Apologetics
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect
--1 Peter 3:15
We have an obligation to understand and be able to articulate our faith in terms to which our world can relate. It is not enough to say that "it makes sense to me" and that is enough. Moreover, thinking through the compatibility of our faith with our world brings a coherence and consistency to a faith that otherwise can be quite disjointed. We can have a sort of religious schizophrenia where our two worlds-- religious and secular--are miles apart. But just as clinical schizophrenia hinders peace of mind so religious schizophrenia leaves us disjointed. At every corner of our worldly existence we find something that challenges and rubs our faith convictions the wrong way. (Do chimpanzees really have better memory than we do?) To fail to address these incongruencies leaves us unsettled.
The greek word translated as "reason" here is "apologia" from which we get apologetics--that branch of theology dedicated to defending the integrity of the faith. Apologetics must be handled very carefully, and in fact a misappropration of this verse can undermind the very authority we claim it has. To look for a reason for our faith can be miscontrued as meaning that we must turn to a higher court of appeal than either our experience or scripture in order to defend or justify our faith. In academic apologetics this has a tendency to manifiest itself in too strong a hold on philosophy and empiricism.
We see then two tendencies--one overemphasizes special revelation and leaves no room for general revelation to both inform our worldview and aid in the interpretation of special revelation. The other overemphasizes general revelation thus refusing the place of primacy that special revelation demands.
What we need is a sort of checks and balances understanding of the relationship between the two which operates under the assumption that an accurate understaing of them will yield congruence. Though scripture may be inerrant and God's world perfectly ordered, our ability to interpret either is not.
--1 Peter 3:15
We have an obligation to understand and be able to articulate our faith in terms to which our world can relate. It is not enough to say that "it makes sense to me" and that is enough. Moreover, thinking through the compatibility of our faith with our world brings a coherence and consistency to a faith that otherwise can be quite disjointed. We can have a sort of religious schizophrenia where our two worlds-- religious and secular--are miles apart. But just as clinical schizophrenia hinders peace of mind so religious schizophrenia leaves us disjointed. At every corner of our worldly existence we find something that challenges and rubs our faith convictions the wrong way. (Do chimpanzees really have better memory than we do?) To fail to address these incongruencies leaves us unsettled.
The greek word translated as "reason" here is "apologia" from which we get apologetics--that branch of theology dedicated to defending the integrity of the faith. Apologetics must be handled very carefully, and in fact a misappropration of this verse can undermind the very authority we claim it has. To look for a reason for our faith can be miscontrued as meaning that we must turn to a higher court of appeal than either our experience or scripture in order to defend or justify our faith. In academic apologetics this has a tendency to manifiest itself in too strong a hold on philosophy and empiricism.
We see then two tendencies--one overemphasizes special revelation and leaves no room for general revelation to both inform our worldview and aid in the interpretation of special revelation. The other overemphasizes general revelation thus refusing the place of primacy that special revelation demands.
What we need is a sort of checks and balances understanding of the relationship between the two which operates under the assumption that an accurate understaing of them will yield congruence. Though scripture may be inerrant and God's world perfectly ordered, our ability to interpret either is not.
posted by Kevin Hanly at
9:14 AM
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