Christian Witness & Apologetics

What does it mean to describe apologetics as “imaginative?” The authors of this volume understand it in at least two ways. First, it means a greater interest in imaginative works (i.e., literature and the visual arts). But more fundamentally, imaginative apologetics entails a rejection of…

Jeremiah Gibbs begins Apologetics after Lindbeck with a trope that has become commonplace in contemporary accounts of apologetics: an apology for the discipline itself. He is primarily concerned with the challenge posed by the post-liberal program represented by George Lindbeck. Post-liberal theology, Gibbs writes, rejects…

In Christian Apologetics as Cross-Cultural Dialogue, Bernard Van den Toren argues that we should rethink apologetics as  “cross-cultural dialogue aimed at persuasion.” In a globalized, pluralistic society, apologetics needs to become more “local” and “audience –centered,” taking “particular culturally embedded outlooks of the changing audiences…

Penner, Myron B. The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013. 174 pages. Provocative title notwithstanding, Myron Penner is not opposed to apologetics in principle. Rather, it is a particular kind of apologetics that he wishes to…