An Apologetics Overview

(By century, from 30,000 feet)

Ken Daniel, Sept 2010

Some motivating scriptures

I Peter 3:15 "Always be ready to give a reason...

Eph 4:14 "Tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine",

Acts 26:24 "...your great learning has driven you insane..."

Themes:

• The half-life of modern awareness; not lose valuable contributors from the past• Context over the centuries; an overview of selected major issues & players• To be an Acts 26 "man of knowledge"• Defense against: Pagan Religions, Distortions, Skepticism, Heresy, Cults• Evidentialism, Presuppositionalism, Rational Theology, Romantic Theology• Resources for the digital age: easy ebook access to classics

Epochs

Period The Challenge Protagonists

Early Church Paganism / Judaizers Paul

Church Fathers Heresy Arius Athanasius

Christendom Islam Muslim Theology Aquinas

Enlightenment Skepticism Hume Sam Johnson

Modernity Naturalism Huxley C.S. Lewis

Post-Modernity New Age / Secularism Dan Brown Tim Keller

Taking a closer look across the centuries, focusing on the past century....

Early Church & Church Fathers...from the NT through Augustine

NT and Early Church Challenges The Pagan world, the Judaizers, Gnosticism

Defenders Paul. Mars Hill, Trials and defenses John against the Gnostics Justin Martyr (103-165): Apologies (1&2), Dialogue with Trypho

Church Fathers  Challenges Greek Philosophy influence on Christology; Origen, Arius

Defenders Athanasius Christology debates        - Relevance: Gnosticism ... DaVinci Code   Augustine - Manicheanism

The Modern World

C.S. Lewis:St Athanasius on the Incarnation

Harold O.J. Brown: Heresies

Augustine: Confessions The Trinity City of God

Councils:• Nicea 325 Arianism• Constantinople 381 • Ephesus 431 Nestorianism• Chalcedon 451

Henry Chadwick: The Early Church

Middle AgesChallengesThreat of Islam, role of Aristotle; Averroes & Avicenna

DefendersAquinas, Scholasticism.    

Renaissance & Reformation. 16th-17thChallengesReaction against scholasticism; Humanism(Mostly polemics within the family of believers)

DefendersLuther vs Erasmus & Humanism: "Bondage of the Will"John Calvin: Institutes: (Presented to King Francis I as a defense of the Reformation)

Enlightenment. 17th-18th.ChallengesHume, Voltaire,  Gibbon, Diderot

DefendersPascal, (Kant), Jonathan Edwards,  William Paley, Sam Johnson, Rutherford, (Locke)

The Modern World

Christendom:...from the Middle Ages through The Enlightenment

R.C. Sproul, A. Lindsley, J. Gerstner:Classical Apologetics

Runcima:History of the Crusades

Peter Gay:The Enlightenment and the Rise of the New Paganism

Philip Benedict:Christ’s Churches, Purely Reformed

Jenkins:Lost History of Christianity

19th CenturyChallengesDarwin, Marx, Huxleys,  Higher Criticism, naturalism, materialism, modernism, positivism

DefendersOxford Movement, Princeton Seminary,    

20th CenturyChallengesSkepticism: Russell, G.B. Shaw, H.G.Wells Scientism/Evolution ... Scopes & Mencken to Gould & Sagan, Atheistic Materialism; Marxism; Liberal Theology: Tillich; Pietism, anti-intellectualism

DefendersNeo-Orthodoxy: Barth and Brunner, Niebuhrs R.A. Torrey & "The Fundamentals"Evangelical Awakening: Parachurch, InterVarsity, Crusade; L'Abri Evangelical seminaries, Christianity TodayAcademy and Pulpit: Machen, Carl Henry, John Stott; Society of Christian Philosophers; Apologetic Ministries: L’Abri & Francis Schaeffer, Ligonier & R.C. Sproul Os Guinness, John Warwick Montgomery, Josh McDowellPublic Intellectuals; Lewis, Chesterton; Secular Prophets, T.S. Kuhn, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Alan Bloom, Walker Percy

21st CenturyChallengesReligious Pluralism, new atheism, post-modern relativism; Enduring questions: Problem of Evil, Tolerance vs "one way"Humanity vs cyber culture; Compromisers: emerging church & post-modernism

Defenders (a sparse sample...)Tim Keller, Lee Strobel, Ken Myers, Alister McGrath, Ken Boa, Art LindsleyIntelligent Design: Discovery Institute, Michael Behe; Ravi Zacharias; ... C.S. Lewis InstituteSocrates in the City: Eric Metaxis

The Modern World:...from the Industrial Age to the Computer Age

Tim Keller:The Reason for God

B. Warfield:Inspiration & Authority of the Bible

Carl F.H. Henry:God, Revelation, & Authority

Francis Schaeffer:The God Who Is There

G.K.Chesterton:The Everlasting Man

C.S. Lewis:Mere Christianity

Breaking out and enlarging

19th CenturyChallenges

Darwin, T.H. Huxley,  Herbert Spencer Naturalism, materialism; Marx Biblical Higher Criticism, D.F. Strauss, J. Wellhausen Positivism A. Compte, J.S. Mill, Modernism: Nietzsche to Beckett

Defenders

Oxford Movement, Princeton Seminary 

The Modern World:...from the Industrial Age to the Computer Age

B.B. Warfield:Inspiration & Authority of the Bible

Josh McDowell:A Ready Defense

John Henry Newman:The Idea of a University

James Turner:Without God, Without Creed the Origins of Unbelief in America

20th CenturyChallenges

Skepticism: Russell, G.B. Shaw, H.G.Wells Scientism/Evolution ... Scopes & Mencken to Gould & Sagan, Atheistic Materialism; Marxism; FreudLiberal Theology: Bultmann, Tillich; (Pietism, anti-intellectualism)

Defenders

Neo-Orthodoxy: Barth and Brunner, Reinhold & RIchard Niebuhr R.A. Torrey & "The Fundamentals"Evangelical Awakening: Parachurch: InterVarsity, Campus Crusade; Evangelical seminaries, Christianity Today,Academy and Pulpit: Machen, Carl F.H. Henry, John Stott; Society of Christian Philosophers; Apologetic Ministries: L’Abri & Francis Schaeffer, Ligonier & R.C. Sproul Os Guinness, John Warwick Montgomery, Josh McDowell, Charles ColsonPublic Intellectuals; C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton; Secular Prophets, T.S. Kuhn, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Alan Bloom, Walker Percy, Neil Postman

The Modern World:...from the Industrial Age to the Computer Age

Carl F.H. Henry:God, Revelation, & Authority

Francis Schaeffer:The God Who Is There - “FAS’s Big Ideas”

G.K.Chesterton:The Everlasting Man

C.S. Lewis:Mere Christianity

Focus: C.S. Lewis

Chesterton had more sense than all the other moderns put together; bating, of course, his Christianity. Johnson was one of the few authors whom I felt I could trust utterly; curiously enough, he had the same kink.

On the other hand, those writers who did not suffer from religion and with whom in theory my sympathy ought to have been complete -- Shaw and Wells and Mill and Gibbon and Voltaire -- all seemed a little thin…

Surprised by Joy

Chapt 14: Checkmate

Samuel Johnson 1700sSamuel Johnson 1700sThe Literary ClubThe Literary Club

G.K. ChestertonG.K. ChestertonThe Everlasting Man (1925)The Everlasting Man (1925)

C.S. Lewis - from his autobiography

Back to 20th Century

20th CenturyChallenges

Skepticism: Russell, G.B. Shaw, H.G.Wells Scientism/Evolution ... Scopes & Mencken to Gould & Sagan, Atheistic Materialism; Marxism; FreudLiberal Theology: Bultmann, Tillich; (Pietism, anti-intellectualism)

Defenders

Neo-Orthodoxy: Barth and Brunner, Reinhold & RIchard Niebuhr R.A. Torrey & "The Fundamentals"Evangelical Awakening: Parachurch: InterVarsity, Campus Crusade; Evangelical seminaries, Christianity Today,Academy and Pulpit: Machen, Carl F.H. Henry, John Stott; Society of Christian Philosophers; Alvin PlantingaApologetic Ministries: L’Abri & Francis Schaeffer, Ligonier & R.C. Sproul Os Guinness, John Warwick Montgomery, Josh McDowell, Charles ColsonPublic Intellectuals; C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton; Secular Prophets, T.S. Kuhn, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Alan Bloom, Walker Percy, Neil Postman

The Modern World:...from the Industrial Age to the Computer Age

Carl F.H. Henry:God, Revelation, & Authority

Francis Schaeffer:The God Who Is There - “FAS’s Big Ideas”

G.K.Chesterton:The Everlasting Man

C.S. Lewis:Mere Christianity

21st CenturyChallenges

Religious Pluralism, new atheism, post-modern relativism; Enduring questions: Problem of Evil, Tolerance vs "one way" Humanity vs cyber culture; Compromisers: emerging church & post-modernism

Defenders (a sparse sample...)

Tim Keller, Lee Strobel, Ken Myers, Ken Boa, Art Lindsley, - Alister McGrath, Don Carson, N.T. Wright, Norman Geisler - J.P. Moreland, William Lane Craig Intelligent Design: Discovery Institute, Michael Behe; Ravi Zacharias; ... C.S. Lewis Institute Socrates in the City: Eric Metaxis

The Modern World:...from the Industrial Age to the Computer Age

Tim Keller:The Reason for God

D.A. Carson:Telling the Truth &Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church

Alister McGrath:Evangelicalism & the Future of Christianit

Ken Myers:Mars Hiill Audio Journal

Curt Thompson, MD:Anatomy of the

Soul

Topics for the 21st Century

Enduring Themes

Problem of Evil;

Uniqueness of Christ

Materialism & Scientism

Man as Machine

Philosophic underpinnings: Behaviorism

Moral Apologetics

The Autonomous Individual

Closing Thoughts

Book Clubs

Old Books & eBooks: Kindle and iPad

Right Brain vs Left Brain Apologetics

Curt Thompson, MD: Anatomy of the Soul

Mars Hill Audio Journal

Tim Keller (NYC) & Eric Metaxas (Socrates in the City)

Ravi Zacharas RZIM & C.S. Lewis Institute

Oxford Summer Program