Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Introduction to the Basics of Apologetics, March 7, 2005
Greg Bahnsen's book, Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith, a collection of classroom materials and articles, makes many of the difficult concepts of Biblical apologetics accessible to believers who never went to seminary. One of the greatest minds in evangelical scholarship in the twentieth century, Bahnsen interpreted, popularized, and made practical the groundbreaking work of Cornelius Van Til in what is known as presuppositional apologetics. The book under discussion lays the Biblical foundation of apologetics and gives direction for engaging in discussion with unbelievers. The popular view of apologetics suggests that believers find common, neutral ground with unbelievers in order to convince them of the plausibility of Christianity. In contrast, Bahnsen's basic contention is that believers must maintain the same Scriptural foundation in their encounters with unbelievers as they do in all theological discussion.
Bahnsen begins by dispelling the idea that neutral ground exists between believers and unbelievers. When a believer seeks "neutrality," he surrenders "his distinctive religious beliefs" with the result that he becomes "impotent in [his] witness, aimless in [his] walk, and disarmed in [his] battle with the principalities and powers of this world" (4). In contrast, all knowledge and wisdom are found only in Christ (Colossians 2:3), who is the believer's Lord even in the intellectual realm. Believers must have a correct understanding of the thinking of the unbeliever, who "have a vain mind and a darkened understanding" (Ephesians 4:17-18) (12). Bahnsen asserts, therefore, "from the fact that God is the sovereign Creator of heaven and earth, from the fact that the world and history are only such as His plan decrees, from the fact that man is the creaturely image of God, we must conclude that all knowledge which man possesses is received from God, who is the originator of all truth and the original Truth" (24). Thus, neutrality is nothing but a myth.
Bahnsen then addresses common arguments against presuppositionalism. Rather than arrogance, believers must maintain a "humble boldness" when dealing with unbelief (36). Also, while an unbeliever would indeed be totally incapable of knowledge of anything if he were consistent with his worldview, he is actually able to attain knowledge. Unbelievers do have a knowledge of God (which they suppress) and thus are able to understand the world (38). And believers are able to engage in meaningful conversation with unbelievers by virtue of several facts. Because God has created all things, "there is no area in the world, in thought, in word, or in deed which is irrelevant, indifferent, or neutral toward God and His demands" (42). And because all men are created in God's image, believers have a "point of contact" with all men (47).
Bahnsen next gives practical information about how exactly to defend the faith. He outlines two broad directions on how to proceed based on Proverbs 26:4-5. First, believers must not answer the unbeliever according to his foolishness, "in terms of his own misguided presuppositions." Rather "the apologist should defend his faith by working within his own presuppositions" (61). Second, the believer should answer the unbeliever according to his folly. "Pursued to their consistent end presuppositions of unbelief render man's reasoning vacuous and his experience unintelligible; in short, they lead to the destruction of knowledge, the dead-end of epistemological futility, to utter foolishness" (62). In addition, believers must realize that engagement with unbelievers is not conflict between beliefs of just particular aspects of truth but rather between complete worldviews (68). The believer also must constantly keep in mind that success is not dependent on his abilities, but rather that God is the One who gives understanding (85). Belief in God is the foundation of all understanding (88).
The remainder of the book puts these principles into practice. Believers must use reason as a tool, as an expression of God's image in them (113). In pointing out the fallacies in the unbeliever's worldview, he must point out prejudicial conjectures (136), unargued philosophical bias (138), presuppositions which do not comport with each other (141), logical fallacies (144-48), and behavior which betrays his professed belief (148). Bahnsen ends this section of the book by exposing the fallacies of the philosophical objections that Bertrand Russell hurled against Christianity. He also deals with issues like the problem of evil (163-74), anti-supernaturalism (177-91), faith versus reason (193-203), religious language (205-20), and miracles (221-32).
The final chapter of the book is worth the price of the whole book. In it Bahnsen gives a masterful exposition of Acts 17, which is the account of Paul's apologetic for Christianity on Mar's Hill in Athens. He demonstrates that Paul's methodology comports precisely with all the claims of presuppositional apologists. Although Paul appeared before an entirely pagan audience, he still assumes the veracity of Scripture without apology. In all, Always Ready is an indispensable tool for believers as they seek to give a faithful defense for the hope that is in them.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pressuppositional apologetics, boiled down to essentials, October 11, 2006
Whenever the topic of pressupositional apologetics comes up, it tends to cause the eyes to gloss over and the mind to immediately assume it is in way over its head. Dr. Bahnsen's works can be some of the most intellectually demanding works of theology one can encounter so it was with some concern when I picked up this book and wondered how it would communicate the topic. Dr. Bahnsen proved that it is possible to boil the topic down into its essential elements for evangelism and make it clear to the average reader and to the philosophy nuts alike. It is a great defense of the methodology as it relates to evangelism and is an invaluable resource for sharing your faith.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book; Bad Athiestic Review, December 24, 2006
As an advocate of presupposionalism and fan of the late Dr. Greg Bahsnen, I greatly appreciate this book, and must also admit that this school of apologetics is widely misrepresented. And one should not be surprised to find an atheist disagreeing with this method. After reading the book and the most recent review below, apparently Paul Doland has failed to evaluate this work as "best as possible." This book is an excellent example of defending the faith in a presuppositional manner. And Dr. Bahsnen is the guy to turn to if one is looking for a man with explanatory skills, and a faithful student of Van Til. In the book he uses this skill and his Vantilian training to do what Donald said he doesn't.
Doland says he just asserts that non-Christian worldviews are self-contradictory, but does not offer proof. But Bahsnen does demonstrate that all other worldviews cannot make sense of ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology; they suffer from arbitrariness and/or inconsistency.
The things that Bahnsen suggests are to be received as "self-evident" (though I don't think he used that phrase) are final authorities. Bahnsen says that one's final authority is self-authenticating, or self-attesting, in the nature of the case. One can't go behind his final authority (A) to authorize it with B: in that case B would be the final authority. So this is a misreading and misunderstanding of Bahnsen's claims. And, by the way, Bahnsen's example of Jesus' word being self-authenticating is both what scripture teaches as well as an example of a self-authenticating, highest authority (scripture, or God's Word).
The quote by Bahsnen on page 63 in Doland's post is true. Christ demonstrated to his followers that they must have a revelational epistemology: they must start with God's revealed word as the self-authenticating [not "self-evident"; there is a linguistic difference], and indisputable starting point. So I'm not sure whether the reviewer's point is a criticism of Bahnsen's exegesis or just simply a piece of ridicule of our Lord's claim.
Doland, Bahnsen, and every person have worldviews that contain presuppositions which are final authorities used for interpreting and interrelating every aspect of knowledge and experience. An atheist's belief in materialism (as well as the Christian's view of Scripture's authority) is a presuppositional claim about the universe which is not established by the methods of natural science.
However, the atheist's worldview, as Bahsnen shows, cannot account for logic, science, morality, etc. The Christian worldview does.
Bahnsen's ultimate claim (from the mass of his work in this area) is that if you want to be rational (and thus salvage epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, etc) you must be a Christian: you must have a worldview that provides the pre-conditions of human experience and intelligibility. So what is amazing is not that Bahsnen has a Ph.D., but that non-Christians hold their terminal degrees.
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