Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World
Overview
The post-Christian world we inhabit today presents us with a mundane and disenchanted view of reality. Under the sway of materialism and science, we have been left with a way of seeing, thinking, and living that has no place for beauty and wonder. We now live in a world bereft of magic and mystery.
Many—including many Christians—no longer perceive the world in its proper light. As a result, the Christian imagination is muted. Moreover, the church has grown anti-intellectual and sensate, out of touch with the relevancy of Jesus and how to relate the gospel to all aspects of contemporary life. As a result, the Christian voice is muted. In this age Christian wholeness remains elusive, blunting the church’s ability to present a winsome and compelling witness for faith. As a result, the Christian conscience is muted.
Cultural Apologetics addresses this malaise by setting forth a fresh model for cultural engagement, rooted in the biblical account of Paul’s speech on Mars Hill, which details practical steps for reestablishing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination. Readers will be equipped to see, and help others see, the world as it is—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.
- Provides a fresh model for cultural engagement
- Examines Paul’s speech on Mars Hill
- Presents a vision of the Christian faith that is both plausible and desirable
Top Highlights
“To summarize, cultural apologetics is defined as the work of establishing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination within a culture so that Christianity is seen as true and satisfying, and it has both a global and local component.” (Page 24)
“ Cultural apologetics must demonstrate not only the truth of Christianity but also its desirability.” (Page 25)
“In addition, a cultural apologist operates at two levels. First, she operates globally by paying attention to how those within a culture perceive, think, and live, and then she works to create a world that is more welcoming and thrilling and beautiful and enchanted.11 Secondly, she operates locally, removing obstacles to, and providing positive reasons for, faith so individuals or groups will see Christianity as true and satisfying, plausible and desirable.” (Pages 22–23)
“My proposed definition for the task of cultural apologetics is broader than, though still inclusive of, Myers’s and far more positive than Craig’s. I define cultural apologetics as the work of establishing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination within a culture so that Christianity is seen as true and satisfying. How does this conception of cultural apologetics fit into the discipline of apologetics and relate to the debates over apologetic method, cultural engagement, and worldview analysis?” (Page 21)
“Approaches to apologetics that begin with (or focus primarily on) reason or the imagination or the human conscience are classified, accordingly, as rational, imaginative, or moral apologetics. Cultural apologetics acknowledges all of these approaches and integrates them into a vision of what it means to be an embodied human that shapes and is shaped by culture, offering what I think is a more realistic and compassionate approach to apologetics. The cultural apologist affirms man’s rational nature, but situates it within a more comprehensive account of what it means to be human.” (Page 22)
- Title: Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World
- Author: Paul M. Gould
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 240
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Christianity and culture; Popular culture › Religious aspects--Christianity; Apologetics
- ISBNs: 9780310530527, 9780310530503, 9780310530497, 0310530520, 0310530504, 0310530490
- Resource ID: LLS:CLTRLAPLGTCS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:46:43Z
