Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 155:617 (Jan 1998)
Article: Evangelical Apologetics
Author: Alister E. McGrath

BSac 155:617 (Jan 98) p. 3

Evangelical Apologetics*

Alister E. McGrath

*Alister E. McGrath is Lecturer in Theology, Oxford University, Oxford, England, and Research Professor, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

This is article one in a four-part series “Biblical Models for Apologetics,” delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 4-7, 1997.

What are the tasks for which seminary students should be preparing? What issues will they need to address in the next period of Christian history? The answer to these questions is complex, for there are many tasks which students must be prepared to meet. One of these areas in which students and others need to be prepared is apologetics. Therefore this series of articles explores some biblical models of apologetics.

Defining Apologetics

Apologetics can be thought of as having two components. On the one hand it concerns the countering of objections to the Christian faith, and on the other it concerns setting out the attractiveness of the gospel.1 It thus has a negative and a positive aspect. Negatively it means being able to handle objections to Christianity which one encounters in the media, the shopping mall, and elsewhere. It means being able to give effective responses to hard questions people ask about Christianity. Sometimes those objections are spurious; sometimes they are real problems, which discourage those individuals from coming to a living faith in Christ. Trained Christians can make a difference here, by helping them see that the problem is not as serious as they may have thought.

Positively, apologetics is setting out the full wonder of the gospel of salvation. It is like unpacking a series of wonderful gifts, and marveling at their beauty. Helping people understand the full glory of what the gospel offers often means taking the trouble to

BSac 155:617 (Jan 98) p. 4

explain central Christian ideas to people who may recognize the words but not the reality they represent. Words such as “grace” and “redemption” come easily from Christian workers’ lips, but believers need to explain what they mean and what they offer to an increasingly unchurched culture. C. S. Lewis, unquestionably the greatest apologist of his time,2 made this point memorably.

We must learn the language of our audience. And let me say at the outset that it is no use laying down a priori what the “plain man” does or does not understand. You have to find out by experience.. .. You must translate every bit of your theology into the vernacular. This is very troubleso...