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Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find

Faith
Author Alistair E. McGrath

Publisher Baker Books

Publishing/Release Date Jan 1, 2012

Review and Summary Pending

Status Finished

Type Book

McGrath, Alistair E. 2012. Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith. Grand Rapids, MI Baker Books.
Main question: how can Christians help seekers and sceptics find faith?

I. Understanding the role of apologetics and evangelism (the nature of help)

A. What is apologetics?
The demonstration of the correctness of Christian truth claims with gentleness and respect.

B. What does apologetics consist in?

 Defending: finding barriers to faith—rational, emotional or existential—then addressing them with graciousness.

 Commending: allowing the full wonder of the Christian faith to be understood and appreciated.

 Translating: translating the language of theology into cultural vernacular so that faith is faithfully and effectively communicated to non-Christian
culture.

C. What is the function of apologetics?

Apologetics secures consent (by establishing the plausibility and desirability of Christianity), while evangelism, commitment.

D. What are the limitations of apologetics?

 Apologetics alone doesn't bring someone to faith, only rational assent to Christianity.

 Apologetics could lead to a loss of distinctive Christian identity if theology is wholly translated into cultural terms. (e.g. mediator in culture not
identical to that of Bible).

II. Understanding the minds of seekers and sceptics (culture)

A. Where are the minds of seekers and sceptics in current cultural trends?

 Formerly, modernity: the belief in universal human reason and metanarratives.

 Currently, postmodernity: the rejection of modernity, under four parts:

a. Reason is contextual and relative, not universal;

b. Truth is suspect because of its use to oppress;
c. Metanarratives (ways of looking at history) are suspect;

d. Human identity is a particular social construct, not universal.

B. How should apologetics approach culture?

 Don't be alarmed or stuck within a rationalistic framework when seeking to engage postmodernism; don't idealise the past either.

 Adopt the following fundamental principles:

a. Understand the faith, especially the leading themes that can connect with people and engage their experiences and ideas;
b. Understand the audience, especially their personal questions, objections and difficulties;
c. Communicate clearly: "Our business is to present that which is timeless in the particular language of our own age." C. S. Lewis);
d. Find points of contact (nature, society, or the moral code), and use it as a point of contact to show how the gospel explains;
e. Present the whole gospel—not our own ideas, nor our mere testimony, but how Scripture presents it through stories and images;
f. Practise applying apologetic ideas in everyday life.

III. Understanding how people find faith (how God uses apologetics)

A. What qualities of Christians does God use?

 Those mastered by their faith—its ideas, themes and values.

 Those who are real about human nature—appreciating and being able to explain that human nature is wounded, fallen—and that it can be healed
by God's grace.

 Those praying always for God to remove spiritual blindness.

 Those who recognise that apologetics only points people to Christ, with whom they must encounter.

B. How can Christians develop these qualities?

 By developing a deep and informed appreciation of the biblical narrative.

 By developing an outsider's perspective—how a biblical theme may relate to deep, existential questions (e.g. guilt) or fears (e.g. death) or
conviction (e.g. brokenness of world) so that the recipient can appreciate and be transformed.

Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith 1

 IV. Understanding the specific audience (personally and in light of culture)

A. How important is it to understand the specific audience?

To the extent that it addresses the audience's needs, just as how Peter and Paul did in Acts.

B. How can Christians engage the specific audience?

 Address the specific audience—see examples.

Examples of addressing the specific audience

a. Peter's sermon in Acts 2 1 addressed Jewish longing for Messiah by pointing out Jesus, leading to their conviction of sin; 2 used OT as
authority—the only accepted authority to them (based on its historical reliability and interpretation).
b. Paul's speeches to the Greeks in Acts 17 1 addressed Greek's desire to know God; 2 used Greek poet as appropriate evidence; 3
developed line of thought that resonated with Athenian ideas about the presence of the divine.
c. Paul's speech to the Romans in Acts 2426 1 argued in line with the Roman legal system's 'rules of engagement', producing convincing
evidence and clarifying caricatures; 2 careful with underlying opposition against Christianity by imperial cult.

 Identify authorities recognised by the audience.

 Use fitting lines of argument that conform to audience's expectations.

 Identify the gateway that works best for the audience: reason, emotions or practice (whether it works).

V. Understanding why seekers and sceptics should find faith (reasonableness of faith)

A. Why is the Christian faith reasonable?

Because Christianity not only makes sense of itself, but of everything else as well.

B. How should Christians show the faith to be reasonable?

 By showing there is a good argumentative or evidential base for core beliefs.

 By showing that, if true, it explains reality better than alternatives—an 'empirical fit' between theory and observation.

a. By causal explanation.
1 Science shows that the universe isn't self-existent, but created.
2 It is thus reasonable to posit that God is the first cause, and nature as second.

b. By inference to the best explanation.

1 Theories supported based on discernment of elegance, simplicity and fertility, rather than actual correspondence (which cannot be proved).
2 Since the 'God hypothesis' explains things best, then it is well supported.

c. By unificatory explanation (i.e. explanation as unification of view of reality).

1 Theories gain credence if they can accommodate many other beliefs.

2 The 'God hypothesis' is able to do better than others.

d. Example: New Atheism vs. Christianity

1 New Atheism's belief in the death of religion and the progress of humanity doesn't make sense of history, especially because it didn't
happen.

Quote

If ever there was a pious myth and a piece of credulous superstition, it is the liberal-rationalist belief that, a
few hiccups apart, we are all steadily en route to a finer world. Eagleton)

2 Christianity is able to explain the heights of aspiration and the depths of depravity.

C. What is the nature of faith that Christians want seekers and sceptics to find?

 Faith is a conviction that cannot be proved by empirical observation or logical deduction; Most beliefs (in particular, beliefs that give human life
reason, direction, and purpose) actually fall into this category; we assume many unprovable beliefs and that is reasonable.

Illustrative quotes

We hold many beliefs that have no unimpeachably rational justification, but are nonetheless reasonable to
entertain. Eagleton)

...if anyone really believed that the worth of a theory depends on its philosophical grounding, then indeed they
would be dubious about physics, or democracy, until relativism in respect to philosophical theories had been
overcome. Fortunately, almost nobody believes anything of the sort. Rorty)

 Faith is not only cognitive, but relational and existential—we are transformed or 'apprehended' by Christ when we trust Him.

Illustrative quote

Arguments] may be greatly serviceable to awaken unbelievers, and bring them to serious consideration, and to
confirm the faith of true saints; yea, they may be in some respect subservient to the begetting of a saving faith
in men. Though what was said before remains true, that there is no spiritual conviction of the judgment, but
what arises from an apprehension of the spiritual beauty and glory of divine things. Edwards)

D. Why does the reasonableness of Christianity matter?

 Removes the intellectual barriers for unbelief;, which allows the flowering of belief.

 Persuasive power: reasonableness shows the good grounds for belief.

Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith 2

  More than being reasonable, faith transcends science and reason because it is existentially sufficient—it goes beyond the limits of reason.

VI. Approaching seekers and sceptics (how to show the reasonableness of faith)
While we cannot prove that Christianity is true, we can use clues/pointers that mount a strong cumulative case for Christianity, using external and internal
evidence:

A. What are the external (to the subject) clues for Christianity?

 Creation—the origin of the universe: the universe cannot be self-existent, but created, because it had a beginning.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

Major premise: Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Minor premise: The universe began to exist.

Conclusion: Therefore the universe has a cause.

 Fine-tuning—the universe designed for life: parameters of the universe are extremely precise; more plausibly by design than pure chance.

Quotes

...a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and... there are no blind
forces with speaking about in nature." Hoyle, Atheist cosmologist)

The phenomenon of fine-tuning is widely conceded; all debates concern its interpretation. (p. 99

 Order—the structure of the universe: the universe has regularity and intelligibility that can be understood by the mind; science cannot explain why,
but simply assumes it. Contrariwise, Christianity can explain this congruence: the rationality of the human mind, and that embedded in the deep
structure of the universe, have a common origin in a deeper rationality, the "mind of God".

Quotes

We are so familiar with the fact that we can understand the world that most of the time we take it for granted. It
is what makes science possible. Yet it could have been otherwise. The universe might have been a disorderly
chaos rather than an orderly cosmos. Or it might have had a rationality which was inaccessible to us.... There is
a congruence between our minds and the universe, between the rationality experienced within and the
rationality observed without. John Polkinghorne)

So why is the universe so intelligible to us? How can we account for its rational transparency? ... Why is it that
the abstract structures of pure mathematics—which are supposed to be a free creation of the human mind—
provide such important clues to understanding the world? The great mathematician Eugene Wigner once
famously asked: "Why is mathematics so unreasonably effective in understanding the physical world?" His
question needs to be answered. But science cannot answer it. In fact, science depends precisely upon this
"unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics. It uses it as a tool—without being able to offer a theoretical
account of why it is so reliable in this way. (p. 102

B. What are the internal clues for Christianity?

 Morality—longing for justice: atheism (naturalism) cannot ground morality objectively; pragmatism (relativism) cannot justify warrant for moral
outrage; only positing God as moral lawgiver can account for our moral intuitions.

Quotes

The central question about moral and ethical principles concerns this ontological foundation. If they are neither
derived from God nor anchored in some transcendent ground, are they purely ephemeral? Paul Kurtz, Forbidden
Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism)

When the secret police come, when the torturers violate the innocent, there is nothing to be said to them of the
form "There is something within you which you are betraying. Though you embody the practices of a totalitarian
society, which will endure forever, there is something beyond those practices which condemns you." Rorty, The
Consequences of Pragmatism)

C. S. Lewis' Moral Argument (Mere Christianity)

Premise 1 Everyone believes that there are objective moral truths. We cannot conduct moral debates without them.

Premise 2 Objective moral truths are quite unlike "laws of nature" or "natural" facts. The former are about what we "ought" to do; the latter
about what we observe in the world around us.

Conclusion: The best explanation of our deep intuition of the existence of objective moral truths is that there is an intelligence behind or
beyond nature that implants the knowledge of right and wrong in us and acts as the foundation for the objectivity of our moral judgments.

 Desire—the homing instinct for God: everyone has a deep longing for something; the best explanation is to be found within the theological
framework of human nature and God as the only one who can satisfy.

C. S. Lewis' Argument from Desire (abductively) (cf. Peter Kreeft, "C. S. Lewis's Argument from Desire," G. K. Chesterson and C. S. Lewis: The
Riddle of Joy.)

 Every natural desire has a corresponding object, and is satisfied only when this is attained or experienced.

 There is a natural desire for transcendent fulfilment, which cannot be attained or experienced by or through anything in the present world.

 This natural desire for transcendent fulfillment can therefore only be filled beyond the present world, in a world toward which the present
order of things points.

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  Beauty—the splendour of the natural world: we have the instinct for transcendence, stimulated by beauty—an ideal world—that is poorly explained
by wishful thinking, and better explained as originating from God through nature. But more than explanation, beauty bypasses rational analysis—
the beauty of the gospel narrative might capture some.

Quotes

The human quest for true beauty is, for Lewis, an important point of contact for the Christian gospel... "a longing to be reunited with something
in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside... We cannot
mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day,
God willing, we shall get in." Weight of Glory)

 Relationality—God as a person: we are deeply relational creatures; ideals alone are sterile; thus, our need for love (through relationships) can only
be finally fulfilled in God's infinite love for man.

Quotes

As a younger man, More Paul Elmer) was fascinated by Plato's notion of the Ideal—the reality that lies behind
any appearance on earth. Yet the more he reflected on Plato's "world of Ideals," the less it appealed to him. It
seemed bleak and sterile, lackign a capacity to relate to people. For More, Plato's was a chilly and impersonal
world, in which no words are spoken and the tenderness of love is unknown. Yet Christianity speaks of God
entering into our history and allows us to abandon the cold and unfeeling world of ideals in favor of a world
charged with the thrilling personal presence of God. (pp. 116117

 Eternity—the intuition of hope: we are hardwired for hope; might be mere wishful thinking, but Christianity can explain and ground this hope of the
future.

Quotes

But often, in the world's most crowded streets

But often, in the din of strife
There rises an unspeakable desire
After the knowledge of our buried life. Matthew Arnold, The Buried Life)

In summary, "this capacity to connect with our experience and make sense of it a surefire indication of both the rational truth and existential adequacy of
the Christian faith."

It provides a framework that frees us from the threats of contingency and futility that lurk beneath the surface of
supposedly self-sufficient and autonomous secular ethics. It offers us not a proof but a hope that the "cave" of our
human world (to use Plato's image) is not utterly sealed and closed, but that our flickering moral intimations reflect the
ultimate source of all goodness. John Cottingham, Why Believe?, 47

C. What gateways can we use to open the door to faith?

 Explanation: identifying then truthfully disarming misconceptions of Christianity.

 Argument: establishing the reasonableness of Christian worldview, then revealing limitations of other worldviews by exposing contradictions.

a. Begin by learning the unbeliever's use of language so that we understand what they intend to convey.

b. Help the unbeliever to discover and appreciate the significance of tension between their ideals and reality (cf. the clues in A and B.

Illustration

The student in whose room we met, who had clearly understood the implications of what the Sikh had
admitted, picked up his kettle of boiling water with which he was about to make tea, and stood with it
steaming over the Indian's head. The man looked up and asked him what he was doing, and he said with a
cold yet gentle finality, "There is no difference between cruelty and noncruelty." Thereupon the Hindu walked
out into the night. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There)

c. Engage the big questions of life: who am I? do I really matter? why am I here? can I make a difference?

 Stories: narratives are essential to understand our role in life because we view reality as a story.

a. The Christian myth as narrative of creation, fall, redemption and consummation explains all other narratives of human origins and destiny.

b. The Christian myth challenges worldviews—by telling the story of the Bible "we are inevitably challenging more than just one aspect of the
world's way of looking at things (i.e., its view of authority and power). We are undermining its entire view of what the world is, and is for, and are
offering, in the best way possible, a new world-view." N. T. Wright)

The Bible's Worldview N. T. Wright)

 Who are we? Human beings who are made in the image of our creator, and are not given our fundamental identity by race, gender, social
class, or geographical location.

 Where are we? We learn that we live in a good and beautiful, though transient, world, created by the God whose image we bear.

 What is wrong? We discover that humanity has rebelled against its creator, and the world is consequently out of tune with its created
intention.

 What is the solution? We are reassured that God has acted, is acting, and will act within creation through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit
to deal with the evil resulting from human rebellion, and to bring his world to the end for which it was made—namely, that it should
resonate fully with his own presence and glory.

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 c. The Christian myth explains other metanarratives, judged to be better by its simplicity, elegance, and comprehensiveness; and by its capacity to
make sense beyond its own intended focus. See the biblical parables for example—the audience is invited to step inside the story and ask whether
it seems to help make sense of their experiences and observations).

 Images (or metaphors): in our postmodern context, images are more popular and authoritative than words; thus, use Plato's Cave or the NT image
of adoption.

Plato's Cave: how could the people in the cave realise that there is another, better world beyond its dark, smoky walls?

 Someone comes into the cave from the real world outside to tell its inhabitants about the real world. Apologetically, this corresponds to the
idea of divine revelation.

 The structures of the cave itself contain clues to the existence of a world beyond its walls. Apologetically, this corresponds to arguments for
God's existence based on clues in the structure of the world.

 The prisoners have an intuition that there is a better world than the dark, smoky cave. Apologetically, this corresponds to arguments for
God's existence based on human feelings, such as the argument from desire.

 Someone might break into the cave from another world. They would tell us about what the other world is like, using analogies, based on the
cave. This is Christ's incarnation.

Adoption: the image, drawn from Roman family law, is seen by Paul as casting light on the privileges and place of Christians in their relationship
with God.

 Adoption is about being wanted. It is about belonging. These are deeply emotive themes, which resonate with the cares and concerns of
many in our increasingly fractured society.

 Adoption resonates strongly with the deep human yearning to belong somewhere. "To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least
recognised need of the human soul." Simone Weil, The Need for Roots)

 Incarnational apologetics: our life and behaviour can demonstrate the truth of Christianity. "What our world is waiting for, and what the church
seems reluctant to offer, is not more incessant talk about objective truth, but an embodied witness that clearly demonstrates why anyone should
care about any of this in the first place." Philip D. Kenneson)

VII. Engaging seekers and sceptics (how to answer questions about faith)
When receiving questions, we must adopt a defensive attitude, but a listening one—looking for opportunities to win people over through personal and
sensitive answers.

A. What general guidelines can we follow?

 Be polite, considerate and gracious in responding to the question.

 Be ready to answer the question at face-value, but always ask for the deeper question—why is this person asking?

 Listen and respond accordingly; keep yourself from giving pre-packaged answers because they seem disingenuous.

 Learn from other apologists: their tone and content; but reverse-engineer them in order to perceive why they responded as such.

 Learn to live with questions—we don't have to give all the answers, but provide a framework to understand the problems.

B. What steps can we take to answer those questions?

 Ask, 'why is this question a particular concern for you?'

 Discern the possible gateways into the question (see VI, C.

 Develop your own response based on the specific audience.

VIII. Developing one's own apologetic approach (how to improve our ability to help)

A. Steps for developing apologetic approach:

 Public speaking

 Writing

 Personal conversations

 The example of our lives

B. Guidelines for developing apologetic approach:

 Find a community to practise apologetics, receive feedback and support, as apologetics can be incredibly draining.

 Adapt from others through 'reverse-engineering'; it is vital to be persuaded of an apologetic approach, rather than adopting someone else's.

 Find ways to practise apologetics regularly and practically.

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