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AR 28:13 - Moving beyond Enlightenment-era apologetics
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - Tim Keller vs. obsolete apologetics
CHINESE EVANGELISM - "the Chinese originally believed in an omnipotent, personal God"
CREATIONISM - contemporary Jewish perspectives
ISLAM - the death struggle between Iran's theocracy and its teenage girls
Apologia Report 28:13 (1,610)
April 19, 2023
APOLOGETICS
"How Tim Keller's Cultural Apologetics Project Continues" by Collin Hansen (The Gospel Coalition, Feb 27 '23) -- "Much of Christian apologetics, including The Reason for God, still operates within the confines of the Enlightenment. ... What if it's a dead end for Western culture? What if the Enlightenment can't deliver the meaning, identity, purpose, and justice Westerners continue to demand? ...
"The West wants to be relativistic and moralistic at the same time. And it's not working....
"Keller realized he couldn't answer questions about sexuality without turning the tables and critiquing the concept of identity in the modern West." His response to students in his second appearance at the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU) ended up ... in his book Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism."
Keller perceived that "identity forms in community. And communities shape what values can contribute to our identity."
Making Sense of God (2015) was "the apologetics book he would have written in 2008 [with The Reason for God] if he'd known then what he knows now. Making Sense of God aims to expose the assumptions behind objections to Christianity."
When Keller returned to Oxford in 2019, "the OICCU adjusted the typical plan. They preceded Keller's talks with weeks of small-group discussion. The result was even more encouraging than in 2015, and this led Keller to begin planning ways to adapt such a model for evangelism in the United States."
Launched in February, the new Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics "helps Christians share the truth, goodness, and beauty of the gospel as the only hope that fulfills our deepest longings. ... The challenges of our post-Christendom era may be great. But the gospel is greater, in every time and place." <www.bit.ly/4136xxq> More specifically, the Center aims to equip "next-generation leaders through regular online gatherings and an annual in-person retreat. During their multi-year terms, these writers and teachers collaborate on answers to the questions that either lead people to lose faith, or prevent people from finding faith in the first place." <www.bit.ly/3UTr5WQ>
Collin Hansen is also the author of the new biography Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation (Zondervan), which AR's contributing editor enthusiastically recommends. Check out two insightful reviews by Kevin DeYoung ("An American Evangelist" in First Things, May '23 <www.bit.ly/3otyoYQ>) and Tim Challies on his blog, Feb 17 '23, <www.bit.ly/3UM3HdA>
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CREATIONISM
We've found precious little that represents creationism from a contemporary Jewish perspective. With the following, we take note of the "Rationalist Judaism" Substack of Rabbi Natan Slifkin (director, The Biblical Museum of Natural History <biblicalnaturalhistory.org> - Beit Shemesh, Israel). On February 24 Slifkin recounted his visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky <creationmuseum.org>, "contrasting the Creationist Christian interest in exploring Creation with the Charedi <www.bit.ly/43BRCM1> insistence on avoiding it. ...
"[I]n this post I'd like to focus on one aspect of how, as with Creation, the fundamentalist Christian approach to Noah's Ark contrasts sharply with the modern Charedi approach."
As to the latter, American Rabbi Moshe Meiselman "goes to the opposite extreme - he explains at length that the logistics don't work at all, and therefore the whole thing must have been miraculous. ...
"Ironically, it is the fundamentalist Christian approach which is more similar to traditional Judaism." Slifkin then very briefly discusses several other Jewish approaches to the subject, including:
Chumash <www.bit.ly/3UGrwUf>
Chazal <www.bit.ly/3L57UpL>
Rishonim <www.bit.ly/41O8kq7>
Acharonim <www.bit.ly/3GMualC>
Ran <www.bit.ly/3MGczQ6>
Any questions? You'll find it all at <www.bit.ly/3L3HGnx>
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ISLAM
"When writing about Iran, women and hijab, stress the Islamic roots of it all" by Julia Duin (Get Religion, Mar 2 '23) -- "The female protestors in Iran [who won] Time magazine's 2022 Person of the Year reader poll, ... were also named the magazine's 2022 Heroes of the Year. ...
"Something has cracked wide open in the consciousness of Persian women.
"Recently I've been fascinated by the refusal by Iranian women to wear head coverings. ...
"[T]hey've chafed at having to veil themselves underneath hijabs ever since the early 1980s. All that changed last September when a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the morality police and ended up dead, sparking riots nationwide that are ongoing."
Duin cites a February 23 New York Times feature story that proclaims "While these acts of defiance are rarer in more conservative areas, they are increasingly being seen in towns and cities," adding that "The era of forced hijab is over." <www.bit.ly/43Js4fZ>
Duin briefly reviews the history of female oppression in contemporary Iran: "The war against hijabs is a captivating one and the Times does a good job of describing how women across the country are refusing to wear the veil and getting away with it. But, some of the more sinister aspects aren't being brought up.
"For instance, [Iranian activist Masih Alinejad] just survived a murder attempt (in Brooklyn, N.Y. no less) in January. ...
"This BBC story <www.bit.ly/43npLzi> says hundreds of *girls* have been poisoned. [emphasis ours] ...
"This is a battle to the death. And the [New York] Times has in the past covered how the regime is killing teenagers who dare to speak up. ...
"[Y]ou cannot talk about women defying a religious practice - wearing the hijab - without explaining what religious doctrines, traditions and rules cause this conflict in the first place."
Duin concludes: "[T]his is a religious battle even more than a cultural one, which is why the mullahs will never back down." <www.bit.ly/3ZYtKiC>
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CHINESE EVANGELISM
Jesus: The Path to Human Flourishing, by I'Ching Thomas <www.bit.ly/43zw3vx> "offers a fascinating introduction to basic Chinese belief systems and how they manifest today, even when they may not be followed explicitly. It demonstrates an apologetic approach to convince the Chinese people that their culture may not always conflict with Christian beliefs and that Christianity is not just a 'foreign' religion."
So finds our reviewer, Colleen M. Yim, who "has served as a professor at Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary and an adjunct at Biola University. She has been involved in cross-cultural work since 1991."
She begins: "Thomas, a Malaysian Chinese author and speaker who focuses on Christian apologetics in Eastern contexts, hopes to not only share the gospel with the Chinese but also answer the question of why the gospel is necessary for them, as they possess a rich history in their cultural faith traditions.
"While charting points of continuity and discontinuity between Christianity and these ancient traditions, Thomas emphasizes that familiarity with this cultural landscape and how it interfaces with Scripture will prove helpful for people who seek to evangelize or develop their faith in this particular context. ...
"Her book makes evident that knowing the core beliefs of the Chinese allows us to find greater commonalities between the gospel and their culture, which will enable more conducive and effective evangelistic efforts. ...
"As the book examines these ancient belief systems, it explains how Chinese worldviews have been shaped by each one and how they have contributed to modern-day values that are manifested in daily life. ...
"Ironically, before these belief systems permeated Chinese thought and worldviews, the Chinese originally believed in an omnipotent, personal God who ruled the world, Thomas writes. ...
"Responding to common virtues that Chinese people hold, Thomas gives modern-day examples of weaknesses that Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism cannot adequately address or remedy. It is here that she demonstrates how biblical faith answers questions of good and evil, life and death, and ethics." <www.bit.ly/3MMVJ26>
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