apologetics (was Re: Jim said)

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:56:00 -0500

Jan de Koning wrote:
..............................
> I would like to suggest, that theology
> should give the direction to apologetics.

Yes. Specifically, apologetics should attempt from the start to
argue for the triune God who is revealed in Jesus Christ as the
culmination of His revelation to Israel. That does _not_mean that we
can't talk about God's activity in nature, but we shouldn't start from
there. Too much apologetic activity is concerned only with a generic
"God" concept or with "proving the Bible true" without concern about the
central _message_ of the Bible, which is christological.

I don't think that results in
> other sciences will have any influence on apologetics or theology.

I disagree here. If an apologetic is to be effective, it must
take into account the concerns people have, & for many people today
those concerns are related to science. & a theology of creation must
speak about the creation of the universe which actually exists, which is
(_qua_ natural world) the universe which science discloses to us.
..........................

George L. Murphy
gmurphy@imperium.net
http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy