Our world is changing dramatically, yet many Christians still rely on cookie-cutter approaches to evangelism and apologetics. In his magnum opus, Os Guinness presents the art and power of creative persuasion—the ability to talk to people who are closed to what we are saying. Discover afresh the persuasive power of Christian witness.
Renewing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination so that we can become compelling witnesses of the Gospel in today's culture. Christianity has an image problem. While the culture we inhabit presents us with an increasingly anti-Christian and disenchanted position, the church in the West has not helped its case by becoming anti-intellectual, fragmented, and out of touch with the relevancy of Jesus to all aspects of contemporary life. The muting of the Christian voice, its imagination, and its collective conscience have diminished the prospect of having a genuine missionary encounter with others today. Cultural apologetics attempts to demonstrate not only the truth of the Gospel but also its desirability by reestablishing Christianity as the answer that satisfies our three universal human longings—truth, goodness, and beauty. In Cultural Apologetics, philosopher and professor Paul Gould sets forth a fresh and uplifting model for cultural engagement—rooted in the biblical account of Paul's speech in Athens—which details practical steps for establishing Christianity as both true and beautiful, reasonable and satisfying. You'll be introduced to: The idea of cultural apologetics as distinct from traditional apologetics. The path from disenchantment with how we understand reality to re-enchantment with the reality of the spiritual nature of things. The practical tools of good cultural engagement: conscience, reason, and imagination. Equip yourself to see, and help others see, the world as it is through the lens of the Spirit—deeply beautiful, mysterious, and sacred. With creative insights, Cultural Apologetics prepares readers to share a vision of the Christian faith that is both plausible and desirable, offering clarity for those who have become disoriented in the haze of modern Western culture.
Edited by William A. Dembski and Jay Wesley Richards, this group of former Princeton Theological Seminary students brings apologetics back into the seminary debates as they expose the influence of naturalism in theological studies plus other philosophical tenets automatically assumed in much mainline theology.
Using non-religious, non-political arguments, Guerrilla Apologetics for Life Issues teaches readers how to use targeted questions to exploit weaknesses in the arguments of those that support abortion, euthanasia, and other abuses of human life. The book emphasizes the importance of tactful discussions over disruptive quarrels, and features a introduction to common logical fallacies.
Dr. Eves has given ministers and others who “preach the Word” an excellent book which can revitalize their preaching. His book gives practical pointers on how to give sermons that are biblically exegetical, presented with forceful logic, and given in effective style. This book will help both the preacher that has not had extensive education as well as the seminary grad who has been out for a few years and who may have quietly drifted into good patterns, but which with a little prodding could climb to the next level of effectiveness. Is your preaching in a rut, or do you sound the same Sunday after Sunday? Or perhaps you are already very effective for the Lord? In any case, this book may be just the tonic to give your preaching a new biblical fervor. I recommend this book as a “tune up” for all ministers who love the Lord and who seek to be as effective as they can be—touching the Bible and touching hearts through the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. ~ Col. Gary Cohen, ThD, LittD, DD
Satire is a kind of preaching. Satire pervades Scripture. Satire treats the foibles of sinners with a less than perfect tenderness. But, if a Christian employs satire today, he is almost immediately called to account for his "unbiblical" behavior. Yet Scripture shows that the central point of some religious controversies is to give offense. When Christ was confronted with ecclesiastical obstinacy and other forms of arrogance, he showed us a godly pattern for giving offense. In every controversy, godliness and wisdom (or the lack of them) are to be determined by careful appeal to the Scriptures and not to the fact of someone having taken offense. Perhaps they ought to have taken offense, and perhaps someone ought to have endeavored to give it.
Francis Spufford's Unapologetic is a wonderfully pugnacious defense of Christianity. Refuting critics such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the "new atheist" crowd, Spufford, a former atheist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, argues that Christianity is recognizable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the grown-up dignity of Christian experience. Fans of C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Karr, Diana Butler Bass, Rob Bell, and James Martin will appreciate Spufford's crisp, lively, and abashedly defiant thesis. Unapologetic is a book for believers who are fed up with being patronized, for non-believers curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century, and for anyone who feels there is something indefinably wrong, literalistic, anti-imaginative and intolerant about the way the atheist case is now being made.
"A must-read for anyone who seeks to share the gospel and defend the faith!” —Josh McDowell “Crucial to the next generation of missionaries and apologetic evangelists.” —Norman L. Geisler In a postmodern, post-truth society, how can we be certain our faith is based on more than our feelings? And how do we answer the complex questions about Christianity posed by skeptics and searchers alike? The Comprehensive Guide to Apologetics challenges you to understand and defend the tenets of your faith. This informative resource covers topics spanning from the evidence for the Bible’s reliability, to the relationship between science and faith, to the comparisons between Christianity and other worldviews. The many contributors to this volume include respected apologists and Bible scholars such as… Norman L. Geisler Josh McDowell Gary R. Habermas Walter C. Kaiser Jr. Ron Rhodes Edwin M. Yamauchi John Warwick Montgomery William A. Dembski Randy Alcorn Stephen C. Meyer Randall Price Ed Hindson Essential reading for every Christian, The Comprehensive Guide to Apologetics will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to testify for your faith with compassion, intention, and Christlike wisdom.
In this accessible and engaging work, veteran apologist Jim Sire gives us eyes to see the signs all around us that point to the specific truth of God in Christ. Sire focuses on the power of good literature—even from those who deny the existence of God—to enable us to perceive and testify to God's reality in ways that rational argument alone cannot.