The nature, outline and purpose of McGrath's newest contribution, Mere Apologetics ("MA"), is best captured in a footnote in Chapter 6 whereby he borrows from American poet Edna Millay who spoke of a "`meteoric shower of facts' raining from the sky. These facts are like threads that need to be woven into a tapestry, clues that need to be assembled to disclose the big picture . . . we are overwhelmed with information, but cannot make sense of the `shower of facts' with which we are bombarded. There seems to be `no loom to weave it into fabric.' We need a way of making sense of this shower of information. Christianity gives us a way of bringing order and intelligibility to our many and complex observations of the natural world, human history, and personal experience. It allows us to integrate them and see them as interconnected aspects of a greater whole" (page 93). McGrath lays out the same purpose in MA on page 11, and the second paragraph rehearses what is laid out above. Even his conclusion alludes to the tapestry.
Like McGrath's spectacular onslaught of rich, insightful and (many) true statements about the Christian worldview, this book reads more like a book written by Dallas Willard--it is not the number of pages that makes the book slow to read--it is the depth and richness packed in every paragraph.
This is not a book on apologetics, although some creative "existential apologetic arguments (called "threads") are certainly unpacked--and some may may complain that McGrath pays too much homage to the impact and utility of post-modernity, but McGrath does dissect the bad from the usable aspects of postmodernism. The focus here being on story-telling and the alleged equal footing of all metanarratives--so there is some room for argument--but this is not the place or time given the scope of the book. Moreover, it is not a book on meta-apologetics (I highly recommend Kenneth Boa's `Faith Has Its Reasons.' There is also a book by James Beilby, `Thinking About Christian Apologetics' which I have not have had the pleasure of reading but somewhat appears to be similar to McGrath's present book).
Rather, like the footnote above, MA is a book about the historic, existential, biblical, theological and philosophical reasons regarding the importance of apologetics taken in conjunction with other ministries such as evangelism, and using apologetics in this present clash of orthodoxies, or clash of worldviews.
[As a side note which you are welcome to ignore, for those uninitiated in these matters, apologetics, in general, can be misleading as the days of reading oversimplified books about Aquinas 5-ways or Cartesian arguments for the existence of the soul have long been updated, revised, and made into specialties, such as a branch of apologetics that deals with the logical existence of God's existence, handled by the Doctrine of God and philosophical theology. Such training and reading can propel one into issues such as God's eternal nature subsequent to creation (timeless or temporal), or God and the existence of abstract objects--very overwhelming issues for the initiated. Please do not respond to these two issues in your comment as this is only collaterally related to the book. Higher-level apologetics finds itself attached to in-depth natural theology, and the sheer number of a `meteoric shower of facts' that lay at the fingertips of our generation (the church and its institutions), and can leave one confused, apathetic, disconcerted, or diplomatic. Moreover, anything but the use of apologetics as a loom to thread together a tapestry of facts reveals a tapestry and pattern of the Cross)].
Getting back to the book, there is 9 chapters to MA are self-explanatory and laid out as follows: I will fill-in the major themes subsequent to the following:
1. Getting Started: What is Apologetics
2. Apologetics and Contemporary Culture: From Modernity to Postmodernity
3. The Theological Basis of Apologetics
4. The Importance of the Audience: Possibilities and Issues
5. The Reasonableness of the Christian Faith
6. Pointers to Faith: Approaches to Apologetic Engagement
7. Gateways for Apologetics
8. Questions about Faith: Developing Approaches
9. Conclusion
Because of the richness of the chapters, I will provide a chronological commentary and briefly review of each section primarily because of the depth. However, there may be a directionality that could be quickly gleaned over less anyone miss McGrath's major points. Again, the only problem for some readers may be the lack of a well-deserved critique of postmodernism. Any budding or practicing apologist for the past 10+ years, including readers and teachers that care about balanced and creative approaches in reaching our youth should embrace this book. What follows are merely the high points from each chapter.
Chapter 1 is a standard historical perspective of apologetics, why we engage in apologetics, the important fact that we are all biblically called to engage in apologetics. That is, you are an apologist but you may be real horrible in executing this biblical mandate because you have failed to exercise the spiritual discipline of study, and McGrath does well to emphasize that this is a battlefield, and apologetics is a discipleship of the mind--not mere memory of facts such as in a Trivial Pursuit game. McGrath displays wisdom in assuming an eclectic meta-apologetic. He is inspired and borrows from Schaeffer, CS Lewis, William Lane Craig, and Ravi Zacharias. McGrath provides "clues" as to how we ought to frame questions and he leans towards an existential approach in MA. Moreover, McGrath is quick to point out the contextual issue that every person is different, let alone every culture, so "we must learn the language of our audience" (page 20). Numerous reasons as to why we engage in apologetics are laid out, and McGrath ends by summarizing the following purposes of apologetics:
1. Identify and respond to objections or difficulties concerning the gospel, and helping to overcome these barriers of faith.
2. Communicating the excitement and wonder of the Christian faith, so that its potential to transform the human situation can be appreciated.
3. Translating the core ideas of the Christian faith into language that makes sense to outsiders.
Chapter 2 takes off the theme of knowing your audience, listening, and basic contextualization. It is here that we hear of the rise or modernity and postmodernity, and the importance of one aspect of postmodernism, which is basically the emphasis on the private, first-person introspective awareness and story-telling. This is problematic in a "naked public square" lacking any epistemic or moral compass, but McGrath plows through regardless of the postmodern references. Again, there is a point to McGrath's arguments, but the reader may not have too much charity for this particular theme. As J.P. Moreland once stated, "do I need to be a postmodernist in order to know the value of story-telling?" There is not much more to speak about regarding this chapter.
Chapter 3 is about the realization of the answers we can provide to people's questions and concerns, and of the "theological" basis for engaging in apologetics. Again, each paragraph is rich and full so I leave much up to the imagination to the reader. It is here that the utility of apologetics is shown side-by-side with other ministries such as teaching and evangelism. There are fantastic analogies that can be used by teachers at churches and colleges if they decide to use this book as a compliment to primary readings, including natural theology and philosophical theism. Aside from the theological utility, McGrath uses this chapter to unpack possible (and existential) arguments regarding the death and resurrection of Christ.
Chapter 4 highlights the importance of one's audience, and listening. There are some wonderful and historical tidbits about the apostle Paul, and McGrath trifurcates preaching to Jews, Greeks and Romans (not to mention the every day individual). According to McGrath, "the gospel proclamation must be receptor-oriented" (page 57). McGrath uses Paul's idea of "adoption" as a powerful image of redemption, and he uses the concept of "images" as images taken from the Christian worldview can be used to tap into the hearts of unbelievers, such as statements like `too much pleasure leads to emptiness.' Why? McGrath switches to older and modern audiences to make his points, which are laid out as (1) addressing the specific audience; (2) identifying the authorities that carry weight with the audience (e.g., biologists, physicists); and, (3) the importance to use lines of argument that will carry weight with the audience.
Chapters 5 and 6 are the heart of MA as there are many inspirational quotations to make multiple points, such as CS Lewis' famous statement that "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" (page 71). Chapter 5 talks about the reasonableness of the Christian Faith contrary to Richard Dawkins' (et seq.) assertion that "faith is about running away from evidence." I will leave it to the reader to locate relevant defeaters to Dawkins sophomoric statements that are an insult to village atheism (just ask Paul Kurtz). McGrath focuses on the nature of proof, scientific, spiritual and philosophic, and the reader may also take McGrath to task on these issues for the simple reason that he chooses to stay on task and not expand too much on issues that are prone to undermine one's project. (For the inquisitive, read Robert Spitzer's book `New Proofs for the Existence of God' for supplemental information on the issue of proof--it is an amazing book).
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