Encouraging of a gentler, more respectful apologetic

books:


	• Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today Jr. John G. Stackhouse Oxford University Press, USA, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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Thoroughly refreshing

Written from a humble point of view, this book could be subtitled "For anyone who is annoyed by being told that Christians must present evidence that demands a verdict." Stackhouse is logical, warm, and true to the Bible without being dogmatic. This is apologetics for the compassionate and postmodern Christian heart.

Apologetics for Our Times

John Stackhouse is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. His book Humble Apologetics is a winsome approach to offering our apologia -- the reasons for the hope that is within us -- in our pluralistic world.

A substantial strength of this book is Stackhouse's admonishment that we engage in apologetics that are appropriate to our cultural time and place. The Church no longer dominates western society, and basic Christian truths are no longer assumed. for many who are engaged in the culture wars, these facts are cause for, well, war. But as Stackhouse notes,

"[w]hat is not so clear to many Christians . . . is that multiculturalism and extensive religious plurality can offer an opportunity for Christians to shed the baggage of cultural dominance that has often impeded or distorted the spread of the gospel. It may be, indeed, that the decline of Christian hegemony can offer the Church the occasion to adopt a new and more effective stance of humble service toward societies it no longer controls."

This call to an apologetic based on service is much needed today.

Stackhouse also helpfully critiques apologetic efforts that require one person to answer every question and provoke a moment of crisis in order to close the deal. As Stackhouse notes,

"[w]hen it comes to anything important in life as a Christian, and particularly in apologetic conversation that aims to benefit the neighbor, we remember this cardinal principle: You can't do it all no matter what you do, so don't try! We are part of the Church, which itself is only one corporate player in God's great mission of global peacemaking. We must do just what we each can do, and trust the rest of the Church and God himself to do their parts as well."

A key point here is that apologetics, like every other endeavor in the Christian life, is about love, not about "winning" arguments.

Like all work on apologetics, Stackhouse's broader project is epistemological -- the question "how do we know and what can we know it" relates directly to the question "what reasons can we present to others for belief in Christ." He notes that

"[w]e Christians should not need postmodernists to tell us that we do not know it all. We should not need anyone to tell us that all human thought is partial, distorted, and usually deployed in the interest of this or that personal agenda. . . . We recognize, ultimately, that to truly believe, to truly commit oneself to God, is itself a gift that God alone bestows. Conversion is a gift. Faith is a gift. God alone can change minds so that those minds can both see and embrace the great truths of the gospel, and the One who stands at their center."

Not surprisingly, some rationalist evangelicals have criticized this call to epistemic humility. In my view, however, Stackhouse hits the epistemic nail on the head. A holistic apologetic, that treats others as fellow human beings rather than targets, one way or another will recognize that we don't know it all, and will point away from ourselves to Christ. This is the ultimate goal of all the arguments and evidence we can muster.

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The POSTMODERN "Christian" Heart?

A previous reviewer wrote: "Stackhouse is logical, warm, and true to the Bible without being dogmatic. This is apologetics for the compassionate and postmodern Christian heart."

First, I am not sure that you can be true to the Bible without being dogmatic, since the Bible itself dogmatically claims to be a revelation from God without compromise or room for denial.

Second, saying that this is apologetics for the "postmodern Christian heart" may be saying more than what the reviewer intends -- that is, this is the apologetics preferred by those "Christians" whose hearts have already been shaped by postmodernism instead of Scripture.

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Encouraging of a gentler, more respectful apologetic

John Stackhouse Jr., is professor of theology and culture at Regent College, Vancouver, Canada. He is an award-winning historian, philosopher, theologian, journalist, and teacher. In this stirring volume Stackhouse draws upon each of these areas of expertise in order to persuade us that defending the faith (much-maligned as it is) can be and ought to be undertaken humbly. For Stackhouse, the practice of apologetics can be interesting and important, or offensive and therefore self-defeating; to ensure that it is the former and not the latter which prevails, Stackhouse has authored this volume with the intent of presenting a way "of engaging in worthwhile apologetical conversation without perverting it into a destructive exercise in triumphalism" (p. xvi).

Not dissimilar from recent texts on apologetics and evangelism by a number of L'Abri related authors (e.g. Os Guinness, Bill Edgar, Dick Keyes and Jerram Barrs); Humble Apologetics also shares some affinity with the apologetic writings of the late Francis Schaeffer. This is true not merely in terms of tone and awareness of cultural crosscurrents and their impact upon the task of witness-bearing, but perhaps most especially in the way that Stackhouse exhibits his concern for the ones to whom our apologetics are directed. (Like Schaeffer, Stackhouse is eager that our practice of apologetics open up and illumine a way forward and not wound, shut down, or cause someone to turn back from faith).

Full of sage advice and helpful pastoral notes, Humble Apologetics is nevertheless uncluttered and can be outlined quickly and easily. Parts one and two helpfully delineate the milieu in which we are called upon to defend the faith and explain what defending the faith means and involves. Here, pluralism, postmodernism and consumerism are cited as crucial challenges to Christian apologetics. The problem of plausibility-i.e. of our culture's particular resistance to biblical Christianity-is also raised and addressed. Apologetics itself is finally defined and defended and the basic epistemological matters underlying a humble apologetic are discussed. Part three," the payoff section" (p.xvii), weaves the various threads together by suggesting principles of communication, by endorsing audience-specific apologetics and by listing a dozen guidelines for apologetic conversation. Concerned that theology and philosophy not monopolize, Stackhouse draws attention to other modes of apologetics and offers a concluding chapter in which he once again drives home the importance and necessity of practicing humble apologetics.

While some have baulked at the contours of Stackhouse's proposal, labeling it "postmodern" and charging that it harbors too low a view of apologetic argumentation and its outcomes (Groothuis, Books & Culture); others have dismissed it altogether, decrying it as "unbiblical and outrageous" (Cheung, Reformation Ministries International). Though such conclusions seem hasty and tend to overlook the many strengths of this volume (too many to register here), yet there are occasions in which Stackhouse's language can be said to court the disapproval of those committed to a more corpulent and virile apologetic. Examples of this would include his insistence on speaking about worldviews, including Christianity, as "hypotheses-intelligent guesses-that are always subject to further tryouts" (p.87-89); his unnuanced assertion that "No human being knows anything for certain" (p.166); as well as his conclusion: "For all we know, we might be wrong about any or all of this" (p.232; italics are the author's). Nonetheless, while I too feel that Stackhouse may have overreached in some of his comments, yet I remain an ardent admirer of this work for two reasons.

First, it simply must be admitted that certainty is a problematic concept. For even though God wants us to be certain of our salvation and of the truth of Christianity, and even though He supplies us with the resources we need to come to a point of confident assurance regarding the essential elements of the gospel message (the concern of Groothuis and others), yet this does not prevent doubt from arising and neither does it nullify the difficulties Stackhouse addresses. Therefore, disagreement withstanding, I am certain (oops!) that I stand to gain much from interacting with this work

Second, although I reject E. J. Carnell's verificationist approach to apologetics (his offering of God and Christianity as hypotheses to be tested by autonomous man) and although I continue to have questions about the Reformed epistemology of Plantinga and Wolterstorff (which informs and gives shape to Stackhouse's epistemology); yet I can happily utilize and endorse this work when I bear in mind the author's intent. For having read and re-read Humble Apologetics, it does not seem that Stackhouse has capitulated to postmodernism and wants to topple the edifice of sure knowledge as much as he wants us to recognize the milieu we are a part of and the apologetic impact of respecting our epistemic limitations. Neither does Stackhouse suggest that other religious and philosophical options are equal to or better than Christianity, only that for various cultural and sociological reasons such alternatives may and often do appeal to others with a force that we must not underestimate or ignore. In short, Stackhouse is alert to the fact that in our present culture we cannot go out and argue from a position of obvious certainty, we must argue from a position of plausibility asking those in front of us to consider "Might not this be true?"

So then, bearing in mind the author's intent, I find Stackhouse's reflections on how we do or approach apologetics to convey a welcome and much-needed emphasis. Indeed, whatever might be said about the idiosyncrasies of this work, it remains a solid contribution towards creating and encouraging a gentler, more respectful apologetic (cf. 1 Peter 3:15). In his reconfiguring of apologetics Stackhouse has removed trumpery, clipped the wings of pride and managed to exalt character and loving respect for others without dumbing down apologetics. In essence, he pushes us to engage not just ideas, but people; to reject not only arid intellectualism but acrid uncharitability as well. Such factors make Stackhouse `highly recommended reading' for all would-be apologists.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Is it still possible, in an age of religious and cultural pluralism, to engage in Christian apologetics? How can one urge one's faith on others when such a gesture is typically regarded with suspicion, if not outright resentment?
In Humble Apologetics John G. Stackhouse brings his wide experience as a historian, philosopher, journalist, and theologian to these important questions and offers surprising--and reassuring--answers. Stackhouse begins by acknowledging the real impediments to Christian testimony in North America today and to other faiths in modern societies around the world. He shows how pluralism, postmodernism, skepticism, and a host of other factors create a cultural milieu resistant to the Christian message. And he shows how the arrogance or dogmatism of apologists themselves can alienate rather than attract potential converts. Indeed, Stackhouse argues that the crucial experience of conversion cannot be compelled; all the apologist can do is lead another to the point where an actual encounter with Jesus can take place. Finally, he shows how displaying an attitude of humility, instead of merely trying to win religious arguments, will help believers offer their neighbors the gift of Christ's love.
Drawing on the author's personal experience and written with an engaging directness and an unassuming nature, Humble Apologetics provides sound guidance on how to share Christian faith in a postmodern world.

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