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AR 20:25 - Apologetics, long a bastion of men ... till now
Apologia Report 20:25 (1,254)
July 24, 2015
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - Christianity Today profiles the female apologetics team at Houston Baptist University
GREEK, BIBLICAL - an introductory resource for gaining "a functional knowledge of Greek"
ISLAM - the early history of evangelical outreach to Muslims
WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - Charisma magazine clearly distances itself
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APOLOGETICS
"The Unexpected Defenders" by Andrea Palpant Dilley -- profiles the female apologists teaching the master in apologetics program at Houston Baptist University: "the first US program in 'cultural apologetics'....
"Among the faculty are Nancy Pearcey <www.nancypearcey.com>...; Mary Jo Sharp, director of the ministry Confident Christianity <www.confidentchristianity.blogspot.com>; Melissa Cain Travis, a national speaker and author for Apologia Press <www.apologia.com>; Kristen Davis, an engineer who runs DoubtLess Faith Ministries <www.doubtlessfaith.com>; and Holly Ordway, an Inklings scholar with a PhD in literature."
Dilley reports that "Expanding on the work of Francis Schaeffer, Pearcey's main project is to critique the fact-value split, where faith gets relegated to the realm of subjective experience, while everything else - science, industry, politics - is protected as 'truth.' ...
"Pearcey sees this split manifest especially in the educational realm. ...
"'Even some Christian colleges teach with a sacred-secular split. Course material is taught as technical knowledge while Christianity is nurtured through extracurricular activities - chapel, Bible studies, mission trips. It's training students in a sacred-secular mindset.' ...
"'Apologetics is driven by love,' says Pearcey. 'You have to love people enough to listen to their questions and do the hard work of finding answers for them.'" Cover story. Christianity Today, Apr '15, pp34-41.
In "The Oxford Revivalist," on pages 42-46 of the same issue, Katelyn Beaty, managing editor of CT, profiles Amy Orr-Ewing, director of the Zacharias Trust <www.rzim.eu>, the European headquarters of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), program director at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics <www.theocca.org>, and among the 10 female (out of 36) itinerant speakers for RZIM.
Beaty notes: "In a 2012 study <www.goo.gl/fFcxgj>, UK think tank Theos helpfully distinguished between atheists and “nevers” - those who respond thusly to the question, “How often do you participate in a religious service as a worshiper?” Among the nevers, 35 percent said they believe in God; 44 percent, in a soul; and 28 percent, in life after death. Further, about 1 in 3 nevers still identify as Christian."
POSTSCRIPT (Oct 24 '15): Bill Craig's review byline in Philosophia Christi (17:1 - 2015, p230) suggests he is now on the faculty at Houston Baptist University as well as Talbot.
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GREEK, BIBLICAL
Greek for the Rest of Us: The Essentials of Biblical Greek, by William D. Mounce [1] -- reviewers Andrew Cress and Joseph D. Fantin note that the author's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar [2] is "the standard first-year introduction." Greek for the Rest of Us "aims to equip readers with a functional knowledge of Greek so that they can effectively use [exegetical] tools" - some of which Mounce himself has written while yet others are described in the text. The reviewers, anticipating that some readers might jump to conclusions of proficiency, have an appreciation for the expression "a little knowledge can be dangerous," to which Mounce replies that it is "a little bit of arrogance that is dangerous."
The morphological tag approach used in this text, in place of manual parsing, bypasses the need to cover related additional ground. Mounce therefore "addresses primarily issues of syntax and introductory exegesis. ...
"Greek for the Rest of Us continues Mounces's language acquisition method by explaining the features of the Greek language in relation to parallels found in English, successfully building a bridge between the two languages." Mounce "keeps grammatical jargon to a minimum, and defines all potentially unfamiliar terms. Mounce also provides recommendations of lexica and commentaries that he deems especially helpful. ...
"The student who diligently works through the contents of this book will be rewarded with increased exegetical skill, founded on the original languages of the New Testament. Such skill will not replace the language training programs typically provided through Bible colleges and seminaries. ...
"This work is ideal for use in a class of people who do not need to master Biblical Greek, but would love to acquire some facility in the languages in order to access more resources such as interlinears, lexicons, Bible software, and critical commentaries." Bibliotheca Sacra, 172:686 - 2015, pp246-248.
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ISLAM
American Apostles: When Evangelicals Entered the World of Islam, by Christine Heyrman (American History, University of Delaware) [3] -- "How evangelical missionaries, dispatched from New England to the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, failed spectacularly to convert the Muslim masses but had a lasting impact on the face of American Christianity. Heyrman ... uses the voluminous diaries and correspondence of her pious subjects to explore the origins of evangelicalism's ongoing fascination with Islam. Then as today, women greatly outnumbered men in the pews, and editors of church bulletins hit on the idea of 'command[ing] the attention of male readers, perhaps even draw[ing] them into the evangelical orbit ... by treating them to the exploits of dauntless adventurers in a dangerous place.' The austere, bookish New Hampshire churchmen who set out to share the Gospel with the Turks may seem ill-suited to the role of swashbuckling warrior, but this is a story about the power of the written word to shape public opinion. Notwithstanding their comically ineffectual attempts at evangelization, the missionaries' confident chronicles of their derring-do captivated their American audience, giving the church the 'manly bona fides' felt lacking. Their private musings were often strikingly different. They came across many more Europeans who had converted to Islam than Middle Easterners who converted to Christianity, and their personal journals alternate between the worry that Islam could be the superior faith and the stubborn conviction that 'desperation, drink, and lust brought most Westerners into the Muslim fold and ... bravado, shame, and fear kept them there.' Heyrman's engaging writing makes even obscure points of doctrine seem exciting and relevant, and her focus on the ambitions and misgivings of the diverse individuals populating her narrative will appeal to casual readers and specialists alike. An incisive sociological lens on a religion in flux, which, though centuries distant, continues to hold relevance for the present day." Kirkus, Jun '15 #1, n.p.
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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT
"If Jesus Rode a Donkey, Why Does Creflo Need a Private Jet?" by J. Lee Grady -- strong and welcome words from a leading voice in the Charismatic movement. "Atlanta-based prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar announced to the world that he needed $65 million to buy a new Gulfstream jet. He asked 200,000 of his followers to donate $300 each so he could ride in style. He told his audience that the plane was needed so he could "continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ."
"A few people dug into their wallets to send Dollar the needed cash. The rest of us started feeling sick to our stomachs. ...
"Rev. Dollar and those who follow him should be ashamed that he has dragged the name of Jesus through the mud and made all Christians look greedy and egotistical." Grady's editorial, titled "5 Reasons Creflo Dollar Shouldn’t Buy a New Jet" online, includes this great summary condemning Word-Faith abuses, while giving the impression that at some point, Charisma magazine at least, separated itself from this aberration: "The prosperity gospel was popular during the 1980s, when many Christians in the United States were riding the wave of American capitalism. But most of the get-rich preachers of that era either landed in jail or fell morally, and we reaped a whirlwind of bad fruit. We were supposed to learn a lesson from that failed experiment. God blesses us not so we can become selfish consumers but so we can become selfless channels of His blessings to others." Charisma, May '15, p74. <www.goo.gl/ueRFK6>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Greek for the Rest of Us: The Essentials of Biblical Greek, by William D. Mounce (Zondervan, 2 ed., 2013, paperback: 320 pages) <www.goo.gl/OhEID4>
2 - Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, by William D. Mounce (Zondervan, 3 ed, 2009, hardcover, 448 pages) <www.goo.gl/TiahoX>
3 - American Apostles: When Evangelicals Entered the World of Islam, by Christine Heyrman (Hill and Wang, September 2015, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.goo.gl/EQZQVm>
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