Customer Reviews

Every Thought Captive: A Study Manual for the Defense of Christian Truth

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pratt gives us a very short and condensed form of what is known as Pressupositional Apologetics (following after VanTil). Although Pratt hardly defends this approach from all it's critics, he lays down clearly what is at the heart of biblical apologetics. He does this by first showing his readers that God-centered apologetics arises from love for God and the gospel.

God depends on no one to defend His truth. His truth stands as true regardless. However, because we are called and loved by God, studying apologetics should be our passionate duty. Thus, God's word becomes "both the foundation upon which our defense must be built and one of our belief which must be defended." (pg.4)

Pratt then focuses on the nature of common grace in apologetics. More specifically, nature of man before and after the fall, and man's ability to come to the knowledge of God. This foundation is critical for biblical defense and clear thinking. Is it that man has no knowledge about God but is still able to reason Him out? Or is it that man has the knowledge of God, so that he must be rationally honest with himself to see God? Finally, is there a neutral ground where Christians and non-Christians could come together for an unbiased examination?

Without getting too technical, Pratt gives us an enriching exercise of searching and examining the Scriptures. However, Pratt's treatment is so brief and condensed that it lacks clarity on some major points. For instance, I cannot agree with his view on logic--that it is merely a part of creation. True, there are inferences and conventions in logic that are man-made; but Pratt seems to over-simplify the nature of logic as being completely separated from God. I come to understand that logic has a transcendental quality that reveals the eternal character of God. Therefore, God cannot create a thing not equivalent to itself! Oh well, I give Pratt the benefit of the doubt...I'm probably wrong or mistaken (after all, He's the certified theologian!)

Interestingly, Pratt then critiques Evidental method of apologetics. Namely, Paul Little's "Know Why You Believe." Although, I thought Pratt's critique was necessary and valuable (I whole-heartly agreed), I thought it was a bit unfair because he never bothered to examine the critique of VanTil's apologetics. (But then again, this is an intro. designed for High schoolers)

Pratt pretty much ends his book with some applications. Questions like "What's the proof of God?", "How do we know the Bible is God's word?", and "Why is there so much suffering in the world?" are addressed. However, only in an outlined-sketchy way. Maybe he ran out of space or time (I don't know), but he's application seems a bit weak.

Don't get me wrong!...Pratt, gives us the best introduction to Pressuppostional apolgetics I've ever seen--showing us correct foundation and motive. So Pratt pushes the readers to be patient regarding all the challenges he/she could not answer from his/her friends. But all the patience leads to the last 3-4 chapters of this 14 chapter book. Maybe Pratt thinks that he set the foundation so strong that application will come naturally. Or maybe there's a second book! (I doubt it...it's been over 20 years since the first printing)

In short, I thought this book was excellent as an intro. (it really deserves 5 stars), but could be better if you supplement this book with another. I recommend "Persuasion" by Doug Wilson. Wilson's book is all application (with little or no theory) which is filled with sampled dialogues. So...Pratt's Very Short Book with Wilson's Very-Very Short Book...this combo packs a punch for anyone who wants an intro. in apologetics!!!

and faithful to scripture. This is the idea book you want to start with on Christian apologetics. Filled with neat illustrations, and practical advice, it should be good for high schoolers who want to know more on Van Tillian thought. What is especially helpful is that Pratt criticizes a book entitled KNOW WHAT YOU BELIEVE by Paul E. Little, which suggests a more popular tactic for defending the faith. Here, Pratt writes (p.73-74): "Little's view of reason has several major difficulties. First, human reason is not seen as entirely dependent on God. Little encourages the Christian apologist to present Christianity as a view to be examined and judged by independent human reason....Second, reason is not seen as affected by the fall of man into sin. Man's problem does not, for Little, include blindness to the truth but his unwillingness to choose the truth which he is fully capable of knowing. As a result, Little treats rationality and logical analysis as something neutral for both Christians and non-Christians." Why is it that human reasoning must judge God's existence? Who are we to put "God in the dock"? What Pratt is saying is that neutrality is a myth because "sin has so affected mankind that even rational abilities are not neutral." When a non-Christian suggests that he is "honestly" looking for the God of Christianity, and is left wanting, he seems to skip the fact that he is wearing what Cornelius Van Til calls "colored glasses" that keep him from finding the truth. His own autonomous worldview won't find the truth, he must have the Christian worldview.

Here is the Table of Contents:
Foreword
Author's Note
Acknowledgments
1. A Firm Foundation
2. Where It All Began
3. The Character of Man before Sin
4. The Character of Man in Sin
5. The Character of Man Redeemed by Christ
6. The Non-Christian Point of View
7. The Christian Point of View
8. Attitudes and Actions
9. Popular Tactics
10. Structure of a Biblical Defense

11. Defending the Faith (1)
12. Defending the Faith (2)
13. Defending the Faith (3)
14. An Apologetic Parable

I felt this book was an excellent foundation for further studies and practice of presuppositional apologetics. Pratt provides a manual for Christian apologetics by getting to the heart of the matter - the unbeliever's commitment to independence while suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Pratt stresses the importance of addresses the foundational issues in apologetics. This book was extremely helpful.

Richard Pratt has done what I thought would be impossible, that is, he has simplified the task of Reformed Apologetics to a practical and manageable level of usability. Most other works on presuppositional apologetics are mainly philosophical in nature and lack the "how to" necessary to train lay believers in the important task of defending the faith from a Reformed perspective. Pratt's love for Van Til's work shows through his approach, while he has simplified the language into manageable chunks for the newcomer to the "Defense of the Faith".

Also recommended are Cornelius Van Til's work "Defense of the Faith" as well as John Frame's "Apologetics to the Glory of God"

If you buy any one book on "How to do" apologetics, get this one! I can't recommend it highly enough.

When it comes to apologetics, I'm of the presuppositional persuasion (specifically Van Tillian). Pratt was a student of John Frame who was a student of Cornelius Van Til, but Frame differs in his approach from that of Van Til, as does Pratt. For a more consistently Van Tillian approach to apologetics, take a look at Always Ready and other works by Greg Bahnsen.

Though I applaud Pratt for taking the subject of apologetics and presenting it on a level that high school students can understand, I also think on some points he is wrong, and on other points he takes a dangerous position.

At one point he says that we can use near death experiences as evidence of some kind of afterlife. I think this is a naive at best and dangerous at worst. Many people have had experiences, and can even present "evidence," for things that are decidedly false.

On the other hand, I can commend Pratt for his coverage of the foundations of people's worldviews, and I think here he is barking up the right tree. I just wish he would take it a little further.

Ideally, I would have preferred that he focus on how the foundation of one's worldview effects one's interpretation of facts. The question is which worldview can even allow the possibility of facts in a consistent and non-destructive manner. Of course, this would have made the book Van Tillian, and I can't fault him that he doesn't completely agree with me.

Over all, this is a good book, and I would use it for a high school Sunday school class, but (personally) I would supplement it in order to give a complete picture of the apologetic conflict.

Pratt does an excellent job with this introductory work on presuppositional apologetics. He is absolutely clear and succinct. This book is an excellent resource for churches wanting to train men, women, and even high school students, in the presuppositional approach.

In reading "Every Though Captive", I was quite interested in seeing how Pratt went about making a defense for the faith from a presuppositional approach. I gather from the level of language that Pratt was writing a high school or college freshman level book on apologetics, specifically apologetic methodology, and as such I imagine that it would be a fantastic introductory text to presuppositional apologetics. Considering that my "introduction" to presuppositional apologetics was Van Til's Survey of Christian Epistemology (difficult reading on the level of Immanuel Kant...sigh), I wish I had discovered Pratt first!

Pratt does a good job of producing what I'd consider the standard "presuppositional boiler plate" of talking about the creature/creator distinction, the nature of the unbelieving mind and unbelieving thought, the role of presuppositions (he phrases it "dependence" and "independence" , the importance of scripture and the biblical model of apologetics.

He had some great pictures in the book that helped visually illustrate the concepts (something that is both difficult and severely lacking in other presuppositional apologetic works) and he spent four whole chapters (43 pages) on working through the practical delivery of presuppositional apologetics with plenty of examples and even a (rather cheesy) `parable' where a dialogue is played out in brief detail.

Pratt seems to be a gifted teacher, getting the ideas across with simple language (something that is very difficult in this field) and I appreciated much of what he had to say. I appreciated his opening illustration on the foundational issues of apologetics (page 3) where he talked about the scriptures and reasoning.

I liked his simple description of what happened in the fall with regards to Eve's independent thought (29). I really appreciated his comments on the importance of integrity and prayerfulness in apologetics (62-64) and I really enjoyed the ninth chapter, where Pratt works through a popular apologetics text and shows how the reasoning is unbiblical and inconsistent. Pratt delivers a LOT of strong meat for such a small book.

For as great as "Every Though Captive" was, it wasn't without some flaws. The largest flaw seems to be a frequent flaw in all the apologetics texts I read; loose and stretching application of scripture. I found myself looking up several of Pratt's references and asking myself "how in the world does he think this verse teaches that?"

I wasn't convinced that Matthew 10:19 is Christ's promise for effectiveness in apologetic interaction (6), I wasn't convinced that Colossians 3:10 teaches that "Adam and Eve never forgot the Creator-creature distinction as it related to their knowledge" (20), I wasn't convinced that Colossians 4:5-6 tells me that I must answer every apologetic question that comes my way (67), I wasn't convinced that Proverbs 26:4 & 5 should be a large component of a biblical approach to apologetics (85-97), etc.

I find that Bahnsen shoved the epistemological kitchen sink into Proverbs 26:4&5 and since him, plenty of Presuppositionalists have done likewise without ever offering exegetical support that Proverbs 26:4&5 is suggesting what many apologists think it is. As apologists, the high view of scripture and seemingly cavalier and pragmatic approach to exegesis don't seem to mesh for me.

I found that overall, Pratt's book said many things that were true, but his scriptural support seemed slightly stretched, which weakened his case for me made me question his integrity with his handling of scripture. Once I got to the back page and saw that he was educated at Union Seminary and Harvard, things made a little more sense (seeing that neither school would teach one a high view of scripture or any form of protestant exegetical method), but I would have like more serious exploration of scripture with a little less "this English verb appears here so it's likely talking about this philosophical concept" going on. That's the reason for the loss of one star.

Still, I likely will work through the text with some high school seniors one day as it's a great introduction to presuppositional apologetics.

An excellent book explaining Apologetics for every Christian. This book is written in a clear and understandable manner. Though directed at high school level readers, it is also appropriate for adults.

More often than not, apologetic books are a mixed bag; many works either press the practical aspects of apologetics or are focused on precise rigid arguments, devoid of helpful real-life steps. But this volume has both necessary ingredients for apologetic evangelism. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. takes full advantage of his learnedness as a graduate of Harvard and his experience as a seminary professor in furnishing a study manual for the defense of Christian truth.

Pratt, writing with "down-to-earth language," delivers a very useful method to answer non-Christians employing a Van Tilian apologetic (he calls Van Til the "greatest defender of the Christian faith" in the 20th century, p. x). Additionally he names John Frame as a powerful influence on his apologetic (Bahnsen is a more consistent Van Tilian, p. xi). He helps the reader to examine the underlying assumptions and attitudes of the unbeliever as he provides simple and specific steps involved in defending Christian truth.

In Every Thought Captive you receive:

- Numerous outstanding and unique illustrations and graphs
- Review questions (good for group study)
- A congenial critique of brute Evidentialism (he reviews Paul Little's apologetic)
- Exposition on answering/not answering a fool according to his folly from Proverbs 26 (Chapter 10)
- Teaches a type of Law/Gospel evangelism (p. 83)
- Furnishes a list of arguments based on the truth that only Christianity can account for human experience and intelligibility (p. 86-132).
- He relies on the biblical truth that Augustine professed: "Believe that you may understand" (p. 74).

Pratt's book is a valuable tool in the application of Frame-inspired Presuppositional Apologetics.
(I affirm Greg Bahnsen's approach: Mike A Robinson).
God Does Exist!: Defending the faith using presuppositional apologetics, evidence, and the impossibility of the contrary

This is an effective study guide that accessible to general readers for Christian apologetics. Dr. Pratt is an effective proponent of the form defense known as presuppostionalism, that is the use and explanation the Christian faith, and coming to understandings with others based on preexisting beliefs they bring. In other words, Pratt argues that no one is really nuetral and capable of making completely objective decisions.

This short guide, about 150 pages, examines what the Bible says about the state of humanity, and how that effects all other relationships. This becomes a very practical book, after a short theoretical exposition. Pratt does a wonderful job of showing that making the case for Christianity is more than an appeal to the mind, rather it is an appeal to the whole person: intellect, body and emotion.

Pointing out evidences from the Bible, personal experience and the external world, Pratt hopes that all apologetic conversations ultimately end by discussing the logical conclusions of where beliefs take persons. By so doing, he hopes to show inconsistencies in world view and to show consistencies in a Biblical world view.

This book makes extensive use of flow charts and diagrams that would make it of good use for group or individual Christian study for people interested in being able to articulate their faith better, based on its consistencies and the evidences available from presupposing what the Bible says about humanity and God is true. Pratt, a former professor at Reformed Theological Seminary with a Harvard doctorate aims to show how apologetics is the natural state of how a Christian believer interacts with the world at large and seeks to help others perform their job more at ease and with greater understanding of their world view.