Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today - Softcover

Stackhouse Jr., John G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195307178 ISBN 13: 9780195307177

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2006

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Review:

...a very thoughtful yet readable treatment of a topic that has often engendered more heat than light...Stackhouse does the best job to date of explaining why and how the Christians to whom he is speaking ought to engage in apologetical activity. (David Basinger, Ars Disputandi, Vol. 7)

Synopsis:

Is it still possible, in an age of religious and cultural pluralism, to engage in Christian apologetics? How can one urge one's faith on others when such a gesture is typically regarded with suspicion, if not outright resentment? In Humble Apologetics John G. Stackhouse brings his wide experience as a historian, philosopher, journalist, and theologian to these important questions and offers surprising--and reassuring--answers. Stackhouse begins by acknowledging the real impediments to Christian testimony in North America today and to other faiths in modern societies around the world. He shows how pluralism, postmodernism, skepticism about our ability to know the truth, and a host of other factors create a cultural milieu resistant to the Christian message. And he shows how the arrogance or dogmatism of apologists themselves can alienate rather than attract potential converts. Indeed, Stackhouse argues that the crucial experience of conversion cannot be compelled; all the apologist can do is lead another to the point where an actual encounter with Jesus can take place.

"Our objective," Stackhouse writes, "is to offer whatever assistance we can to our neighbors toward their full maturity: toward full health in themselves and in their relationships, and especially toward God." In the last part of the book, he shows how an attitude of humility, instead of merely trying to win religious arguments, will help believers offer their neighbors the gift of Christ's love. Drawing on the author's personal experience and written with an engaging directness and humility, Humble Apologetics provides sound guidance on how to share Christian faith in a postmodern world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0195307178
• ISBN 13: 9780195307177
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 262