were to set an example for us. They say they are an example of how God can prosper Christians. I am doing find financially, thanks to God, and we give that 10% faithfully (some say it's a law from the OT we don't need to follow, but we enjoy giving anyway). Here's a big difference--I have to go out in the wicked world to make my money, the preachers are given money by those of us who work in the world but they get to hang out with big name preachers and such and have them praying for them. I, the partner, get someone whom I know nothing about on the other end of the phone line when I call in for prayer. Something is wrong in this picture.

Tom	Posted: June 17, 2009 7:58 AM

Could someone explain to me what the heck "A Post-Modern world" is? I read this in CT over and over and this phrase keeps getting bandied about. By the Way, Pluralism is one of the main reasons why Christianity is such a powerful influence in America. You come to the faith because when philosophies have an opportunity to compete in a free market, the most powerful ones take the strongest roots - and not at the expense of the others.

Fr. Ian

Posted: June 16, 2009 11:47 AM

There have always been challenges to and distractions from the Christian faith. We worry if the Bible or if faith is relevant to the needs of society. Sometimes we try something new to meet those needs whether they are real or perceived. The truth of the matter is that Holy Scripture is always relevant to all cultures and all times because it addresses issues that are timeless. Forgiveness and reconciliation; what culture or generation does not cry out for that? We don't need to dumb down the Gospel. The gift stays the same, it's the packaging that we change.

Dan	Posted: June 15, 2009 5:26 PM


MC - Well said!

Jan Brown (Registered User)

Posted: June 15, 2009 11:25 AM


Neil Gussman- Our prayers are with you. Thanks for the great post.

Mary K

Posted: June 13, 2009 12:03 AM


Using story in the business world is getting more and more press. Using story to bring the life of Christ to non-believers does not surprise me at all. Jesus did it all the time. How else are we puny human able to comprehend the magnificence of God and His gift?

Dennis Linscomb

Posted: June 12, 2009 6:53 PM

I think the statement "Some Christian apologists, such as William Lane Craig, dispute that we are living in a postmodern society." is out of context. Craig says in the Q&A portion of his website (Reasonable Faith) that there are certainly currents of postmodernism in our society, but he says "Nobody is a post-modernist when it comes to reading the labels on a medicine bottle versus a box of rat poison. (If you’ve got a headache, you better believe that texts have objective meaning!)" I agree. People still use the laws of logic in their everyday life.

Hendrik van der Breggen

Posted: June 12, 2009 5:32 PM

In my pre-Christian days I was often wary and even sometimes fearful of stories (especially religious conversion stories) because I realized (and still realize) that a really good story unconnected to reality could influence greatly by emotional appeal instead of truth. I think many so-called postmoderns realize this too. I'm glad that Strobel is connecting the objective reality of biblical truth to the personal story of his conversion. The result is that his story isn't just one more personal story unconnected to external reality. The external reality can be checked out. I'm glad, too, for the superb philosophical-apologetical work of the likes of William Lane Craig. Without Craig's work, I'm confident that I couldn't have successfully completed my PhD dissertation about miracle reports (done at a secular university).

johnkking

Posted: June 12, 2009 2:20 PM

The interview is good and reminds us we live in transitional times. Postmodernism does not arrive like turning the pages of a book to a new chapter. Because it has not come to where you live does not mean it is not coming. Regarding evangelizing through story form, are so many readers of this interview biblically illiterate? Jesus persisted in using stories (lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, pearl of great price, etc.). God chose to have Jesus' life presented in narratives. Not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 different tellings that addressed diverse worldviews. Jesus is the answer for all, but how his story is presented demands careful consideration. Maybe we are going back to our source. The Bible (beginning to end) reveals the story of God. He creates. He pursues. He disciplines. He saves. He gathers. He transforms. Spend some time revealling how his story intersects your story, but most importantly help people discover God's story. "What do I learn about God?" is the question!

GeoP	Posted: June 12, 2009 12:58 PM

The problem with changing evangelism to a story centered upon 'me'..instead of upon the facts of a Savior who really did live, die, and was resurrected...is that it is easily countered by the arguement "I'm really glad that worked for you. Hare Krishna worked for me." (And you can replace 'Hare Krishna' with any method of finding 'peace with God however you perceive him to be'.) MY story is subjective. The GOSPEL is truth based upon facts.

SS	Posted: June 12, 2009 8:48 AM


Albert - What is your "non-marketing" solution?

Scott

Posted: June 12, 2009 8:39 AM


Why not trust the Holy Spirit to do the work while we sow the seed as the Father directs?

Neil Gussman

Posted: June 12, 2009 3:07 AM

I am reading this article at an air base in Iraq. I am an old sergeant who reads books surrounded by young men and women for whom every cultural reference is to a movie or a song. They don't read for entertainment let alone for persuasion. And in matters of science, the one bit of evidence-based culture left in the modern world, Strobel has aligned himself with pseudoscience. He quotes Stephen Hawking, Allan Sandage and Micheal Behe as equals on science on beliefnet--roughly the equivalent of quoting George S. Patton, Dwight Eisenhower and John Wayne as equals on military strategy. For the year I am here, I hope to minister to people who really want to read the word, not use it as labels to pin on their own ideas. But I know there will be many opportunities for evangelism, because the calls from home will come and lives will fall apart from 6000 miles away and those of us with faith will be there for those with needs.

Howard Pepper

Posted: June 12, 2009 1:38 AM

I'm sure what Strobel is saying here is accurate. It's some step forward that Evangelicals are seeing how enlightenment rationalism, much as it's been despised by them, has deeply influenced forms of Christianity, both liberal and conservative. But as long as certain Christians follow the lead of the NT itself, in trying to tie particular theological views to history via purported "revelation" (mainly Paul) and an extensive story of Jesus, with a supposedly physical, verifiable resurrection, there will be a need for Strobel's earlier kind of apologetics, or McDowell's, or Groothuis', etc. And it will bolster the faith of the already convinced. But, as the article suggests, it has less and less ability to make a case to the biblically illiterate or to those of us who have studied in serious depth and understand the process of story construction vis a vis developing theology.

Nimrod

Posted: June 12, 2009 1:03 AM


The need for a story is evidence for the post-modern reality. The evidences approach that impacted me in the early 70s does not speak to my children or their friends (at least in Europe). If Christianity does not "work" it does not matter.

A Disciple

Posted: June 11, 2009 11:35 PM


If only people try harder to investigate seriously the DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS as a vision-based means of knowing him firsthand and personally, in terms of his absolute power over death and life (John 3: 1-21; 8: 21-28; 10: 17-18; 19: 30-37), there would be more "life in all its fulness" and less need for drifting apologetics and theology!

Dana	Posted: June 11, 2009 9:26 PM

We're definitely in the middle of a dichotomy. There's a large contingent of average joes obsessed with intellectual or pseudo-intellectual arguments for Christianity, eating up the works of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, et. al. And yet, when I meet such people and they are confronted with works like A-grade philosopher Alvin Plantinga's argument for the rationality of belief in the Bible's example of God ("God and Other Minds"), stripped of a logical counter-argument to such the atheist just shuts down. So I wonder, despite the obsession with intellectual proofs (which I can understand, as it's a hobby of mine), if this is not the point in the conversation where approaches like Strobel's story-telling show themselves to be infinitely useful. You can form an irrefutable philosophical argument 'til the cows come home, and still hit a brick wall. So. I wonder.

Kaley

Posted: June 11, 2009 9:02 PM


I totally disagree with Sam. You are a close minded, non-christian by the looks of it and need to get a life. Apologetics do work and your just to blind to see it, and they've probably never been used on you because you don't have any friends that like you enough to. My advice: go to church and meet some real friends, and get a life outside of criticizing christian websites with your pessimism.

Roger - Faith Interface

Posted: June 11, 2009 6:21 PM

Maybe Van Til was correct when he said that purely presenting evidence for the Christian faith is not enough? Maybe Presuppositionalism is correct and the noetic effects of sin on the human mind prevents fallen humans from accepting even the most cogent arguments for the existence of God and the claims of Christ? McDowell and Strobel have failed because they have put too much trust in pure evidence and too much trust in the open-mindedness of the unbeliever to truth. I believe that there is still a place for evidence, but until we realise that it is only by the inner working of the Holy Spirit that a person accepts God's truth, we will continue to be dissapointed. www.faithinterface.com.au/

Mike Wimsatt

Posted: June 11, 2009 5:08 PM

I am in the process of reading this book now, and it is just great !!! Lee visited Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Il recently and he spoke about some of the items mentioned in this book. I encourage anyone who is interest in sharing the Gospel with others at work, in the Grocery Store, or on the street, this book will show you ways to do it and give you encouragement to share your faith. Get it today !!!

Albert

Posted: June 11, 2009 5:00 PM

We need to quit blaming "pluralism" as if it were some evil plot! Pluralism is the reality of multiple worldviews. It's just that in America, many Christians were able to pretend that there would be a majority of Christians that would overwhelm the other worldviews. And that is not happening anymore. Take a cue from Leslie Newbigin's "The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society". Another caution is that if all we are doing is modifying our marketing strategy from rational argumentation to narrative persuasion -- it's still just marketing.

MP	Posted: June 11, 2009 4:54 PM

Interesting that Strobel has finally figured this out. The mega church he worked for has admitted in its own self study that sneaking Jesus in the back door of contemporary relevance fails to make mature Christians. Why not embrace a robust Trinitarian vision of God, the church, and the world? The problem with evangelical apologetics is that it has no ecclesiology. Relational, dialogical, etc., sounds good but still does not say whether such relations and dialogue are shaped by the "Word made flesh."

Gregg

Posted: June 11, 2009 4:48 PM


Duh! Francis Schaeffer was talking about this years ago. Where has everyone been? Apologetics has always been relational if it is going to be effective. Let us not look at this as some new approach; rather let us look at it as if we are finally starting to understand what works.

Dale Fincher

Posted: June 11, 2009 4:35 PM

I work with all ages all over the country. In working with teens, some are more postmodern than others. In doing apologetics (www.soulation.org), I find people resonate with a wide variety of ideas all of which we try to have as tools at our disposal. On the topic of this interview, evangelism garners opinions from every angle and often stirs up some name calling and telling others they don't really understand what helps people "convert." We need to be more human when sharing others. This means rethinking not just how we talk to people but what our loving purpose is in talking to them. We tend to miss the point of Jesus when sharing Jesus. We tend to be more open mouthed than open eared. We tend to put "non-Christians" into boxes, sealed and labeled. We tend to think the people we meet on the street need more saving than we do. My wife and I co-wrote a new book releasing this fall on how to do that better: Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk.

John Holecek

Posted: June 11, 2009 4:26 PM


Apologetics is generally a mix of rational argument and personal story, but, unfortunately, Protestant apologetics is always incomplete. Without the Eucharist, truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ, there is a hole at the center of Protestantism that no amount of praise music, Bible study or worship experimentation can fill.

Page: 1 2

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment