Ann Rice, the horror writer turned Christian writer, has written up a piece on the popular atheist/theist heckling site "On Faith" run by Newsweek and The Washington Post.

Rice does not go for the goat and try to prove her beliefs, she just puts it flat out there:

Look: I believe in Him. It’s that simple and that complex. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the God Man who came to earth, born as a tiny baby and then lived over thirty years in our midst. I believe in what we celebrate this week: the scandal of the cross and the miracle of the Resurrection. My belief is total. And I know that I cannot convince anyone of it by reason, anymore than an atheist can convince me, by reason, that there is no God.

A long life of historical study and biblical research led me to my belief, and when faith returned to me, the return was total. It transformed my existence completely; it changed the direction of the journey I was traveling through the world. Within a few years of my return to Christ, I dedicated my work to Him, vowing to write for Him and Him alone. My study of Scripture deepened; my study of New Testament scholarship became a daily commitment. My prayers and my meditation were centered on Christ.

And my writing for Him became a vocation that eclipsed my profession as a writer that had existed before. ... more

This is the fourth entry in the Postmodern Apologetics series David (Through a Glass Darkly) and I are writing.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.

"You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" (James 2)

Saved. Acknowledged. Accepted. Invited. Reasoned. Converted.

All these words, and many more like them, are the rationale of apologetics. They are fixed words, past tense verbs, describing a turning point, a switching of sides, a jumping off the ship into (baptismal?) water. We argue with people, we give evidence, we give cases, we give power points and data, all in hope that we can so bombard a person with Excel spreadsheets of Christian data that they relent to the pressure of the obvious and believe in our wonderfully delivered four spiritual laws. This is reasonable.

Reason is a synonym for belief in the modern apologetics context. Videos, TV shows, sermons, books, an Australian pseudo-scientist---these are the tools we use to convince others that God is real.

Well really, why do we need to convince people that God is real with raw data and rhetorical wizardry? Even the demons know God exists, so if someone doesn't believe they are either fooling themselves or have worked against that conviction (see Romans 1).

So why waste all of our time proving, arguing, and convincing people to make a shift to faith, and leave out the deeds? What foolish men demand a verdict in a man's mind, a shifting of a personal philosophy and theology, without calling a person into the very work and wonder of such a belief.

Modern apologetics is a defense of Christianity. It is not a defense of Christ or his Kingdom. ... more

Post-modern Apologetics: Return to the Source(s)

I believe that a post-modern apologetics necessitates a return to the source(s) of apologetics in the Anglo-American tradition in which we frame our discussion today.  As David mentioned in the previous post in this series, a post-modern apologetics should begin to look at a person or persons and not a proposition.  To get there we must first deconstruct our notion of apologetics in the Western, Enlightenment tradition.

... more