Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 177:705 (Jan 2020)
Article: The Table Briefing: Dialogical Apologetics And Difficult Spiritual Conversations, Part 3
Author: Darrell L. Bock

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The Table Briefing:
Dialogical Apologetics And Difficult Spiritual Conversations, Part 3

Darrell L. Bock

and

Mikel Del Rosario

Darrell L. Bock is senior research professor in New Testament Studies and executive director for cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Mikel Del Rosario is a doctoral student in New Testament studies, project manager for cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary, and adjunct professor of Christian apologetics and world religion at William Jessup University, Rocklin, California.

Someone who unexpectedly tosses you a ball might call out, “Think fast!” It’s unlikely, however, that anyone has ever told you to “think slow.” In The Three Languages of Politics, Arnold Kling uses the terms “slow political thinking” and “fast political thinking.”1 The latter refers to a kind of knee-jerk reaction, much like the automatic impulse to avoid a baseball that’s about to hit you. Here people see an issue from only one angle and quickly react to assertions without much reflection. The former refers to a slower, methodical kind of reasoning—the kind one might use to solve a geometry problem. Here people work to see an issue from more than one angle and respond after some reflection.2

While Kling’s observations focus on difficult political conversations, it can be just as easy to immediately react without much reflection

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in the midst of difficult spiritual conversations. This is one reason we have discussed his work with our staff at the Hendricks Center, and some of his ideas have come up on episodes of the Table Podcast with Dallas Theological Seminary faculty, including Adjunct Professor of World Missions and Intercultural Studies Jenny McGill, Professor of Theological Studies Glenn Kreider, Professor of Biblical Counseling Gary Barnes, and Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling Michelle Woody. We also saw how these ideas can be applied to apologetics in the church while talking with DTS alumn and Watermark Community Church Director of Equipping and Apologetics Nathan Wagnon.

In this third installment of our series on dialogical apologetics, we share three key elements of practicing “slow thinking” that emerged from conversations with these guests. These are (1) detachment, (2) decentering, and (3) empathy. We share how incorporating these things can slow us down enough to see beyond the negative in someone else’s view.

Detachment

While ma...