Comments on: Emergent Apologetics?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 17:12:00 +0000

Anonymous, I saw your comment after I posted my piece on the need for apologetics today. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on that post. Do you think it's possible to use apologetics in an effective way, or do you believe that it's always wrong to discuss evidence?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 07:20:00 +0000

My spin is that Myles seems to be on track.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 06:25:00 +0000

Read Paul's letter to the Galatians.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 05:22:00 +0000

I believe through all of this that everyone here proved Tony's first point.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 05:20:00 +0000

I believe through all of this that everyone here proved Tony's first point.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:08:00 +0000

“The real challenge is to identify with the race of man in its brokenness and need of a powerful Savior. You know, that one begger showing another begger where to get some food. (yes, it is a narrative, but it's very old…Vance Havner, or Charles Spurgeon, I think)
Neither apologetic does that.”
If neither, then is there any apologetic at all?
I don't think you can escape apologetics altogether, even if you are just showing another beggar where to get food. People are made in the image of Christ, which means they are not void of reason and logic. Broken as that image may be, people still use reason to justify their beliefs or unbelief. It may manifest itself in just plain skepticism, or it may manifest itself as a full-fledged antithetical worldview. In every case where we evangelize, I do believe apologetics is applied in all senses since we are giving reasons for the faith that we have. Wherever a person is in their life, simples questions of “why?” deserve an answer just as much as those harder, tougher, more philosophical, anti-Christian diatribes. In both cases, reasons for our faith are given. This is apologetics.
So in the illustration you gave about being a beggar showing another beggar where to get food, showing where is one thing, but when the other beggar begins to question as to why he/she should believe you, follow you, or even believe it is really food, you will end up engaging in apologetics.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 07:02:00 +0000

So, Mr Murdock, I assume that you won't be a specialist in the emerging apologetics.
You both share that hubris of answers, whether in the traditional apologetic or the emerging version of a caring success.
Your response is the best example of the case being made by Mr Myles. You ramble on about the inconsistancies, and, “Where's the apologetic?” you cry. “Just stories?” “Nobody's being told they are wrong, truth is over here, let me show you?”
I had a Classical Greek professor who came to Christ because he knew some Christians who were happier, more ordered in their lives. “Their lives wern't a mess” he said. Josh McDowel would not have impressed him at all. I don't know what your circles are but, believe me, it has been a long time since people with a classical theological education have been considered the intellectual giants in any room.
I'll admit that Myles seems to be delivering a series of one-liners, “Straw men” adapted to youth culture needs rather than a serious evaluation of Apologetics Mo and PoMo for that culture.
Yes, it does bother me too, these “emerging” people claim the high ground, the new, the more appropriate, the 2006 model of doing it and when it is evaluated there is nothing new at all. And often we see that they haven't done their homework. They do not know the past that they critique and they are not clear about the pardigm that they adopt with such enthusiasm. And then people applaud and act like something significant has be said.
I mean, come on, we've always liked stories. Wev'e always cried with the illustrations, and I can still remember some of them. True, I remember no outlines. But that's not proof of a PoMo phenomenon. It's just that now we are willing to pay a guy $50,000 a year to tell us stories every Sunday. In the past we wanted a little bit more for our money, even though we often slept through it.
The real challenge is to identify with the race of man in its brokenness and need of a powerful Savior. You know, that one begger showing another begger where to get some food. (yes, it is a narrative, but it's very old…Vance Havner, or Charles Spurgeon, I think)
Neither apologetic does that.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:46:00 +0000

Thanks for your comments on what I wrote for YS. It's obvious this is something you're very sensitive about, hence the line by line critique. Since I don't know you personally, I'll assume this comes from a healthy motive. If I can, I'd like to offer a few comments back your way:
1) I don't know if I identified myself with the “emerging church movement.” Be careful not to read into something that isn't said for the sake of making a point. If I am going to identify myself with anything or anyone it would be Jesus Christ. Due to the context we all live in, though, I am curious as to how we can maintain an uncompromising commitment to Him while maintaining a balance of being in the world while not being of the world. Thus, the questions and observations I raised regard interacting with the lost in an emerging culture of postmodernism.
2) I don't know if I should take offense to the comment that I am not a theologian. Or to quote: “I think it's an obsession with religious language by people with no theological knowledge to inform their language. It's an attempt to sound profound even though there's no meat to the statement.”
Just out of curiosity, what do you know of my theological background? I ask because I am curious as to how “informed” you are of how “informed” I am.
Then again, I don't know you, so I'll go ahead and believe the best in your motives.
3) In reference to the inclusion of homiletics in my piece, I didn

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:46:00 +0000

As an apologist myself I want to respond at length to your post on postmodern apologetics, but it may be wuite long so I want to email it to you for your approval. I hope you will post it and invite comments to invite dialogue.
I will leave that to you, but I felt the response was so long it kinda didn;t fit the “comment” section.
My email is mac@azotuscafe.com
I'm about halfway through. I hope you will be open. In a sense I stand somewhere between the two and have a unique angle as I have both been a professional apologist like yourself, but now deal in an almost strictly postmodern context.
Grace and peace,
Mac
PS If your email address is on the site I'll find it, if not can you send it?
Thanks

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 04:05:00 +0000

Thank you for your response back, Murdock. I appreciate the insights–they will be a help in forming my opinion on these things.
Yours,
Chuck
P.S. Love the “A-Team” theme. Now if only you guys had the theme song playing when someone visits the site…:-)