Friday, February 03, 2006
Do We Need New Apologetics?
JollyBlogger, looking at the Da Vinci Code, says this:
But on the road to Christ, apologetics only gets us so far. The apostles relied on apologetic agruement only occassionally. Christ Himself shone so brightly through the lives of the disciples that intellectual objections paled in comparision to the glory of the Lord.
Renewal is, I think, the ultimate answer. We as the church have to rediscover the Lord Himself. Yes, that means rediscover apologetics, but it means so much more too.
The life of the church should make the questions of the Da Vinci Code appear as the trivial, fictional ravings of conspiracy theorists that they are.
Related Tags: The Da Vinci Code, apologetics, Jollyblogger, renewal, church, Christianity
So, at the risk of sounding conspiratorial or alarmist I think this shows that Christians are facing a new set of circumstances in the DaVinci Code or post-DaVinci Code era. In the past we have focused on a kind of apologetics that defends the Christian story, now our apologetic task will be to define the Christian story. The DaVinci Code didn't cause this set of circumstances but it has brought it to the fore.I understand David's point here and agree that there has been insufficient emphasis on apolgetics in Christian training lately. The fact that the definition of Christianity has become elastic enough for this to be an issue is testament to that fact.
I hope to talk about this more in the future but for now I'll share a few thoughts on challenges facing us.
1. We need to recover our Christian intellectual tradition - the pietism of the past leaves us ill-equipped to respond to intellectual/academic attacks on the faith. "Just believe" and "just have faith" may sound fine in church but they aren't good responses to the arguments of DaVinci Code advocates.
2. We need to be prepared for a world where their worldview can accomodate ours but ours can't accomodate theirs - one of the things about the DaVinci Code and the new spiritualities it represents is that these new spiritualities are very inclusive.
But on the road to Christ, apologetics only gets us so far. The apostles relied on apologetic agruement only occassionally. Christ Himself shone so brightly through the lives of the disciples that intellectual objections paled in comparision to the glory of the Lord.
Renewal is, I think, the ultimate answer. We as the church have to rediscover the Lord Himself. Yes, that means rediscover apologetics, but it means so much more too.
The life of the church should make the questions of the Da Vinci Code appear as the trivial, fictional ravings of conspiracy theorists that they are.
Related Tags: The Da Vinci Code, apologetics, Jollyblogger, renewal, church, Christianity
