VERITAS
By Craig Branch
May - June 2006
God’s prescription for healthy Christian
growth is to learn of Christ by the renewing of our minds
through the Word of God, “laying aside the old self
and putting on the new self” in the power of the Holy
Spirit (Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 5:20-24). Another element in that
prescription is to be significantly involved in the Body
of Christ, “stimulating one another to love and good
deeds” (Heb. 10:24-25). So in addition to our personal
responsibility to commune with God through individual study
of the Word (2 Tim. 2:15), God directs us to also intelligently
submit to the teaching of gifted preachers and teachers (Col.
2:6-7; 2 Tim. 4:13; Eph. 4:11-16). But this should not be
limited to teachers with whom we have had contact, since
many remarkable believers in the past were especially anointed
and used by the Lord.
A Great
Cloud of Witnesses
Hebrews 12:1 instructs us, “Since
we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let
us also lay aside
every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles
us.” This “cloud
of witnesses” is the lives of saints who lived out
their faith, often sacrificially, as examples and inspirations
for us to follow. We are often told to “be imitators” of
those before us as a legacy of faith (1 Thess. 1:6; 1 Cor.
11:1; Heb. 13:7). We are told that the lives of other Christians
strongly affected by the teachings of the apostles are
continuing “letters
written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being
manifested that you are a letter of Christ” (2 Cor.
3:2-3a). Our understanding of doctrine and Christian living
is enhanced
by learning from other committed Christians who are fleshing
out His teachings in real life.
The
theme of this issue of Areopagus Journal is “Three
Apologists Everyone Should Know.” There are many notable
men and women in this area of Christian discipline and life
that we could focus on, but we are going to focus on three:
C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and Alvin Plantinga. We highlight
these great men of faith especially because of their significant
contributions in the area of Christian apologetics and philosophy.
Their example can provide motivation and encouragement for
us all.
The Need
for Their Example
Some of the defining characteristics of
the Western Church over the past century are (1) retreat
from a corrupted
culture, (2) isolationism, (3) an experiential, pragmatic
preoccupation with self, and (4) anti-intellectualism.
Yet Jesus exhorts us to be in the world but not of it,
and to radically engage as salt- and light-bearers while
we are here (John 17:6-20; Mt. 5:13-16). Christian apologetics
and philosophy is all about engaging the people, ideas,
and institutions of culture with God’s life-giving
truth. Apologetics is the art of persuasion, commending
and defending the living God to a hostile world.
The
task of the Great Commission is not just to save souls,
but also to save minds. Conversion
is not complete until
the formation of a Christian mind. As Paul exhorts us, “The
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but are divinely
powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying
speculation and every lofty thing [man’s philosophies]
raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2
Cor. 10:4-5).
Noted Christian historian, Mark Noll, gives us three important
generalizations concerning the importance of the intellect
to Christian faith:
1. The importance of Christian worldviews is evident from
the beginning of Christianity itself.
2. Dynamic Christian movements which have exerted a long-lasting
influence have always involved the evangelization of the
mind.
3. Failure to work at taking the mind captive for Christ
invariably leads to the weakening or the collapse of
Christian vitality. (1)
Noll methodically details
the effects and consequences of the neglect of this aspect
of our calling in his very important
book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. He begins, “The
scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much
of an evangelical mind…Notwithstanding all their other
virtues, however, American evangelicals are not exemplary
in their thinking, and they have not been so for several
generations.” (2) Noll rightly points
out that “Evangelical
inattention to intellectual life is a curiosity” as
we claim to have God’s revealed life giving and preserving
truth for all of life and its institutions.” (3)
Our
neglect has significant implications. How do we answer and
counter the conclusions and questions
of skeptics, of
other world religions and cults, ands of social institutions?
How do we deal responsibly with movements and issues like
same-sex marriage, homosexuality, genetic engineering, stem-cell
research, medical ethics, conservation and the environment,
political philosophy, art expression, economics, right to
life issues, and psychology? Who will be our tutors and who
will teach our children about values and life? Where are
our credentialed academics in public education? Even the
secular community recognizes this vacuum in an old television
slogan: “The mind is a terrible thing to waste.” But,
evangelicals have been wasting their minds for decades!
One
of this journal’s featured apologists and tutors
is C.S. Lewis who said it well, “The standard of
permanent Christianity must be kept clear in our minds
and it is against
that standard that we must at all costs not move with the
times.” (4) God’s truth in a sinful world,
a world hostile and in rebellion against God has always
been
controversial,
but accompanied by the omnipotent Holy Spirit, it will
always have an effect. By God’s mercy it often will
bring about conversion, persuasion, altered life courses,
and restrain
corruption and death in the world
Those Who Have Gone
Before Us
Thankfully, there have been many notable apologists-philosophers
who comprise our “great cloud of witnesses.” Justin
Martyr (c. A.D. 100-167) defended Christianity from the
misrepresentation and criticism of paganism, demonstrating
the inadequacy of pagan thought compared to the ultimate
revelation of truth in Jesus Christ. Justin understood
the concept of a Christian worldview where truth is interrelated
horizontally in the real world to the vertical truth
from God.
Iranaeus (c. A.D. 130-202) defended historic, biblical Christianity
against the new heresies of Marcion and the early Gnostics.
His works demonstrate the error of the specious claims made
today by Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code allies. Tertullian
(c. A.D. 160-220), the African apologist, argued for the
authority of Scripture and gave factual evidence supporting
the Christian faith. Origen (c. A.D. 185-253) wrote a devastating
response to Celsus the Platonist, in which he defended miracles,
the resurrection and prophecy.
Athanasius was a fourth century champion of orthodoxy especially
known for his defense of the Trinity, the deity of Christ,
and the authority of the canon. Augustine (c. A.D. 354-430)
was one of the last notable apologists of the early church
period whose defense of the faith against pagan critics and
skeptics continued to dominate European Christian thought
in the Middle Ages and into the Reformation. His influence
continues even today.
There have been and are a number of contemporary apologists
who have inaugurated a resurgence of Christian apologetics
and philosophy in recent decades and who are having a positive
impact on our culture. Some of the more well-known are Josh
McDowell, J.P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas,
Norman Geisler, Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, Dorothy
Sayers, Henry Morris, Phillip Johnson, Hugh Ross, R.C. Sproul,
Ronald Nash, Nancy Pearcey, and many others.
In This Issue
But our
focus in this issue is on three that have had significant
recent impact both within and without the church. Indeed,
these three men have provided inspiration for many of
the contemporary apologists listed above.
C.S.
Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the twentieth century’s
most articulate and influential apologists. In a 1993 Christianity
Today poll where subscribers were asked which book other
than the Bible had influenced their spiritual lives the
most, Lewis’s Mere Christianity received more than
twice the votes of any other book. In the “all
time favorite novel” category, Lewis’s Chronicles
of Narnia, Perelandra, and Till We Have Faces, made the
top 12. (5)
Being
familiar with Lewis’s famous trilemma in Mere
Christianity (that Christ must be either Lord, liar or lunatic),
I gave a copy to a Mensa Society doctor-friend of mine with
whom I had been sharing for some time. The next week he returned
it, all marked up with notes saying, “This book is
fantastic!” A week later, he bowed his mind and heart
to Christ.
Even
though some of Lewis’s theology is open to strong
criticism, his intellect, philosophical thought, art and
apologetic was winsome to both believer and non-believer.
Read our article by Knox Chamblin on “The Christian
Apologetics of C.S. Lewis.” Chamblin is a New Testament
professor at Reformed Theological Seminary who has lectured
extensively on the thought of C.S. Lewis.
A
1947 Time magazine cover story had featured C.S. Lewis
as an Oxford don who had an astounding
apologetic impact
in the West. Fourteen years later, Time spotlighted a new
advocate for the ancient faith. It featured a “missionary
to the intellectuals” who was an “eccentric,
knicker-clad evangelist who was welcoming beatniks, existentialists,
and other spiritual seekers to his chalet in the Swiss
Alps.” (6) This
unassuming, soft-spoken man was Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984).
Schaeffer
considered himself an evangelist-apologist more than a
philosopher-apologist
as he successfully integrated
theology, Christian living, apologetics and philosophy. With
this vision, he established a Christian community in Switzerland
called L’Abri (additional L’Abri fellowships
were later established in the U.S., England, India, Korea,
Netherlands, and Sweden). It was designed to provide hospitality
and a climate for discussion for honest intellectuals inquiring
about truth and meaning. His legacy continues on in the lives
of his disciples such as Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, Nancy
Pearcey, Lael Arrington, his wife Edith Schaeffer, Jerram
Barrs, Dick Keyes and many more.
Schaeffer’s books had a profound impact in my own
conversion and continued passion for apologetics. His book
True Spirituality is one of the best teachings on true Christian
living around. Read Jerram Barr’s article on the profound
and unique contributions of Francis Schaeffer, “Francis
Schaeffer: The Man and His Apologetics.” Jerram is
a professor of Christianity and contemporary culture at Covenant
Seminary and resident scholar at the Francis Schaeffer Institute
there.
Our third featured apologist is Alvin Plantinga, philosophy
professor at Notre Dame. Most of our readers will have at
least heard of Lewis and Schaeffer. My suspicion is that
the vast majority have no idea who Alvin Plantinga is. The
reason is that Plantinga has (so far) never written any popular-level
books. He is an academic philosopher who writes academic
works for scholars and students. Nevertheless, you need to
know about Alvin Plantinga.
In
a feature article in Christianity Today, Plantinga is
described as “arguably the greatest philosopher of
the last century.” (7) This is the opinion, by the
way, of not just Christian scholars, but non-Christian
as well.
Plantinga’s conservative Christian theology and his
philosophical treatments of the nature and necessity of
God, the problem of evil, and religious knowledge have
made a
considerable impact in the academic philosophical community.
In fact, though Christian thought appears to languish these
days in many academic disciplines, it is thriving in the
area of philosophy. Raymond Van Arragon, professor of philosophy
at Bethel University, explains why in his article, “Alvin
Plantinga: A Quintessential Christian Philosopher.”
Read
and be challenged to imitate these witnesses—scholars
who take seriously the call for us all “to love God
with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and our neighbors
as ourselves.” Craig
Branch is the Director of the Apologetics Resource
Center, Birmingham, Alabama.
NOTES
1. Arthur Holmes, ed., The Making of the
Christian Mind, (Downers Grove, Il: IVP, 1985), 30
2. Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1994),
3.
3. Ibid., 4
4. C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 92.
5. Christianity Today, “1993 Christianity Today Book Awards” (April
5, 1993): 28.
6. Scott R. Burson and Jerry L. Walls, C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, (Downers
Grove: IVP, 1998), 13.
7. John Stackhouse, “Mind Over Skepticism” Christianity Today (June
11, 2001).
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