Book Review "Apologetics For The 21st Century" By Louis Markos (Crossway: Wheaton, Ill., 2010) -- By: Craig A. Parton

Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 09:3 (Feb 2012)
Article: Book Review "Apologetics For The 21st Century" By Louis Markos (Crossway: Wheaton, Ill., 2010)
Author: Craig A. Parton


Book Review
Apologetics For The 21st Century By Louis Markos (Crossway: Wheaton, Ill., 2010)

Craig Parton

Craig Parton is a trial lawyer in Santa Barbara, California and the author of three books on the defense of the faith. He is also the United States Director of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights which meets each July in Strasbourg, France (see www.apologeticsacademy.eu).

Louis Markos’ Apologetics for the 21st Century might more aptly be entitled The Answer to Almost Every Modern Objection To Christianity Ever Asked, As Given By Almost Every Modern Apologist Who Ever Lived. The book attempts to cover all major modern apologists and just about all ancient and modern arguments marshaled on behalf of the faith, while also providing a roadmap for operating in postmodern times. That said, the book rather remarkably succeeds in committing some fatal sins of omission.

Markos is a recognized authority on C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton and the red meat of this volume is not surprisingly found in the first section devoted to their apologetical legacy. Markos correctly concludes that section by noting that “evidentialism is the mainstream modern approach that issues out of Lewis.” He goes on to lament that “dry and academic” Calvinistic presuppositionalism has been “far less effective and useful” in real world discussions with unbelief, a contention buttressed by the relative paucity of useful public debates between presuppositionalists and non-Christians. The approach of working inductively from the bottom up by means of facts and evidence, notes the author, is where common man lives and moves and has his daily being. Evidentialism finds it structurally organic to start and end with the fundamental priority of defending a Christ born outside a greasy motel in Bethlehem and later crucified under a greasy Roman Procurator outside of Jerusalem.

Helpful discussions of several of Chesterton’s works follow the more comprehensive treatment of Lewis, with particular emphasis on Chesterton’s “Cosmic Christian” view of history found in The Everlasting Man. Markos’ then moves on to the apologetical contribution of Dorothy Sayers. There he focuses on her utterly original defense of the Trinity based on an analysis of the human creative process (see, The Mind of the Maker). The author goes on to show how the “evidential legacy” of Lewis was advanced by the uniquely “American” contributions of Francis Schaeffer, Josh McDowell, and Lee Strobel.

Markos quickly jumps from original thinkers like Lewis and Sayers to popularizers like McDowell and Strobel. This is not fatal, though showing some familiarity with the contributions of Edward John Carnell, Harold Lindsell, and Wilbur Smith (founding members of the �...

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