Mobile Ed: AP211 Show and Tell: Apologetics in the Postmodern Context (6 hour course)
Overview
Dr. Jim Belcher’s course offers a necessary look at postmodern culture and how living in this time affects believers, unbelievers, preaching, apologetics, and the future church. He begins with the philosophical and social background to postmodernism, considers characteristics of postmodern people, and suggests the consequences for these individuals and the community. Finally, Dr. Belcher provides a solution for sharing Christianity in this context.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion you should be able to:
- Identify the general mindset of postmodernism but distinguish between hard and soft postmodernism
- Develop a well-balanced apologetic that avoids the dangers of over-contextualizing or under-contextualizing the gospel
- Sympathetically address postmodernism’s effects on how the emerging generation views truth and morality, its own sense of authentic self, and how to live in free community
- Apply missionary-like thinking to the task of reaching out to the emerging postmodern generation
Course Outline
Unit 1: The Reason for This Course
- Learning from Lesslie Newbigin and Tim Keller
- Finding a Passage and Creating a Collection
- Contextualization and Culture
- Dangers of Contextualization
- How Apologetics Helps Us Overcome Fear
- Using Psalms Explorer to Study Fear in the Psalms
- Paul as an Example of Contextualization
Unit 2: Philosophical Foundations
- From the Medieval World to the Enlightenment
- The Failure of Modernism
- The Postmodern Turn
- Pessimistic and Optimistic Postmodernism
- Using Wikipedia and Combing Notes from Different Resources
Unit 3: Postmodernism: Five Characteristics
- Morally Aimless: Moral Relativism
- Using the Factbook and Creating Quote Slides
- Morally Aimless: Morals Only a Social Construct
- Morally Aimless: Moral Individualism
- Morally Aimless: Blind to the Moral Dilemma
- Captive to Consumerism
- Broken Relationships
- Binge Drinking
- Lacking Interest in Social and Political Life
- Postmodern Characteristics: Conclusions
- Exploring the Ten Commandments
Unit 4: Postmodernism: Three Losses
- Lost Horizons (Part 1)
- Lost Horizons (Part 2)
- Lost Sense of Self
- Lost Freedom
- The Losses: Bottom Line
Unit 5: Postmodernism and Apologetics
- “Boosters” versus “Knockers”
- Example of Culturally Sensitive Christian Apologetic
- Healthy Contextualization: Confronting and Completing
- Common Ground: Human Beings Are Moral Animals
- Common Ground: Human Life Is Shaped by Liturgy
- Common Ground: Examples of Social Liturgy
- Denying Reality: Fear of Death
- Denying Reality: Transference
- Denying Reality: Is “Normal” Really Normal?
- Denying Reality: The Solution to Facing the Fear of Death
- Adapting Our Preaching to This Apologetic
- Regaining the Ideal Self: Biblical Narrative
- Regaining the Ideal Self: Illustrated by Eustace Scrubb
- Using Clause Search to Find Where Jesus Calls
- Regaining the Ideal Self: Dead to Sin but Alive to God
- Creating a Custom Guide to Study a Book of the Bible
- Calling: The Secret Signature of the Soul
- Regaining Horizons: C. S. Lewis and the Power of Story
- Regaining Freedom in Community: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Finding Information about Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Your Library
Product Details
- Title: AP211 Show and Tell: Apologetics in the Postmodern Context
- Instructor: Jim Belcher
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2014
- Product Type: Logos Mobile Education
- Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources
- Courses: 1
- Video Hours: 6
Partially includedAbout Dr. Jim Belcher
Dr. Jim Belcher is the president of Providence Christian College in Pasadena, California and former associate professor of practical theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is the founding and former lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Newport Beach, California, where he served from 2000–2010 and led a period of steady growth. He is the author of the award-winning book Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (InterVarsity Press, 2009).
Dr. Belcher is the former founding and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California, where he served from 2000–2010, and led a period of steady growth. He was the cofounder of the Restoring Community Conference: Integrating Social Interaction, Sacred Space and Beauty in the 21st Century, a conference for city officials, planners, builders, and architects. He and his wife, Michelle, have four children and live in southern Florida.
Getting the most out of Mobile Ed
Logos Mobile Education is a highly effective cross-platform learning environment that integrates world class teaching with the powerful study tools and theological libraries available in Logos Bible Software. Every course provides links to additional resources and suggested readings that supplement the lecture material at the end of every transcript segment.
This course was produced with screencast videos. These videos provide tutorials showing you how to use Logos Bible Software in ways that are tied directly into the content of the course. We are now producing Activities resources as a replacement for screencast videos. We plan on updating this course to include this additional Activities resource in the future for no extra charge.
Reviews
4 ratings
Wayne Clarke
6/22/2023
Just finished binge watching this course. It is very, very good! The course provides a concise background on the Postmodern people we are trying to reach and and practical knowledge on how they think, reason, and approach life and discuss alternative viewpoints. Then Dr. Belcher moves onto sharing his incredibly practical advice--properly contextualizing and balancing our approach in sharing Biblical truths with our Postmodern neighbours--to help us be more successful and bring God's lost children back into His family.
Joshua
5/30/2020
Dr Belcher gives a whirlwind of a course on "Show and Tell: Apologetics in the Postmodern Context". He dives into the historical background which led to postmodernism, followed by what's "on the ground" today, then gives an analysis of the various issues, and finally how to contextualize the gospel for the postmodern generation. Along the way, he refers to various giants in respective areas to deftly illuminate his teaching. I'd enjoyed this course very much! Dr Belcher gives a very clear roadmap on this crucial topic. It is an excellent course! Highly Recommended!
Phil
9/14/2019
GaoLu
9/17/2016
Nearly finished. This course is excellent! The focus is philosophical, provocative and provides an essential backdrop to any other forms of apologetics. This course analyses and exegetes "postmodernism" and then offers realistic, engaging application methods for reaching postmodernists, especially today's younger generation. I keep stopping and telling my wife, "Hey, listen to this--what do you think?" That only happens with the best ideas I encounter.
