CHAPTER 2 : COMMUNITY SOURCED THOUGHT QUESTIONS
Check for additions. Last edited: 8/1/2022
Kendel: One:
I hope to hear the group’s take on these four statements Penner makes on page 48 and 49:
“Note how the apologist debater functions something like an expert witness who is uniquely gifted and highly trained–and therefore especially qualified–to articulate and defend Christian truth in a way the rest of us cannot.”
“Objections to Christian faith in modernity come from the intelligentsia–from the highly sophisticated and intellectually rigorous modern scientific worldview.”
“As the challenge is for Christians to articulate the epistemological warrent or justification for their beliefs in terms that are objective, universal, and neutral, the average Christian in the pew may not possess the intellectual qualifications or have the requesite training to defend the faith. It is difficult, often, to even understand the objections to faith, let alone know how to respond to them.”
“I suggest modern Christian apologetics subtly undermines the very gospel it seeks to defend and does not offer us a good alternative to the skepticism and ultimate meaninglessness of the modern secular condition.”
And finally, how Penner’s description of the modern apologist square’s with this.
Two:
This quote on page 73
My strategy to this point has been “deconstructive” as I have tried to show how modern epistemology and its assumptions about human reason are merely onedevolves into ideology.
leads me to ask, what do you read/have you read outside of white, male, western philosopy/theory/literature? Penner has not overtly stated until here (that I remember) the cultural grounding of OUNCE. I wish he had. It’s of enormous importance to his argument. Reading widely of texts from non-white, non-western, non-male, non-straight writers is revelatory.
Three:
A plea–Footnote 64 is nearly opaque to me. Can anyone help provide clarity? Much appreciated!!!