Moving Apologetics from the Conference Stage to the Local Church
A review of a forthcoming book that wants to restore apologetics to the local church
I recently wrote a review for Christianity Today entitled “Churches Shouldn’t Outsource Apologetics to Slick Conferences.” The focus of my review was a forthcoming book entitled The Pastor as Apologist: Restoring Apologetics to the Local Church by Dayton Hartman and Michael McEwen. Their work resonates with the larger projects on which I am planning to spend most of this decade, making the case for an ecclesial apologetic that presents the life of the local church as a transcendental argument for the truthfulness of the Christian faith.
Here’s a snippet from my review:
If Christians do begin to see their local churches as contexts for apologetics, this development will not be something new. It will be a retrieval of practices that are very old.
Ancient apologists such as Justin Martyr, Aristides of Athens, and Athenagoras presented the life of the church as primary evidence for the truth of the faith. Irenaeus, Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, and many others pursued apologetics not as scholarly specialists but as pastors who were responsible for the spiritual well-being of ordinary Christians in local churches.
Resources like The Pastor as Apologist: Restoring Apologetics to the Local Church, a new book from pastors Dayton Hartman and Michael McEwen, give me hope that this venerable approach to apologetics might be making a comeback.
Read the rest of the review here: “Churches Shouldn’t Outsource Apologetics to Slick Conferences.”