LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
The Essence of Apologetics
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
5/2022
A few notes and quotes from the talk:
The conservative and liberal responses to apologetics:
"Don't persuade, proclaim!"
"Don't defend, dialogue!"
Some limitations of apologetics
Much apologetics is limited in appealing only to the open and the interested. What
about the other 95%?
Much apologetics is limited in appealing only to the needy.
Much apologetics is limited in appealing only to those with a similar worldview to us.
Much apologetics is limited in appealing only to the rational, literate, abstract thinker.
Much apologetics remain within Christian circles and never makes it's way into the
world.
"... to transcend these limitations, we're going to have to develop an apologetics which is
flexible enough to communicate to anyone at any level of consciousness, any religion or
worldview, of any nationality or language or whatever. In other words, the tough thing in
modern apologetics will be to develop a persuasive cross-contextual communication. That's
what the best apologetics always was in the past – and is in the Scriptures. It's what the modern
situation calls for and what some of the best modern theory points towards."
"How can we be close enough to communicate to real people and yet at the same time be
clear enough to be saying something to them? And these are the sort of questions which
underlie this demand of our age of cross-contextual, persuasive communication which I think is
at the heart of apologetics."
"How do we make convincing sense [of the gospel] to our generation with all these different
worldviews?
"Do we say nothing? That's uncharacteristic of us, if not unchristian.
"Do we say something that's meaningful only to us because we're only speaking to each other?
Well that doesn't help.
"Do we just say it again and say it much louder? That doesn't really get it over, yet that's what
much evangelism is.
"Do we say it in their language and express something different from what we really mean, so
we betray Christian truth? That's what much dialogue has done and that doesn't help either.
"Or do we say something that's clear and convincing and Christian? And if so, how? That's what
we're after."
