International apologist equips readers to engage challenges to their faith by offering an apologetic method that can be customized to individual needs and situations.
According to the Apostle Paul, what can be known about God--and by extension, about ethics--is plain to people, so we are "without excuse." Romans 1:18-21 teaches that we will be "without excuse" when God confronts us for whatever beliefs and actions seemed good to us on the day, but weren't. In our time, this notion has come to seem at least unpalatable, and more likely unbelievable. Michael D. Russell's book is an extended meditation on the possibilities in this Pauline statement and a concerted effort to enable us to understand and accept it. Situated in Reformed Protestant discussion of this matter, he offers some clarifying proposals. Maintaining all the while that whoever we are we are indeed without excuse, Michael proposes how to understand that conclusion without accepting some of the usual routes to it.
This collection of papers and other materials from English philosopher Peter S. Williams develops a holistic vision for Christian apologetics centered around a biblical understanding of spirituality. Grounded in two decades of practical experience, here is a vision of apologetics that's interested in communicating through beauty and goodness as well as logic and arguments.
As Euro-American culture turns resolutely away from religiosity toward spirituality and becomes increasingly post-Christian, the ordinary, everyday practice of Christian life is ever more questioned and in need of scrutiny. In this interdisciplinary analysis, Christians are first called to comprehend the excessive rationality that modernity has built into both the cognitive and organizational structure of contemporary Christian life. They are then summoned to personify an authentic attitude of humility, and in particular, the virtue of intellectual humility that is most challenged and tested by religious convictions. Going forward, Christians are subsequently invited to live their faith more as an internally differentiated and open spirituality, rather than an externally determined and regulated religiosity. When we exhaust our rationality and are confronted with its limitations, we are humbled by our finitude and animated by our spirituality.
Take Courage is a collection of essays, written by pastors and professors, about the care and cure of souls in the 21st century. As spiritual physicians, pastors are called to diagnose and treat all those suffering with the disease of sin. This noble task requires much from these undershepherds who are placed over Christ's flock. Yet the Good Shepherd himself has provided the effective tools of this healing art: the life-giving word and sacraments. Pastors, then, specialize in applying the medicine of forgiveness and bringing comfort to broken consciences. Collectively, these essays teach and expound upon this theme. This helpful book honors the 45 years of faithful service given by one such undershepherd, Harold L. Senkbeil. As a pastor, seminary professor, author, speaker, husband, father, and the executive director of DOXOLOGY, Senkbeil has consistently provided competent treatment for both laity and pastors by distributing the forgiveness won by Jesus on the cross.
What Is a Man? Biologically, we are animals--homo sapiens. But men are different, born with consciousness, reason, free will, notions of morality, and other characteristics of what we call "human nature." Why are we different? Were we created by God or are we just accidents of nature? Are you a child of the King or just a child of King Kong? This is a book of apologetics for laypeople. It looks at arguments for the existence of God and especially at those arguments that can be drawn from human nature. It argues in plain language, with illustrations and humor, that we cannot explain human nature without God, that men are miracles.