(PA) @ University of South Dakota @ University of Tennessee @ University of Tulsa (OK) @ University of Pittsburgh and Other Pittsburgh Area Colleges @ University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee @ University of Wisconsin—Superior @ University of Wyoming @ Valparaiso University (IN) @ Vanderbilt University (TN) @ Wright State University (OH)
@ Air Force Academy (CO) @ Ball State University (IN) @ Boise State University (ID) @ Brock University (Ontario) @ California Polytechnic State University @ Carthage College (WI) @ Central Michigan University @ Chico State University (CA) @ Colorado State University @ Cornell College (IA)
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Evangel-less
By Craig A. Parton
he modern American university campus is a product of three centuries of secular culture. The roots of that secular culture are found in the earliest attempts within the university to engage in what was thought to be a “safe” biblical criticism aimed at the first books of the Old Testament. Radical surgery on the Old Testament was soon performed within the university on the New Testament, and the untethered campus man concluded that he did not need any word from God to give him either morals (found so obviously in nature and her laws) or an explanation for the origin of the species. The Bible was dead. God was dead. Man was free and had in hand a self-diagnosis of perfect health. This brief moment of delusional peace came to a decisive end with World War I. Man was now dead, too.
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Culture and university life went from a total optimism in man’s ability to create his own meaning and to save himself, to utter pessimism and a retreat into despair. Painting, music, and literature, unleashed from any concept of being entrusted with gifts from God, degenerated into narcissistic efforts to shock the conscience. Good or bad did not matter because it was all about accepting the mantra on the university campus that all views (save for biblical Christianity) are equally valuable. Rushing into the vacuum came Eastern religious positions like Buddhism and Hinduism, pointing out that Christianity in particular had kept man from discovering inner divinity and his essential oneness with the cosmos. Christians on campus were defenseless against the inroads of Eastern and New Age religious positions. Why? Instead of proclaiming the faith once delivered to the saints and defending it with the factual arguments honed over the centuries by apologists from Cyprian to Chesterton, Christians defaulted from defending the Gospel to being the Gospel. The casualties on campus have been the loss of apologetics, evangelism, and the Gospel itself.
Ignore Apologetics on Campus and You Get a Defense-less Christianity The word “apologetics” comes from the Greek text of I Peter 3:15– “be ready always to give a defense
(apologia) for the hope that is within you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” Two broadsides are delivered from this passage. First, apologetics, or defending the faith, is biblically commanded. It is not optional to give a reason for the hope that is within us, nor is it relegated to the pastoral office or to a special class of “intellectual” Christians with a university degree. Second, sharing you (whether it is your heart or your testimony) is not biblical, let alone apostolic, apologetics. Instead, we are to give reasons for believing in Jesus’ perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection from the dead, and are to persuasively present the evidence that demands a verdict. We can see how Paul brilliantly did this before Herod Agrippa in Acts 26:26-28. Apologetics is about giving reasons. It is not, therefore, simply a form of philosophy, nor is it a species of systematic theology, nor is it simply a subset of preaching, as if defending the faith is something only pastors do! Apologetics is not only biblically commanded, it has a long and noble history. There was even a so-called “Age of the Apologists” in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries that developed a Hall of Fame of defenders of the faith (Cyprian, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Augustine to name but a few). Today, there is an impressive pedigree of trial lawyers that have investigated the truth claims of Christianity and found
them utterly compelling. The Canadian Institute (www.ciltpp.com) has the finest array of resources for the college student on the defense of the faith today. There is something to learn from the fact that the most effective apologists in the last century were not trained in formal theology at all (C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, and J.R.R. Tolkien). One need not have a seminary education to be effective in the defense of the faith on the modern secular campus. In fact, an insulated theological education may end up impeding one in the apologetical task since theologians tend to maximize the assumptions that are to be accepted and minimize the evidence to be marshaled.
Lose Apologetics on Campus and You Get A Christ-less Christianity We ignored apologetics on campus and lost what apologetics was defending. Well, what is it we are defending in apologetics? The Gospel, of course! Or, to be more specific, what C.S. Lewis of Oxford University called “Mere
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Duluth @ University of Minnesota—Morris @ University of Minnesota—Twin Cities @ University of North Carolina—Greensboro @ University of North Dakota @ University of Northern Colorado @ University of Northern Iowa @ University of Oklahoma @ University of Pittsburgh
