Engaging Unbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine & Aquinas - Softcover

Chang, Curtis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0830822666 ISBN 13: 9780830822669

Publisher: Intervarsity Pr, 2000

Synopsis

How can we present the truth about Jesus to a world that no longer believes in truth? Can we find ways to engage in meaningful conversation with those who reject all claims to absolutes? Can we talk about our convictions without appearing arrogant or manipulative? Curtis Chang has found vital resources for addressing these issues in the lives of Augustine bishop of Hippo (AD 413) and Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas (AD1259). These two apologists grounded their response to the shifting cultural sands of their time on Christ's own ministry of transforming love. Through a careful study of Augustine's City of God and Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles, Chang has discerned a valuable rhetorical strategy for engaging unbelief in cultural contexts where Christian faith seems less and less plausible. Building on the contemporary cultural analysis of Alasdair MacIntyre, Christopher Lasch, James Davison Hunter and John Milbank as well as insights gleaned from Lesslie Newbigin and Stanley Hauerwas, Chang puts forth his own bold recommendation. We should confront challengers not with legal or moral coercion, much less violence, but by meeting and speaking with them within their own thought and language worlds. This approach will involve (1) entering the challengers' stories, (2) retelling the stories and (3) capturing those retold stories within the gospel's larger story. With theological as well as practical insights drawn from Augustine and Aquinas, Chang completes the book by offering concrete suggestions for more faithfully taking up our evangelistic and apologetic task today.

About this title

Review

... an enormously important book, full of fresh insights of great
practical value in relation to mission in a postmodern context. -- David Smith; Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology; September 2002

About the Author

Oversees campus ministry for IVCF at Tufts, M.I.T. and Harvard Universities - Born in Taiwan, he graduated from Harvard University

Edition details

• Publisher: Intervarsity Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0830822666
• ISBN 13: 9780830822669
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 187