* REACHING THE HAPPY THINKING PAGAN

In an interview, apolo-gist Ravi Zacharias offers lessons he's learned in presenting the Christian message to postmodern people.

The "happy pagan" feels no need for anything transcendent and though often a sophisticated thinker, does not ask the questions of life. Most of the intellectual elite of this country, in fact, completely disavow the idea of absolute truth. Ironically, while the average secular person will believe something without subjecting it to rational critique, he disbelieves Christian ideas on the basis that, he or she says, they are rationally inadmissible.

Often behind a difficult or angry question is a hurting heart; the intellect is intertwined with the heart. Even while you wrestle with the ideas of an opponent, you must keep the dignity of the opponent intact. In the years ahead, evangelism will increasingly become more difficult; it will be less propositional and more relational.

While our country's intellectual skeptics attack us ...