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Press Release: April 21, 1997
Crestline, California -- Three senior researchers formerly with the Christian Research Institute (CRI) of San Juan Capistrano, California have joined efforts to publish an Internet e-mail weekly.
Named Apologia Report, the first online edition of the publication was recently released by its evangelical publisher, a new non-profit organization known simply as Apologia.
"Apologia Report will target the wide spectrum of religious issues which have an impact on orthodox Christian faith," says Rich Poll, the new publication's editor. "Apologia Report covers an extensive range of topics, including cults, the occult, world religions, aberrant theology, new religious movements, spiritual trends in modern culture, and general apologetics."
Former CRI researchers Dr. Ron Rhodes and Paul Carden will also contribute to the publication. Additionally, both men have started non-profit organizations since leaving CRI, where they were also involved in editorial roles.
Rhodes has authored several books on new religions and other topics related to apologetics, the defense of the faith.
Carden directs an international apologetics-centered ministry network with outreaches to the former Soviet Union and Latin America.
Poll sifts through the key tools religion professionals use to remain current in their fields of specialization as they relate to defending Christian faith.
The annotated bibliographic format of Apologia Report provides summaries and reviews from many academic journals and popular periodicals, the online universe, books, broadcast media, software, CD-ROMs, unpublished monographs, and other news sources.
Having written a similar research bulletin, FYI, for a private audience through the Christian Research Institute during the last decade, Poll's work is known to a number of professionals in Christian apologetics. Some of them have viewed preliminary editions of the new publication.
"Rich Poll's efforts in Apologia are more than welcome in our information-laden society -- they are necessary," says Norman L. Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary. "There is no human way that I can read everything I wish to, even in my field. His ability to read widely and condense clearly provides a very helpful guide to knowing just what I should read. I find Apologia Report very useful."
"Rich Poll is a veteran researcher who has his nose to the winds of contemporary culture," says author Douglas Groothuis, Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at Denver Seminary. "He is able to distill a vast amount of useful information and make it available to church leaders who need to understand the times. Apologia Report is a wonderful tool for staying abreast of important developments in apologetics and religion in general. I highly recommend this unique resource."
Free samples of Apologia Report will be available April 21 at <www.apologia.org>
Feel free to circulate this announcement widely.
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When I was in charge of the research material at CRI years ago, I also helped train new research staff. We found that the most helpful training tool we had was the "FYI" research bulletin that I wrote and published in-house for CRI's research team. We had new research assistants study all the back issues after they were hired. This brought them up to speed on important issues and trends and helped them with name/topic recognition and familiarization.
The FYI back issue archive constitutes most of the content in the CRI TEXT database I created while at CRI.
Apologia Report improved on the FYI and moved it from a private audience to the general public.
Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Apologia.
Rich Poll
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