pulse magazine - issue 12

R Z I M E U R O P E ’ S M A G A Z I N E

Introducing Christian Hofreiter

Interview with John Lennox

www.rzim.eu

BEYOND NARNIA: The Imaginative Appeal of Faith

Training Weekends Relaunched

ISSUE 12 | AUTUMN 2012

C. S. Lewis SUMMER SCHOOL 2013

AUTUMN 2012 | PULSE ISSUE 12

Our speakers are trained to respond to the objections and questions that people have about faith, so that

lives might be transformed by the gospel message. We also help to resource the church, through apologetics

articles and talks, engagement with the media, training events and academic courses at the Oxford Centre for

Christian Apologetics (OCCA). Furthermore, we run an Associates Programme for emerging evangelists around

Europe and we contribute to the work of Wellspring International, RZIM’s humanitarian organisation.

RZIM Europe is the working name of RZIM Zacharias Trust, a charitable company founded in 1997 that is limited by guarantee and registered in England. Company No. 3449676. Charity No. 1067314

PRINTER | VERITÉ CM LTD

DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION | KAREN SAWREY

PHOTOGRAPHY | JOHN CAIRNS

STOCK IMAGES | COVER IMAGE & P6: © ALAMY.

INSIDE PAGES: ISTOCKphoto & [email protected]

The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA) is a partnership between RZIM and Wycliff e Hall, a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford.

RAVI ZACHARIAS

PRESIDENT OF RZIM AND SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT WYCLIFFE HALL

MICHAEL RAMSDEN

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR OF RZIM AND DIRECTOR OF THE OCCA

ALISTER MCGRATH

PRESIDENT OF THE OCCA

AMY ORR-EWING

UK DIRECTOR OF RZIM AND CURRICULUM DIRECTOR OF THE OCCA

JOHN LENNOX

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT THE OCCA

OS GUINNESS

SENIOR FELLOW AT THE OCCA

VINCE VITALE

SENIOR TUTOR, OCCAAND RZIM ITINERANT SPEAKER

TOM PRICE

TUTOR, OCCAAND RZIM ITINERANT SPEAKER

SHARON DIRCKX

TUTOR, OCCAAND RZIM ITINERANT SPEAKER

MICHELLE TEPPER

RZIM ITINERANT SPEAKER

TANYA WALKER

RZIM ITINERANT SPEAKER

VLAD CRIZNIC

DIRECTOR OF RZIM ROMANIA

RZIM Europe, 76 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6JT T: +44 (0)1865 302900 F: +44 (0)1865 318451 www.rzim.eu

our team includes:

HELPING THE THINKER BELIEVE AND THE BELIEVER THINK

RZIM Europe is an evangelistic organisation that seeks to engage hearts and minds for Christ.


WELCOME TO THE T WELFTH EDITION OF

pulse magazine

PULSE ISSUE 12 | AUTUMN 2012

CONTENTSINTERVIEW WITH

JOHN LENNOX 4BEYOND NARNIA 6C. S. LEWIS EVENT 9TRAINING WEEKENDS 10DIARY DATES 11THE OCCA BUSINESS

PROGRAMME 12INTRODUCING

CHRISTIAN HOFREITER 13WHAT IS FAITH? 14MISSIONS AT THE OCCA 16THE DARK SIDE

OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY 18WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL? 21

IN THIS ISSUE:

C. S. LEWIS

To mark the 50th anniversary of

C. S. Lewis' death (2013), the next

RZIM Summer School will be focusing

on his apologetic work and his legacy

to the Christian faith (page 9). Mere

Christianity remains one of the most

infl uential apologetics books and,

in his article ‘Beyond Narnia’, Alister

McGrath discusses the endearing

appeal of Lewis’ work (page 6).

TRAINING EVENTS

There are also a number of RZIM

training events coming up over

the next few months, the fi rst of

which is ‘How do I answer that?’,

a day conference on 22 September in

Manchester (back cover). This will be

followed by a training day in Oxford

on 26 January entitled ‘Confi dence

in the truth’. We are also happy to

announce that, in February, we will

be re-launching the popular RZIM

Training Weekends (page 10).

INTRODUCING CHRISTIAN HOFREITER

We are pleased to announce the

appointment of Christian Hofreiter

to the RZIM team and you can read

more about his work and passion for

evangelism on page 13.

EVANGELISM AND THE OCCA

Our primary goal is to communicate

the gospel message to others

eff ectively and the training at the

OCCA is designed to equip Christians

to do likewise. Sharon Dirckx explains

why participating in missions is an

important part of helping students on

the one-year programme to develop

the practical skills they need to do

evangelism (page 16). The OCCA also

off ers a six-week course tailored to

business professionals and the details

of this can be found on page 12.

WELLSPRING INTERNATIONAL

Another side to our ‘practical

apologetics’ is Wellspring

International, the humanitarian

arm of RZIM. In ‘What is beautiful?’,

Naomi Zacharias discusses the

work of the organisation and what

sex-selective abortion says about

humanity (page 21).

ARGUMENTS FROM THE NEW ATHEISTS

Isn’t it true that science and

religion don’t mix, hasn’t

Christianity caused a lot of

suff ering throughout history

and isn’t faith the preserve of

those who have no evidence?

These topics are tackled by

John Lennox (page 4), Michael

Ramsden (page 14) and Simon

Wenham (page 18) respectively.

Simon Wenham

RESEARCH CO-ORDINATOR


Is it important for Christian leaders to have a thirst for scientifi c literacy?

I think it’s immensely important.

Science has enormous cultural

authority. In a sense, nature has

replaced God and scientists have

become nature’s high priests. There

is concern on the part of churches

of all kinds to increase scientifi c

literacy, because that is where a

threat is perceived. And of course it is.

Because who are the gurus of the age?

Dawkins and co., who are scientifi cally

literate - or at least claim to be.

What should Christians be literate about, in terms of scientifi c theories?

The problem lies more in the

philosophy of science, rather than

science itself. People need to be aware

that science is limited. ‘Scientism’ is the

big enemy at the moment – [the view

that] science is the only way to truth.

There is immense eff ort being put into

this, to try and invade every area. The

latest, very important one is ethics.

Einstein rightly said, ‘You can talk about

the ethical foundations of science,

but not the scientifi c foundation of

ethics’. But the pressure is to make

science the arbiter of everything.

And it’s that, more than anything

else, that needs to be discussed.

It’s learning that science is limited.

Do science and religion really ask fundamentally diff erent, distinct questions about the universe?

Not entirely distinct but largely

distinct. It was Stephen Jay Gould

who popularised the notion of

INTERVIEW WITH

JOHNLENNOX

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John Lennox, Oxford Professor of Mathematics and one of Britain’s most popular authors on the subject of science and Christianity, talks to Jonathan Langley about proving God, unhelpful Christians and missional science.

John Lennox was recently awarded the 2012 Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth, in recognition of his eloquent

responses to naturalism and for his defence of intelligent agency in the universe from the perspective of science and

philosophy (see www.johnlennox.org for further information).


5‘non-overlapping magisteria’ (NOMA,

he called it) where you kept them

completely separate. My own take is

to say: yes, in general, science largely

answers the ‘how’ question, whereas

religion would answer the ‘why’ of

purpose. But there is an overlap since,

speaking as a Christian, the Bible

does talk about the real world that

physics and chemistry talk about. So

there is an overlap – it’s small, but

it’s highly signifi cant. And signifi cant

because that is a position that seems

to have driven a lot of Christians,

particularly in North America, to

a kind of anti-science position.

Is the anti-science position helpful to the debate, to the Church and to the world?

Absolutely not. I think it’s a major

tragedy, because it’s what the new

atheists over here love: ‘you’ve got

to choose: God or science.’ And I

want to fi ght against that choice. I

want to say that asking people to

choose between God and science is

like asking them to choose between

Henry Ford and the laws of internal

combustion to explain a motorcar.

Which is just foolish, because you

need both a description in terms

of an agency (Henry Ford), and law

and mechanism (the science side).

School kids can see it, but Dawkins

and many of his colleagues cannot.

They think scientifi c explanation is

exhaustive, which of course it isn’t.

Why do you think the anti-science movement in the Christian Church has become so popular?

I think it’s broader than anti-science.

There’s an anti-intellectual streak

that comes from a confusion about

the nature of faith. The new atheists

have scored a big hit in redefi ning

faith as believing where there is no

evidence – you know, what we’d

normally call ‘blind faith’. I think that’s

where a lot of the problem lies. Some

Christians have bought into [the

idea that] faith is something that just

happens to you; it’s believing where

there is no evidence, so we don’t

need to enter this kind of debate.

In my view this is not Biblical.

Quantum physics seems to be quite important for Christians, because it, in some ways, undermines the idea that nature is fi xed and rigid, and science leaves no room for anything we can’t explain in simple, mechanical terms.

But that has not connected with the

public mind, unfortunately: that the

old clockwork universe of Newton is

no longer with us, so to speak. That

opens up a whole lot of possibility

obviously. The universe gets more

and more mysterious. You’re absolutely

right – there’s that element in there

and it needs to be mentioned. How

far you can take it is another matter

as we don’t really understand it.

Should Christians consider the idea of paradigm shift s good news in terms of scientifi c apologetics?

Yes and no. I think the old idea of

the objective scientist observing a

clockwork universe has gone. The

social critique of sciences, in that sense,

has done the service of recognising

that science is done by communities

and they all have their belief systems

and we bring our theories to our

observations. To quote the well-worn

phrase: ‘observations are theory-laden’.

However, there is a danger in taking

that to its extremes where you get the

postmodern, relativism of truth [that

holds that] everybody’s theory is as

good as anybody’s else’s. And I think

I would say – although this might be

a controversial thesis for some – that

most working scientists are critical

realists. They believe there is truth

out there – we never get absolutely

to it but certainly Newton’s an

improvement on Aristotle or Ptolemy,

and Einstein is an improvement on

Newton. We are getting somewhere.

But some people are more modest

these days in making their truth claims

because they are aware of the Kuhnian

social critique of science work.

Antony Flew [a philosopher of science who made his name attacking religion and later came to the conclusion, based on scientifi c evidence, that God must exist] said that people like Dawkins were beyond their fi elds of expertise by making philosophical judgments…

Well, that’s absolutely right. And

Dawkins is a rotten philosopher.

The best way, if you read German,

is to see what’s being said about

Dawkins and Hawking on the

continent – they’re just not regarded

as serious thinkers at all! Even

though their books are bestsellers.

Do you believe we can prove God’s existence?

The word ‘proof’ is loaded. If by ‘proof’

you mean mathematical proof, which

is my subject, well, no, of course you

can’t – you can’t prove anything

except things in mathematics. You

can’t prove my wife loves me. You

can’t prove that Napoleon fought at

Waterloo, or anything like that. But

if you mean ‘proof’ in the informal

sense, which means ‘prove beyond

reasonable doubt’, that is ‘give

evidence for’, well, that is another

matter. You can’t do it in the sense of

mathematics, but don’t run away with

the idea that there is not very strong

evidence for belief in God and Christ,

enough to stake your life on it. It’s that

sort of thing you want to get across.

Is engagement with science a missional issue?

Utterly. We are in a battle for what is

truth. And that is why many people

are very happy when I talk about

abstract, philosophical evidence of the

existence of God, but they become

very unhappy when I talk about Christ.

That’s too much for them. That’s

what Dawkins hates, of course.

John Lennox

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT THE OCCA

Interview by Jonathan Langley, which fi rst appeared in Mission Catalyst 3 (2012) and was reproduced by kind permission (www.bmsworldmission.org/catalyst).


7

Lewis was already well-known for his

witty Screwtape Letters (1942), and was

on the road to international literary

acclaim through his The Lion, the Witch

and the Wardrobe (1950) – the fi rst

of the seven ‘Chronicles of Narnia’.

These fantastical tales of children in

the land of Narnia established him

as the J. K. Rowling of the 1950s.

Lewis never tired of defending the

place of fairy tales in western culture.

He showed an imaginative vision

of reality which contrasted with

what he called the ‘glib and shallow

rationalism’ he knew in his own youth.

Yet most cultural analysts regarded

Mere Christianity as too wedded to

the anxieties and concerns of

Lewis’s own age to be of any

relevance to later generations.

Even Lewis himself was gloomy

about the future prospects of his

works. They would, he once remarked,

BEYOND

NARNIA:THE IMAGINATIVE APPEAL OF FAITH

Sixty years ago, C. S. Lewis published a short book entitled Mere Christianity. It was based on a series of talks Lewis

had given on the BBC during the Second World War, exploring the

foundations of faith and their relevance during this time of danger and uncertainty.

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8

be forgotten within fi ve years of his

death. Lewis, who died in 1963, was

widely regarded as an irrelevance

to the new social, intellectual and

religious issues of the 1960s.

In its obituary for Lewis, Time

magazine declared him to be ‘one

of the church’s minor prophets’,

a defender of the faith who ‘with

fashionable urbanity justifi ed an

unfashionable orthodoxy against

the heresies of his time’. Yet the

tone of the obituary was that

of marking Lewis’s passing, not

anticipating his resurrection. Lewis

would be remembered as ‘an

impressive scholar’ by those who

looked backwards. There was to

be no future. Even Lewis’s friends

regarded him as a spent force.

Then Lewis bounced back. Nobody

really knows why. From about

1990, Lewis enjoyed a resurgence

of such magnitude that his books

now sell more copies than at any

point during his lifetime. He now

enjoys the dubious privilege of

being pilloried with equal vigour by

both the American religious right

and secular left – a sure sign of the

potent threat that Lewis is seen to

pose to the complacencies of both.

Part of the explanation for this

comeback lies in the continuing

popular appeal of the Narnia series,

given a new lease of life through big

budget movies. But Lewis’s renewed

appeal ultimately owes more to the

ideas of Mere Christianity than to the

magical world of Narnia. Lewis is

more than a master story-teller. He

possessed a rare ability to convey the

imaginative and rational appeal of

faith in a time of growing scepticism

towards both religious ideas and

institutions. In North America, Lewis

is appealing to a new generation

which has grown weary of the

shallow grandstanding that has

come to pass for public Christianity

in recent decades, especially during

Presidential election campaigns.

A fatigue with the superfi cial and a

yearning for the real substance of faith

has driven many to pick up Lewis and

read him again with new interest.

In Britain, religious believers are

fi nding Lewis both a source of

spiritual depth and intellectual

breadth. The rise of the so-called

‘New Atheism’ has made many within

the British churches aware of the

importance of apologetics, with

Lewis widely acknowledged as a

master of the genre. Lewis’s Narnian

fantasies off ered narrative adventure

and religious allegory in about

equal measure. Yet Mere Christianity

off ered a compelling vision of

Christianity that still resonates with

many today. To the surprise of some

commentators, Mere Christianity is

often identifi ed in popular surveys

as the most infl uential religious

book of the twentieth century.

Why is this? Lewis’s Oxford colleague

Austin Farrer had little doubt about

the reason for the work’s infl uence.

It affi rmed both the rational integrity

and imaginative appeal of faith. ‘We

think we are listening to an argument;

in fact, we are presented with a

vision, and it is the vision that carries

conviction’. While off ering a defence

of the reasonableness of faith, Lewis

emphasised the ability of faith to

connect with the deepest human

intuitions about life, and captivate the

human imagination. It is an important

point, which British churches need to

take to heart as they refl ect on how

best to reconnect the Christian faith

with their wider culture. It is one thing

to argue that Christian faith makes

sense. It is quite another to show

that it is imaginatively compelling

and existentially transformative.

Yet there is another point at which

Mere Christianity speaks deeply

to contemporary Christianity: on

both sides of the Atlantic Mere

Christianity was, and is, a manifesto

for a form of Christianity that exults

in essentials, regarding other matters

as of secondary importance. Lewis’s

notion of ‘Mere Christianity’ was more

than a rejection of denominational

supremacy. It was also a subtle

critique of the abuses of power and

privilege that so easily arise in more

institutionalized forms of Christianity.

Lewis is generally critical of the clergy

in his writings. As a lay Christian, he

came to see himself as representing

a form of Christianity that recognized

the crucial role of the laity, allowing

neither clergy nor ecclesiastical

institutions any special privileges.

Perhaps this is why so many Catholics,

increasingly disenchanted with the

failings of their bishops and dioceses

in response to allegations of child

abuse, are turning to Lewis as a role

model. They fi nd in him a prophetic

voice that allows them to reaffi rm

their personal faith, without having

also to affi rm the religious institutions

which they believe to have

tarnished this faith in recent years.

Lewis has managed to unite

Christians across the denominational

spectrum who have come to see

him as a trustworthy, intelligent,

and accessible representative of a

theologically and culturally attractive

vision of the Christian faith. As

churches and general readers prepare

to mark the fi ftieth anniversary of

his death next year, it is clear that

Lewis’s writings still have immense

spiritual and intellectual power.

© Alister McGrath

PRESIDENT OF THE OXFORD CENTRE FOR CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS

IN FACT, WE ARE PRESENTED WITH A VISION, AND IT IS

THE VISION THAT CARRIES CONVICTION . . .

His latest book Mere Apologetics is available in bookshops.

A new biography of C. S. Lewis, written by Alister, will be

published by Hodder & Stoughton in March 2013.

This article fi rst appeared in The Times on Saturday,

7 January 2012.


RZIM SUMMER

SCHOOL 2013,

30 JUNE – 6 JULY 2013

‘If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.’ (C. S. LEWIS)

‘I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.’ (C. S. LEWIS)

Many illustrious names are associated

with the public defence of Christianity,

but among the pantheon of famous

apologists, C. S. Lewis looms largest.

The Northern Irishman, who arrived in

Oxford during the First World War as

an atheist undergraduate, would leave

the city, almost forty years later, as

one of the most celebrated Christians

in the country. In many ways, Lewis

was the archetypal apologist; a gifted

communicator whose work resonated

with a wide constituency ranging from

academics to children. His work has

also inspired generations of Christian

thinkers, as there are few areas of

apologetics that have not been

informed, at least in some way, by this

remarkable author. Whether it is the

topic of miracles, prayer, joy, morality,

suff ering, the abolition of humankind

or the nature of the spiritual realm, he

was written something authoritative

on it.

The 2013 RZIM Oxford Summer School

is a week-long apologetics conference,

held at The Queen’s College, that

will mark the fi ftieth anniversary of

the death of C. S. Lewis. It will include

sessions that examine his legacy to

the Christian community and teaching

on some of the principle subjects

he addressed, as well as apologetics

material from RZIM that has drawn

upon his work. The Summer School is

designed to help and equip Christians

to communicate and defend their faith

more eff ectively. After all, the task of

the apologist is much the same as an

educator’s, which according to Lewis

is ‘not to cut down jungles, but to

irrigate deserts.’

For further information

about the event see

www.rzim.eu.

Bookings will be taken

from 1 November.

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of C. S. Lewis,

and RZIM Europe will be considering his life and works

in the Oxford Summer School.

C. S. Lewis SUMMER SCHOOL 2013

C. S. LEWIS CHALLENGE 2013

Why not take the opportunity to create a ‘C. S. Lewis group’ for the year in your local area? Each group could meet monthly to discuss diff erent aspects of Lewis’ work. This could include holding book discussions, fi lm nights featuring the Narnia stories, or evangelistic events with a guest speaker addressing a particular theme that C. S. Lewis covered (with a question and answer session afterwards).

ILLUSTRATION BY KAREN SAWREY


RELAUNCHED

TRAINING

W E A R E P L E A S E D T O A N N O U N C E T H A T ,

I N F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3 , W E W I L L B E R E L A U N C H I N G

T H E P O P U L A R R Z I M E U R O P E T R A I N I N G W E E K E N D S .

Spread over three long-weekends in the year, the course provides in depth teaching in apologetics and the spiritual disciplines. Our aim is to equip each participant to be a dynamic witness in whatever context God has placed them in, by helping them to grapple with the heartfelt questions and intellectual challenges of apologetics, as well as to grow signifi cantly in spiritual life and character. Th e training is structured to allow for a lot of interaction with speakers and opportunities to ask questions. Past courses have also proved to be times of forging meaningful and lasting friendships with like-minded Christians

SPEAKERS FOR THE COURSE INCLUDE MICHAEL RAMSDEN, AMY ORR-EWING, JOHN LENNOX, TANYA WALKER,

TOM PRICE, MICHELLE TEPPER, VINCE VITALE SHARON DIRCKX AND CHRISTIAN HOFREITER.

14th – 17th February 2013, Cheltenham

To register your interest and for further details, please email offi [email protected].

Phase 1 (Feb, Apr and Sept)

• Conversational Apologetics

• Spiritual Disciplines

• Logical Fallacies

• Th e Cross

Phase 2 (11 - 14 Apr)

• New Atheism

• Postmodernism

• Th e Problem of Pain

• Th e Origin of the Universe

Phase 3 (Sept)

• Eastern Spirituality

• Islam

• Ethics and Judgment

• Th e reliability of the Bible

C O U R S E C O N T E N T I N C L U D E S :


SELECTED EUROPEAN HIGHLIGHTS:

THE DIARY

THIS LIST DOES NOT INCLUDE ALL OF THE EVENTS THAT OUR SPEAKERS ARE INVOLVED WITH AND SOME MAY BE SUBJECT TO

CHANGE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT ANY OF THE ABOVE, PLEASE CONTACT OUR OXFORD OFFICE

22 RZIM TRAINING DAY, MANCHESTER (Team)

26-28 APOLOGETICS TRAINING, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (Os Guinness)

27 BATH UNIVERSITY EVENTS (Michael Ramsden and Tanya Walker)

29-30 APOLOGIA CONFERENCE, GOTEBÖRG, SWEDEN (Os Guinness)

30 HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON, LONDON (Michael Ramsden)

1 APOLOGETICS TALK, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (Os Guinness)

2 ST ALDATE’S ALPHA BANQUET, OXFORD (Michael Ramsden)

3 CHRISTIANS IN PROPERTY TALK, LONDON (Amy Orr-Ewing)

17 EVANGELISTIC WOMEN’S EVENT, SOUTHWELL (Amy Orr-Ewing)

18 BATH UNIVERSITY CHRISTIAN UNION (Tom Price)

22 C.S. LEWIS LECTURE, DUBLIN (Os Guinness)

10 ST PAUL’S THEOLOGICAL CENTRE, LONDON (Tom Price)

12-14 COPENHAGEN UNIVERSITY MISSION (Amy Orr-Ewing)

13 ST ALDATE’S CHURCH ALPHA COURSE, OXFORD (Vince Vitale)

19-23 BATH UNIVERSITY MISSION EVENTS (Michael Ramsden and Tanya Walker)

24 SOLAS CONFERENCE, DUNDEE (John Lennox)

25 ETON COLLEGE CHAPEL AND ST PAUL’S EALING (Amy Orr-Ewing)

27 PARLIAMENTARY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, WESTMINSTER (Os Guinness)

29 BATH UNIVERSITY CHRISTIAN UNION (Vince Vitale)

7 CAROL SERVICE, LIVERPOOL (Vince Vitale)

19 PHILIA WOMEN DAY CONFERENCE, CHIPPING CAMPDEN (Amy Orr-Ewing)

23-24 SOAS EVENTS (Tanya Walker and Tom Price)

26 RZIM TRAINING DAY, OXFORD (Team)

27–2 FEB YORK MISSION EVENTS (Vince Vitale and Michelle Tepper)

11 HTB WOMEN’S EVENT, LONDON (Amy Orr-Ewing)

14-17 RZIM TRAINING WEEKEND, CHELTENHAM (Team)

18-23 BATH UNIVERSITY EVENTS (Michael Ramsden and Tanya Walker)

18-23 ABERYSTWYTH EVENTS (Frog Orr-Ewing)

25–1 MAR LIVERPOOL MISSION EVENTS (Tom Price and Sharon Dirckx)

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

Six-Week Business Programme27th May to 5th July 2013

Oxford, UK

The OCCA is a partnership between Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and Wycliff e Hall, a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford.

Are you a business leader with a passion to make Christ known in the

marketplace? If so, the six-week Business Programme at the Oxford Centre

for Christian Apologetics will equip you with the necessary tools to do this in

a credible, culturally-engaging and relevant way.

Designed for senior business people and professionals with over ten years’ experience in the marketplace, this course will re-invigorate and envision you for your return to serve God in your work environment. Core lecturers include the world-class team of Alister McGrath, John Lennox, Os Guinness, Michael Ramsden and Amy Orr-Ewing.

This intensive course seeks to invest in up to twelve people only, and it includes a dynamic mix of lectures, discussion groups and one-to-one vocational meetings, as well as giving time for spiritual refl ection in a small group setting.

The Biblical mandate for apologetics, the relationship between science and religion, competing worldviews, morality and ethics, and much more, are all brought together in this holistic programme.

For the fi nal week, students will attend the RZIM Summer School at The Queen’s College, Oxford, where they will be joined by around 100 delegates for a week-long event which, in 2013, will focus on the apologetics of C. S. Lewis.

This is the perfect course for those seeking to sharpen their evangelistic and apologetic skills for the workplace, as it provides the ideal opportunity to be refreshed, to recalibrate and then to engage at a deeper level with the world around you.

ALISTER MCGRATH MICHAEL RAMSDENJOHN LENNOX

OS GUINNESS

AMY ORR-EWING

For further details and to apply online, see www.theocca.org



13

Born and raised in Innsbruck, Austria,

Christian will be a full-time Apologist

reaching the German speaking world

and a Research Fellow and Visiting

Lecturer at the Oxford Centre for

Christian Apologetics (having been a

Senior RZIM Associate since 2008). He

brings with him a diverse experience

of Christian ministry, government

relations and academic research

and teaching in Austria, Belgium,

the United States and England.

For the past four years, Christian has

served as a chaplain to the diverse,

international graduate student body

at Oxford University, working closely

with senior academics, leaders

of various churches and a broad

variety of students. An ordained

Anglican minister, he has been a

member of the ministry team of St

Aldates, Oxford, overseeing a large

group of postgraduate students

and early career academics.

Christian is also currently in the fi nal

stages of a doctorate in theology

at Oxford University, where his

research—funded by the United

Kingdom Arts and Humanities

Research Council—focuses on

the Christian interpretation of the

‘genocide texts’ of the Old Testament.

In 2008, he was awarded Oxford

University’s Denyer and Johnson prize

for the highest marks in the Final

INTRODUCING

CHRISTIAN HOFREITER

We are pleased to announce that Christian Hofreiter will be joining the RZIM team on 1 October.

Honour School of Theology for which

he prepared at Wycliff e Hall, focussing

on Biblical Studies. During his Master’s

course in Biblical interpretation,

he was the Gosden graduate

scholar at Keble College, Oxford.

Before coming to Oxford in 2006,

Christian served as deacon at the

Church of the Resurrection in

Washington, DC, where he also

worked in international relations

representing the interests of foreign

governments and other clients to

the United States Congress and

Administration. Prior to that, Christian

worked in Austria as a freelance

interpreter and as a lecturer in

translation at his alma mater, the

University of Innsbruck, and also

served as a pastor at a local church.

A native German-speaker with fl uent

English and French, Christian has a

longstanding interest in cross-cultural

Christian witness: His Master’s thesis

at Innsbruck was supervised by an

eminent translation scholar and

missiologist, the late Eugene A. Nida;

Christian also completed two terms

of postgraduate study in intercultural

theology at Fuller Theological

Seminary, Pasadena, California.

Christian is married to Helen,

who is from England, and they

have two small children. Their

passion is to contribute to the

re-evangelisation of Europe.


WHAT IS

FAITH?

BY MICHAEL R AMSDEN


15OUR HOPE IS NOT WISHFUL THINKING ... FAITH IS THE

RESPONSE TO A REAL GOD WHO WANTS TO BE KNOWN BY US

‘Faith is believing what you want

to believe, yet cannot prove.’

Sadly, many people, including

some Christians, live with this

defi nition of faith. For some it feels

liberating. It means being able to

believe in anything you want to

believe. No explanation is required,

indeed, no explanation can be

given; it is just a matter of faith. For

others, such a defi nition is sickening.

Embracing faith means you stop

thinking. As faith increases, reason

and meaning eventually disappear.

No explanations can be given,

and none can be expected. Thus,

living in faith is living in the dark.

For both groups, the problem is the

same. By starting with the wrong

defi nition of faith, they have asked

the wrong question, are dealing with

the wrong problem, and so have

ended up with the wrong answer.

Faith is not wishful thinking. It is not

about believing in things that do

not exist. It neither makes all things

believable nor meaning impossible.

So what is the right defi nition of

faith? ‘Faith is the substance of

things hoped for, the evidence of

things not seen,’ writes the author

of Hebrews. A few verses later faith

is similarly defi ned as knowing that

God exists and that God rewards

those who earnestly seek Him.

Perhaps the best word we can

use to translate the Greek word

pistis (usually translated as ‘faith’)

is the word ‘trust’ or ‘trustworthy.’

Suppose you tell a friend that

you have faith in her. What does

that mean? It means two things.

First, you are sure the person you

are talking to actually exists. And

second, you are convinced she is

trustworthy; you can believe what

she says and trust in her character.

It is in this way that the writer of

Hebrews talks about faith in God.

Faith is knowing that God is real and

that you can trust in God’s promises.

You cannot trust someone who isn’t

there, nor can you rely on someone

whose promises are not reliable.

This is why faith is talked about as

the substance of things hoped for

and as the evidence of things not

seen. Both words carry with them

a sense of reality. Our hope is not

wishful thinking. Faith does not

make God real. On the contrary,

faith is the response to a real God

who wants to be known to us:

‘I am the Lord, and there is

no other;besides me

there is no god. I arm you,

though you do not know me, so that they may know,

from the rising of the sun and from the west,

that there is no one besides me;

I am the Lord, and there is

no other’

(ISAIAH 45:5-6).

Ever since the church began, the

refrain has always been the same:

Come, believe, follow the light of

the world. It has never appealed

for people to leap into the dark; no

such invitation is found anywhere

in Scripture. Instead, we are called

to step into the light. The Christian

gospel is not a message that revels in

ignorance. It is the revelation of God

in the person of Christ, so that we

might know there is no other. The

Christian is called to see things as

they really are, and not as she would

simply like them to be. We trust

in a God who has been revealed

to us in the Son and the Spirit.

We believe because God is real.

The Christian gospel invites you to

delve into reality. It commands you

to be honest in your commitment

to know that which is true. Is Jesus

real? Who did he claim to be? Is he

really alive today? Faith comes in

response to knowing the answers

to these questions, even as Christ

is calling you near. But don’t stop

after the initial introductions! Just

as you are able to put more trust

in someone as you grow to know

him, so faith increases as you grow

in your relationship with Christ.

There is a God who is real and true;

there is a God who is near and

longing to gather you nearer. The

great joy of the Christian faith is

found in the person who invites

us to trust and believe.

Michael Ramsden

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR OF RZIM


16

MISSIONS

AT THE OCCABY SHARON DIRCK X

One of the unique features of our training at the OCCA is putting theory into practice, and this past year has been

no exception. Our students have poured themselves out in missions in a number of diff erent cities and contexts.

The scene was set for the fi rst mission

(to Leeds), when more than thirty

people gave their lives to Christ, at a

Carol service at which Amy Orr-Ewing

spoke in December. In February,

half of the student team returned

with Amy and Vince. In partnership

with the student Christian Union,

the OCCA students hosted daily

lunchtime and evening talks from

Amy & Vince Vitale in a marquee

on campus. I think the words that

summarized the week were, ‘The

harvest is plentiful, but the workers

are cold!’ This was the coldest week

of the year, and the students were

working in a tent surrounded by

snow, during the day, and sleeping

on student fl oors at night. Yet this

was an incredibly fruitful time: at least

forty people professed faith during

the meetings, and a further 140 asked

for follow-up. The OCCA students

also spoke at various events including

sport events, curry nights and dinner

parties. At an international gathering,

a girl from China professed faith for

the fi rst time.

In the same week, the other half of

the student team remained in Oxford

to be involved in the week-long


17university mission there. Tim Keller

spoke at lunchtimes and evenings

and, after these events, our students

were engaged in conversations and

receptions with both undergraduates

and postgraduates. Some of the

OCCA students were also involved

in follow-up courses, as part of their

weekly practical placements, and over

the subsequent months they saw a

number of people come to Christ.

In late February, Tom Price and

Michelle Tepper led a team of our

students on a time of outreach

at Oxford Brookes University, in

partnership with the Christian Union.

During the daytime, the students

were engaged in conversations on

campus, which were prompted by

the worldview questionnaires they

carried out and their handing out

of fl yers for the upcoming events.

One student also gave a lunchtime

talk on ‘Exploring life’s questions’.

Towards the beginning of the week,

the students were involved in dinner

parties that CU members hosted

for their non-Christian friends and,

towards the end of the week, Tom

and Michelle spoke both at Oxford

Brookes and in local churches. At

least ten students signed up for a

follow-up course and a number of

people came to Christ in the weeks

that followed.

Around Easter, Frog Orr-Ewing led a

team of fi ve students on mission to

the town of Östersund in Sweden.

Frog was invited by a pastor from the

EFS church, who had heard him speak,

and had seen the students’ impact at

the Canterbury mission, the previous

year. The team began the week

preaching, prayer-walking and crying

out to God for this beautiful snowy

town. Opportunities to cross-country

ski and walk to church across a frozen

lake were not to be missed either! The

team delivered apologetics training

for the church, for which there was

a huge hunger. Much time was

also spent conducting worldview

questionnaires in the town centre and

university, leading to many signifi cant

conversations and opportunities

to respond to questions. In just fi ve

days, the frozen lake had begun to

melt, and the spiritual climate was

also changing. Two people came to

Christ, including an older man for

whom the church had been praying

for many years and whose wife was

a Christian. Many Christians were

also encouraged and inspired to live

and share their faith with greater

confi dence and boldness. By the end

of the week, such was the bond with

the hosts that the OCCA team were

serenaded at the airport and, needless

to say, there were many tears.

In April, the team travelled to East

London with Frog and I (with visits

from Tom). The team was based at St

Paul’s Shadwell, a church planted by

Holy Trinity Brompton six years ago,

but was also working with the recent

church plants of St Peter’s Bethnal

Green and All Hallows Bow. It was

wonderful and challenging to be on

mission in such socially and ethnically

vibrant and diverse areas where, for

example, bankers, families, students

and artists, wealthy and deprived,

Muslims and atheists, all live

alongside each other.

The week began with preaching

in the diff erent churches and

apologetics training. The students

were spread across the three

churches and, during the day, they

were involved in anything from

prayer-walking to questionnairing.

Some ventured into pubs and coff ee

shops to chat, others spoke to

mums at toddler groups or in Bible

study groups. Some went to youth

groups, dance groups and football

games (including between local

gang members), and others spent

time talking to and praying with

ex-off enders during their community

service break time. Students also

spoke at lunches or evening meetings

in homes and cafes. On the fi nal

Sunday, the London marathon ran

straight past St Paul’s, providing

some great opportunities, and in the

evening, Frog preached powerfully

on the resurrection. Every student

had multiple opportunities to share

their faith, as well as to work in the

community. The weather was terrible

again (this time the workers were

wet!), but a good number of people

made pivotal progress, with several

saying they wanted to follow Christ.

We thank God for all of the

opportunities we at the OCCA

have had to share Christ with

others in 2012.

Sharon Dirckx

TUTOR, OCCA

Sharon Dirckx’s fi rst book Why? God, Evil and Personal

Suff ering is being published by IVP in January 2013.

In the book Sharon deftly interweaves the stories

of people who have faced some of life’s toughest

personal challenges, with a practical consideration

of the diffi cult yet instinctive 'Why?' questions being

asked about God and suff ering.”

ONE STUDENT WRITES:

“It was an extraordinary privilege to spend Wednesday night talking to two women who were seriously considering accepting Jesus as Lord of their lives. At the end one of them said, ‘You know I think perhaps I should just become a Christian…maybe I already am.’ Another exciting thing was getting a couple of hours to talk with the Muslim cafe owner and share my faith with him and his sister. He asked me to explain why my faith meant so much to me, so I stayed a bit longer. The next day I went back and was able to pray with him and his sister.”

HELP US MATCH MAJOR MISSIONS GIFT A major Christian trust has recently pledged £10,000 towards the costs of our missions work in 2012-13, but we must match this generous grant before these funds will be released. Can you help us towards this target? Gifts can be made by cheque, by credit card (phone Liz on 01865 302900) or online at www.rzim.eu/supporting-us (Please specify that your donation is towards this missions gift match). Thank you.


THE

‘DARK SIDE’OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY

How should believers face up to the ‘dark side’ of Christian history? Should we simply admit that the late Christopher Hitchens was right when he

wrote that ‘religion poisons everything’?

The historian, John Coff ey, argues that

we should adopt three approaches:1

1. Confession

2. De-Mythologizing certain historical events

3. Narration

CONFESSION

Firstly, Coff ey argues that Christians should avoid

the temptation of using the approach favoured

by the political consultant Roger Stone: ‘admit

nothing, deny everything, launch counter-attack’.

Instead, we should be in the habit of acknowledging

when we have fallen short of God’s standards and

this includes apologizing for things of the past.

DE-MYTHOLOGIZING HISTORICAL EVENTS

Secondly, it is important to ensure that historical

myths are debunked, as there are many

misconceptions about Christianity circulating in

society today, even amongst the educated. These

include the idea that science and religion are at war

(popularised by Draper and White), for example,

or that the Enlightenment was essentially a clean

secularist break from the past. Furthermore, it is

important to realise that the most extreme events

of the past get the most attention from scholars

and this can skew our overall perception of history.

NARRATION

Finally, we need to accept that humans are naturally

story-tellers and we must engage, therefore, with the

grand narrative told by atheists (and those of other

worldviews). If we look at history, it actually seems

to fi t well with the idea of sin and redemption.

Although believers have done all kinds of bad things

(sometimes appealing to the Bible for support), we

should not lose sight of the fact that the redemptive

power of Christ plays a central part in the story.

1 J. Coff ey, ‘Thinking Christianly about Early Modern Violence’ (‘The Dark Side of Christian History’ conference, Oxford, 5 February 2011). 2 Meaning roughly ‘catastrophe’ or ‘destruction’.

3 See www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/. 4 Arutz Sheva, 18 July 2012 (www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157977#.UAfvuaDMhGY).

5 J. C. Lennox, ‘If God is so great, why is there so much suff ering?’ (RZIM Europe Training Day, Oxford, 23 January 2010).

BY SIMON WENHAM


19THE HOLOCAUST:

A CASE STUDY

BY SIMON WENHAM

It is seventy years since the Nazi party

began to build its fi rst extermination

camps (1942) which would consign

millions of people to death during the

holocaust (or Shoah)2 and yet are we any

closer today in understanding how this

horrifi c event occurred on a ‘Christian

continent’? There has recently been an

increasing amount of literature blaming

Christianity for what happened to the

Jews. On the website of the United

States Holocaust Museum, for example,

it records that ‘early Christian thought…

had terrible consequences for the Jews’.3

Others put it more strongly than this. In

July, the Israeli lawmaker, Michael Ben Ari

of the National Union Party, ripped up a

copy of the New Testament he had been

sent by a Christian organisation because

he was enraged to receive a book in

whose name he said millions of Jews

were slaughtered.4 How should Christians

respond to accusations such as this?

Before beginning to approach the

subject, it is important to stress that it

needs to be handled very sensitively.

John Lennox reminds us that when we

address the topic of human suff ering,

we need to realise how much our

perspective is shaped by whether or

not we have been personally aff ected

by it.5 Furthermore, we should not

lose sight of the continued personal

and political sensitivities of the issues

involved. Secondly, it is helpful to bear

in mind that some of the terms are not

always applied consistently, such as

‘antisemitism’, for example, which can

be used to describe anything ranging

from a disagreement or an internal

prejudice to outright aggression or

discrimination towards the Jews.

The fi rst point to make is that although

the church is not a single entity, many

infl uential Christians, throughout history,

were responsible for fuelling what has

been termed ‘theological anti-Judaism or

antisemitism’.6 The German reformation

theologian Martin Luther was particularly

outspoken in his ‘On the Jews and their

lies’ (1543), for example, although he

had a reputation for strongly worded

attacks against those he disagreed with

in general. Animosity towards the Jews

certainly predated the time of Jesus, but

some of the criticism since was rooted in

certain Christian theological emphases.

The Jews were perceived as having lost

their chosen status (through the new

covenant), they were viewed as being

responsible for rejecting Jesus (thereby

causing his crucifi xion) and they were

blamed for the persecution of the early

church. Yet it is important to stress that

this was distinct from the particular

strand of racial antisemitism that

emerged in Nazi Germany. Nevertheless,

there was a pro-Nazi ‘German Christian’

faction in the protestant church that

came to prominence in the 1930s, which

upheld a Völkisch theology, incorporating

nationalism and a mystical perception of

the German people. In 1939 the group

was behind a theological institute at the

University of Jena, which was set up in

order to eradicate the Jewish infl uence

on Christianity. An illustration of how

far this had strayed from mainstream

Christianity was its re-writing of the

New Testament (a process that included

removing references to the Old

Testament and anything suggesting

Jesus was a Jew) and the downgrading

of the Old Testament.7 This did not

go unopposed, however, as a group

of theologians, including Karl Barth,

criticised the German Christians for being

heretical and their Barmen Declaration

(1934) provided the foundation for the

formation of the Confessing Church.8

As this suggests, the response of the

church to the Nazi party was mixed. Hitler

was adept at appealing to a Christian

audience and he was able to portray

himself as someone with a sense of

providence who was divorced from some

of the nastier practices associated with

his party.9 Furthermore, his commitment

to tackling Communism resonated

with many within the church and there

were clergy who remained enthusiastic

supporters of him throughout the war.

Hitler was most successful in gaining

support from some of the Protestant

churches that were receptive to his

nationalistic pronouncements. The Nazis

tried to control religious aff airs through

a unifi ed Reich Church (established in

1933)10 but this was not totally successful

and those opposed to Nazi interference

established the rival Confessing Church.

Karl Barth later summed up this response

by saying that although the church had

‘suffi cient reason to be ashamed that it

did not do more’, it had at least put up

‘partial resistance’ to the ‘encroachment

of National Socialism’, which was more

than many other groups or institutions

achieved.11 Indeed, a number of the

Confessing Church leaders were sent to

concentration camps because of their

stance, including Dietrich Bonhoeff er

who was executed for his involvement

in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

The regime’s relationship with the

Catholic hierarchy was more chequered.

Following agitation from the Nazi party,

an offi cial Concordat between the

two sides was reached in 1933, which

enabled the church to govern its own

aff airs in return for swearing allegiance

to Hitler.12 The Nazi party closed down

the Catholic political parties and its Youth

League, however, and as its anti-church

stance became increasingly obvious

there was a ‘war of attrition reaching

peaks in 1936-1937 and again in 1941.’13

Furthermore, in 1937, Pope Pius XI

wrote ‘With Burning Concern’ (1937), a

statement which was read out in German

in every church on Palm Sunday that

condemned the elevation of one race

above others. Its opposition did not go

unnoticed, as Sigmund Freud praised

the Catholic Church for its ‘powerful

defence’ against the Nazis,14 whilst

Albert Einstein remarked in 1940 that:

Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great aff ection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom…what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.15

6 The former being a rejection of the beliefs and the latter being hostility to the Jews, because of their religion. 7 S. Herschel, The Aryan Jesus (Princeton, 2008), p. 106. 8 Ibid., p. 4. 9 I. Kershaw, The

Hitler Myth (Oxford, 2010), pp. 107-108. 10 V. Barnett, For the Soul of the People (New York, 1992), p. 36. 11 E. W. Lutzer, Hitler’s Cross (Chicago, 1995), p. 118. 12 D. G. Dalin, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope

(Washington, 2005), p. 61-62. 13 I. Kershaw, Hitler’s Profi les in Power (Harlow, 1991), pp. 94-95. 14 C. R. Terrell, Christ, Faith and the Holocaust (Bloomington, 2011), p. 118. 15 Time, 23 December 1940.


20 Whilst this in no way excuses the mixed

response from the church, Hitler’s

rise to power cannot be understood

without some reference to certain

socio-economic factors. In particular,

the Nazi party was able to capitalise

upon the widespread unemployment

and social instability caused by the great

depression of the 1930s. Hitler was a

hugely charismatic speaker and he was

able to slowly gain support, by way of

grass-roots agitation, a very eff ective

propaganda campaign and some astute

political manoeuvres, most notably his

seizing of emergency powers following

the Reichstag fi re of 1933. The country

had been humiliated by the terms of

the Treaty of Versailles (imposed after

the First World War) and Hitler not only

promised to restore law and order, but

he vowed to make Germany great once

again, a message that resonated with

most of the electorate. We also have to

take into account that the Nazis created

a ‘pervading atmosphere of fear and

repression’16 that discouraged many

from openly criticising the regime.

Nevertheless, what is perhaps most

shocking is that the plight of the Jews

had surprisingly little impact on public

opinion. The attacks against them slowly

escalated (it was not until 1941, during

the war, that the ‘Final Solution’ began),

but as Ian Kershaw memorably put it,

‘The road to Auschwitz was built by

hate but paved with indiff erence.’17

Indeed, it is one of the sad facts that,

on the whole, the church’s response to

the persecution of the Jews was largely

indiff erent, as its primary focus was

on matters relating to theology and

self-governance. Some self-professing

Christians allowed themselves to be

co-opted into the Nazi agenda, but

there were others who stood fi rm

against the oppression, including

Bonhoeff er who used his church contacts

to help a number of Jews escape to

Switzerland. The church should have

done more, however, and this was

acknowledged in 1945 when the

Evangelical Church of Germany issued

the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt.

Finally, some have suggested that Hitler

was a Catholic, because of his baptism

and the pro-Christian pronouncements

he made from time-to-time.18 Although

there are admittedly certain problems in

defi ning religious identity (as is shown

by recent surveys in the UK, which

suggest that 70% of people identify

themselves as ‘Christian’,19 whilst only

around 10% regularly attend a place

of worship),20 these suggestions are

misleading and we must remember that

politicians are well-known for pandering

to particular audiences. We should not

lose sight of the fact that most political

parties are secular by nature and they

tend to have vastly diff erent beliefs

and objectives to religious institutions.

Indeed, to use a modern example, the

right-wing British National Party (BNP)

appeals in its manifesto ‘to the values of

Western Christianity, as a benchmark for

a decent and civilised society’. Yet the

party stands for principles that clearly

do not mirror the gospel, as its central

argument is that the country is in an

‘unparalleled crisis’ because of problems

caused by immigration and that the

‘indigenous’ population must, therefore,

be protected with solutions including

reviewing people’s citizenship grants

(those made since 1997), repealing the

Race Relations Act and encouraging the

voluntary resettlement of immigrants.21

Joseph Goebbels perhaps summed up

Hitler’s beliefs best when he wrote in his

diary that ‘the Führer is deeply religious,

though completely anti-Christian.’22 This

is a telling remark, as Hitler regularly used

religious rhetoric in his speeches and

he certainly wanted to portray himself

as a messianic fi gure.23 Yet it is clear

that his ideology was far removed from

Christianity and Jews were certainly not

the only group he targeted in his quest to

produce a strong and racially ‘pure’ nation.

CONCLUSION

One of the most alarming things that the

holocaust has taught us is that humans

have the capacity to commit terrible

acts of evil, as has been confi rmed by

more recent studies including Stanley

Milgram’s famous experiment, which

showed that ordinary people (without

strong prejudices) are willing to follow

orders from an authority fi gure, even

if it means administering a potentially

fatal electric shock to another person.24

If you dismiss Christianity because of the

events of the holocaust, therefore, then

you have to dismiss just about everything

else, as no group emerges free of

criticism. There is of course an important

distinction to be made between the

perpetrator and the bystander, but

acquiescing in the face of evil is still

providing tacit support for it. Standing

up against injustice can be costly, but

Christians should be at the vanguard of

fi ghting against evil and suff ering and

if we are not, then one has to question

to what extent we are in tune with the

saviour we purport to follow. Bonhoeff er

was one who truly understood the cost

of discipleship, as he was prepared to

pay the ultimate sacrifi ce for what he

believed in. Indeed, the church’s response

to Hitler reminds us that it is important

to distinguish between the message and

the messengers. Whilst we should praise

God for those who had the courage to

stand up against the Nazis, we also need

to acknowledge that many failed to act

appropriately. This serves as a reminder

that we all need to repent when we fall

short of God’s standards whether we

do it (to paraphrase an Anglican prayer)

in thought, word or deed, because

of negligence, weakness or our own

deliberate fault. The Christian message is

all about forgiveness and reconciliation

and this is something we all need, as

much as we should be modelling it

to others. We might, therefore, like to

refl ect on the following questions:25

1. When is our theology overridden or shaped by other agendas?

2. To what extent are we ‘Christian’ and how does our faith manifest itself?

3. How do we treat those who disagree with us?

4. How aware are we of injustice and suff ering and to what extent are we bothered by it?

5. When do political parties use Christianity for their own ends?

6. How can we make sure our own faith is robust?

16 I. Kershaw, Hitler, The Germans and the Final Solution (New York, 2008), pp. 171-2. 17 Ibid., p. 5. 18 For a discussion on this see Richard Dawkins’ article in the Guardian on 22 September 2010

(www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/22/ratzinger-enemy-humanity). 19 See www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043045/Modern-Britain-70-claim-Christians-1-5-gay.html.

20 See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/03_04_07_tearfundchurch.pdf. 21 Democracy, Freedom, Culture and Identity: British National Party General Elections Manifesto 2012.

22 J. Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries 1939 – 1941 (London, 1982), p. 77. 23 Kershaw, Hitler Myth, p. 108. 24 Published in S. Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (London, 1974).

25 With thanks to Matthew Kirkpatrick and Tanya Walker for commenting on the article.

‘What does sex-selective abortion say

about humanity?’

WHATIS

BEAUTIFUL?BY NAOMI ZACHAR IAS



22

OUR GOD WHO KNOWS HER STORY,

HER FACE, HER SCARS, HER SKILLS ...

It was the fi rst question Toronto-

based host Lorna Dueck asked me

in an interview on her current

events programme, ‘Context with

Lorna Dueck’. A tragic issue that

has signifi cantly impacted several

countries in East Asia and is growing

in North America, sex-selective

abortion is chosen by parents

with a preference for a son, who

choose to abort their baby when

a sonogram reveals the mother

to be carrying a daughter.

India alone is said to have 20-

30 million ‘missing women,’ and

predictions estimate that by the

year 2020, China will have 40 million

unmarried men, a number equal

to the entire population of young

men in America. As a direct result,

crime rates, bride traffi cking, sexual

violence, and even female suicide

rates are all rising. What does this say

about humanity? What does it say

of how far we have come, or rather

how far we still have to go in the area

of human rights, and specifi cally,

respect and protection of women?

The horror of this issue stayed at

the forefront of my mind in the

days following the interview. The

next week, I somewhat nervously

walked into a lecture hall at Princeton

University to speak at a conference for

women sponsored by the Christian

Union. I was distinctly aware of the

honour it was to be on this historical

campus and in the presence of

intelligent, capable, sincere women

fi lled with ambition, potential,

questions, and a desire to identify

their specifi c purpose in this world.

I have come across much of the data

that speaks of the strength of women

in society – data that conclude

that in societies where men and

women are treated equally, there is

a lower rate of poverty and higher

economic quality of life. Statistics

speak to the contribution, skill,

unique ability of women, and, while I

know it to be true, I cannot help but

wonder about the inherent danger

therein, too. For should someone

– male or female – have to justify

worth, in order to be granted the

opportunity to exist, and to have a

life free of exploitation and abuse?

The opportunities for Wellspring

have continued to grow, both in the

arena of dialogue with individuals

and audiences on subjects of human

traffi cking, human rights, prostitution,

HIV/AIDS, and global issues impacting

the world today. And our primary

mission to reach out to the hurting

continues to call us to various

geographic regions and to specifi c

projects as we serve as a bridge

between the giver and eff orts that are

providing aid to women and children

at risk. Though conferences on

social justice and human traffi cking

continue to highlight a sobering

global plight, the opportunities to go

beyond the conference table abound.

We recently received an emotional

letter from Director of Bombay Teen

Challenge, KK Devaraj. From Mumbai,

India, he wrote to tell us they had

to say goodbye to Nimmi, a young

woman they had helped to escape

life in a brothel. She had been sold

into prostitution at the age of 13 and

had eventually contracted HIV/AIDS.

She had lost hope and felt she had

nothing to off er. But four years ago,

she left the dark world and stepped

into safety at Bombay Teen Challenge

where she found a home and was

introduced to the grace of God and

Y, HER


23

THE MISSION

Wellspring International was established

in 2004 by Ravi Zacharias International

Ministries (RZIM). A humanitarian arm of

the organization, Wellspring International

is an extension of the central focus of

RZIM, where we live out what we preach

and defend. Through a process of due

diligence, the vision of Wellspring is to

identify and fi nancially equip existing

organizations aiding women and children

at risk, as well as to provide individual

scholarships to support education,

healthcare, and basic living needs.

THE METHOD

Wellspring International exists to

empower you to impact the lives of

women and children in need around

the world. One hundred percent of

donations designated for Wellspring

are distributed to projects overseas

that we have researched and vetted.

It is our privilege to aid organizations

that embody four principle aspects we

believe are vital to this eff ort: RESCUE,

liberating individuals from destructive

environments; REHABILITATION, off ering

programmes that provide treatment,

and healing for physical, and emotional

needs; RESTORATION, a period of respite,

and renewal, that they may embrace

a new hope, and freedom, claiming

confi dence, and independence; RE-

ENTRY, providing homes, vocational

training, and job opportunities.

THE REASON

‘RZIM is an apologetic ministry. We are here to lift the intellectual veil that casts a blinding shadow upon the eyes of the thinker…not all shadows are imagined. Some are real. The pain and suff ering of people is real. Wellspring is ‘practical apologetics.’ Love is the most powerful apologetic. It is the essential component in reaching the whole person in a fragmented world. The need is vast, but it is also imperative that we be willing to follow the example of Jesus and meet the need.’ (RAVI ZACHARIAS)

the freedom and redemption He

off ers. After four years, losing Nimmi

was painful, but as Devaraj wrote, we

are confi dent we will see her again.

His letter ended with a sincere plea:

‘not far from my house, the dreams of a little girl like Nimmi are being shattered…we must stop sexual slavery and stop it now. Let us free them from the chains…’

Not far from Mumbai, Zamar Academy

waits for their new land and school in

Chennai. Because of the generosity,

care, and response from many of you,

we were able to raise enough funds

to purchase the property required

to remain open and provide quality

education free of cost to children from

a local slum area. Through a diligent

search and many negotiations, our

team in India has patiently viewed

properties and is committed to

identifying land that meets the need

and respects all legal requirements

for the process. This has been a

challenge, and we are prayerful that

God will soon provide the land that

will enable us to uphold this standard.

The children of Zamar Academy have

been overlooked, often missed by

society. They do not have wealth or

opportunity. They have not yet made

their contribution to the community.

When you see them stand with

perfect posture and recite a Psalm

or a poem recently assigned in Tamil

class, or watch their absolute glee at

learning to throw a baseball, you see

the richness they hold and represent.

At Agni Raksha in Bangalore, we

recently sent a grant for medical

supplies for surgeries and for skills

training for women who are victims

of bride burning. I remain deeply

aff ected by my previous visits to

this project. In recent speaking

opportunities, I have been asked

to address the issue of beauty. The

fi rst pictures that form in my mind

as I consider this topic, are the faces

of these women. Their scars are

deep and highly visible. This does

not meet our cultural standard for

beauty, for what is oft misunderstood

to be perfection. Each one of

their faces challenges our norm,

and redefi nes our perception of

beauty not in spite of the scars,

but directly through them.

As I consider each one of these stories,

I am reminded of an email sent from

a friend several months ago. His sister

was valiantly battling cancer that had

left her face partially paralyzed. In a

photo attached, the paralysis tugged

slightly at one eye and at a corner

of her lovely smile. My friend’s note

simply read, ‘Have you ever seen

anything more beautiful?’ His words

need no explanation, for every one of

us understands; in those moments,

every one of us instantly recognizes

the certainty and centre of value and

recognizes unmatched beauty as it

stands before us.

A woman, a person, need not strive to

prove her value to family, community,

or society. The battle here is not one

of proving value enough, but the

ultimate signifi cance of the intrinsic

value of every life created in the

image of God, our God who knows

her story, her face, her scars, her skills.

Her need to fi ght to be and to survive

does raise a legitimate and frightening

question about humanity. And how

we respond as an individual and as a

community, will continue to script

the answer.

Naomi Zacharias

DIRECTOR, WELLSPRING INTERNATIONAL

For further information about the ministry, see

www.wellspringinternational.org.

More stories from those helped by the ministry

can be read about in Naomi Zacharias’ book,

The Scent of Water.

RZIM Training Day Manchester 2012Many Christians have a desire to communicate the gospel to their non-believing

friends or colleagues, but few feel well-equipped or confi dent to do so.

It can be diffi cult to know how best to approach some of the strong objections that people have about faith, as even bringing up the topic can sometimes provoke a hostile reaction. What should we say, for example, to someone who does not believe in God because of the suff ering and evil in the world, or to someone who argues that the Christian faith does not make any rational or philosophical sense? How do we even begin to approach the topic with someone who seems completely closed off to the gospel message?

“Tackling the Hardest Questions” is designed to help Christians communicate their faith more eff ectively, without having to duck the hard questions.

Book your place online

Talks will include:

“The Hardest Conversations – Recovering the art of persuasion for people who are closed”, “The Hardest Challenge – Responding to the challenge of evil” and “The Hardest Convert – Revival in Philosophy, and why it matters”. OS GUINNESS

www.rzim.eu E: [email protected] T: 01865 302900

Further information can be found on the website

Location: Parrs Wood High School, Wilmslow Road, East Didsbury, Manchester, M20 5PG. Date: Saturday 22nd September 2012, 9.00am – 4.30pm

Prices: £25.00 per person, £17.50 for students/unwaged. Prices include lunch and refreshments during the day

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