New Article: Remodeling Rationality: Apologetics for the 21st Century

Faith & Science Conversation
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@Christy wrote about how our cultural context may call for a new approach to apologetics, and how we can look to those doing missions to demonstrate methods to us; to value the embodiment Christ’s message over using traditional evidentiary methods to reach people.

Remodeling Rationality: Apologetics for the 21st Century - Article - BioLogos

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Gave it the once over and I think it’s pretty dope. (I hope I’m using that idiom correctly.) I think the author practices what she preaches. I’ll come back to savor it more after I take Lia out for breakfast and then a walk with Smokey in Blake garden. But she has someone coming to work with her in the studio at 10 so I have to scoot.

I don’t think I have any problem engaging the big ideas of the bible, in fact I very much enjoy doing that here. I hope you can feel good about this approach to apologetics even if some people choose to remain spiritually feral. As long as you put out the occasional bowl of milk I’ll see what I can do about your mice.

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Well done as usual, @Christy. You hit the nail on the head. I should talk about student-centered learning, which I know a little about, and “multimodal” texts, which I just recently found out had a name, but I want to focus on this:

If the Bible could be shown to be reliable (that is, pass our rigorous fact-check process), then nonbelievers would want to hear the message. That approach may have worked well in the past, and may still have a place in Bible classes and formal Bible studies, but attempts to re-package yesterday’s apologetics as an invitation to explore Christianity may get a tepid response from younger generations.

I don’t know about you, but my experience with “yesterday’s apologetics” didn’t resemble anything like an invitation, unless it was an invitation to argue. In today’s divisive and tribal atmosphere, the old argumentative approach is even more doomed to failure, especially with younger folks.

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Yes, very good point. They want “gracious dialogue,” not weapons to beat people over the head with truth.

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Have you ever seen someone argued into the kingdom of God? People don’t like to lose debates. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen someone even admit a mistake.

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