Apologetics is a reasoned intellectual defense of the reasonableness and coherence of the Christian worldview. God’s word tells us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Pet 3:15), and apologetics is an attempt to do this in a sophisticated and systematic manner. From the earliest apologists of the second century down to the present day, Christian apologists have been using rational arguments to show critics of Christianity without and doubters within that Christianity is actually reasonable and true.
Objections to Apologetics
In spite of the apostle Peter’s teaching, some Christians call into question the importance of apologetics. The most common Christian criticisms of apologetics are: 1) faith and reason cannot be integrated, and giving reasons for belief takes away from faith; 2) people cannot be argued into faith, since only the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit can convert people; 3) most people do not want to be argued into something, so we should use other ways of attracting people to the faith; 4) the Church does not have an apologetic, the Church is an apologetic, meaning we can only show people the truth of Christianity by how we live. I will respond to each of these arguments in turn.
1) The idea that faith and reason cannot be integrated is a faulty understanding of the nature of Christian faith. Christian faith is not something that is noncognitive or nonrational. Christian faith by definition means believing certain propositional truths about God, Jesus, the Church, and so forth. In order to believe these propositional truths, our minds must first understand them, and in order for our minds to understand them, they must seem coherent and intelligible to our minds. Therefore, explaining how Christian doctrinal beliefs are coherent is a necessary component of bringing people to faith.
While faith and reason can be distinguished, there is no reason to think that they are contradictory. As I argue in this previous post, faith and reason are actually complementary, working together to form our beliefs in every area of our lives. Thus, there is no good reason to assume that providing reasons for belief takes away from the central importance of faith.
2) It is true that rational arguments for the truth of Christianity cannot by themselves convert anyone. Even if someone is convinced that the Christian worldview is true, that by itself does not make them a Christian. They must still make a personal decision to become a child of God by repenting of their sin and following Jesus, and this conversion can only happen by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.
However, this does not mean that rational arguments for the truth of Christianity are unimportant. While, by themselves, they cannot bring someone to saving faith, what they can do is remove intellectual barriers people have to being open to Christian faith. This can be an important and necessary preliminary step towards someone’s conversion.
3) It is true that most people are not looking to be argued into something. For most people, finding meaning, purpose, and a place to belong are more important than purely intellectual considerations. However, for everyone, intellectual considerations have at least some significant degree of importance. Very few people will believe something that appears completely nonsensical to them, no matter how much they are attracted to it aesthetically and emotionally. Rational arguments for the truth of Christianity may not be the most important factor in most people’s conversions. But, to varying degrees, they are a significant factor for everyone.
Besides, there are a significant number of people for whom intellectual considerations are the most important factor. There are many intellectual non-Christians who are sincerely seeking the truth, and who have sincere intellectual difficulties with accepting the Christian faith. If we try to convert such people by telling them, “Just stop doubting and believe,” or, “This is what Jesus has done in my life,” this will be completely ineffective. If we abandon the task of apologetics when dealing with such lost people, then we are not doing everything we can to reach them with the truth of the gospel; we are failing to love them. Apologetics is necessary, if only to reach this demographic of lost people.
4) It is true that many, if not most, people who convert to Christianity do so because they are attracted to the way of life they see lived out by Christians. It is also true that, even if someone becomes convinced that the Christian worldview makes sense, they are unlikely to become a Christian unless they can find and join a Christian community where they can see the Christian way of life being faithfully lived out. There is thus an important sense in which the Church is an apologetic; as the body of Christ, the Church has a responsibility to show the world who Jesus is by visibly living out the reality of God’s Kingdom in its communal life.
However, if the Church is an apologetic, it is a rather dubious one. For every good example of Christian faithfulness in the Church, there is a bad example of Christian unfaithfulness. There have been countless horrible examples of Christian unfaithfulness throughout Church history down to the present day. If we are honest with ourselves, I don’t think any of us want people to look at the contemporary American church and conclude that that is what Jesus is like. We can hope that people will encounter communities of genuine, faithful disciples of Jesus that will attract them to Christian faith, but if we try to use the visible faithfulness of the Church as our sole argument for the truth of Christianity, it will appear to most people as a very flimsy, weak argument indeed. If we want to reach skeptical people with the truth of the gospel, it is absolutely necessary that we supplement our attempts to show people Jesus by the way we live with rational arguments for why they should believe that Christianity is objectively true.
Why Apologetics is Important
Our society is now transitioning to being post-Christian. Christianity has lost its centuries-long position of social, cultural, and political dominance. We are entering a time when Christianity will be just one minority belief system among others in a pluralistic marketplace of ideas. No longer can we assume that Christianity will be regarded as normal and respectable.
In this post-Christian context, people who are sincerely seeking the truth are increasingly asking why they should believe in Christianity instead of other alternative belief systems. On top of that, Christianity is increasingly coming under intellectual attack by smart people who believe that the Church is an obstacle to bringing about their utopian visions. Already, many “New Atheists” are openly working to destroy Christianity, and using their positions of influence in education, the media, and government to do so.
In such a context, it would be spiritually and morally irresponsible for us to abandon the vital task of apologetics. If we want to reach lost and muddled people in our pluralistic culture with the truth of the gospel, we need to be able to provide answers to their sincere intellectual questions about Christian faith. And if we want to raise the next generation of Christians into mature followers of Jesus Christ, we need to provide them with resources to respond to the intellectual attacks of those who are intentionally seeking to destroy their faith. In a post-Christian society, there will be no way to shelter uneducated Christians from these intellectual attacks. This is why, more than ever, the task of apologetics is vitally important.