Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today

Is it still possible, in an age of religious and cultural pluralism, to engage in Christian apologetics? How can one urge one's faith on others when such a gesture is typically regarded with suspicion, if not outright resentment? In Humble Apologetics John G. Stackhouse brings his wide experience as a historian, philosopher, journalist, and theologian to these important questions and offers surprising--and reassuring--answers. Stackhouse begins by acknowledging the real impediments to Christian testimony in North America today and to other faiths in modern societies around the world. He shows how pluralism, postmodernism, skepticism, and a host of other factors create a cultural milieu resistant to the Christian message. And he shows how the arrogance or dogmatism of apologists themselves can alienate rather than attract potential converts. Indeed, Stackhouse argues that the crucial experience of conversion cannot be compelled; all the apologist can do is lead another to the point where an actual encounter with Jesus can take place. Finally, he shows how displaying an attitude of humility, instead of merely trying to win religious arguments, will help believers offer their neighbors the gift of Christ's love. Drawing on the author's personal experience and written with an engaging directness and an unassuming nature, Humble Apologetics provides sound guidance on how to share Christian faith in a postmodern world.

About the Author :
John G. Stackhouse, Jr. is Professor of Religious Studies at Crandall University in New Brunswick, Canada. His previous book, Can God Be Trusted?: Faith and the Challenge of Evil (OUP, 1998) was named one of Christianity Today's books of the year.

Review :
"This book is an aplolgetics that has internalized the legitimate concerns of postmodernity, religious relativism, and human freedom, and thus manages to reveal apologetics not as the theological blunderbuss that it once was, but as a loving engagement with people, driven by a desire to share belief, not overwhelm the opposition." --Religious Studies Review "This book is an aplolgetics that has internalized the legitimate concerns of postmodernity, religious relativism, and human freedom, and thus manages to reveal apologetics not as the theological blunderbuss that it once was, but as a loving engagement with people, driven by a desire to share belief, not overwhelm the opposition." --Religious Studies Review "Stackhouse offers salutary advice [to believers] on the proper courtesies of debate, on how they need to understand people themselves, as well as where they are coming from.... The eminent clarity and charity of [his] writing lie in his...religion...[which] offers training in persuasive speech and nurtures a disciplined, serious, and dissenting cast of mind."--David Martin, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, London School of Economics, The Times Literary Supplement "Humble, but clear and cogent too, John Stackhouse's vision of apologetics combines deep thinking with immense practical relevance."--Os Guinness, author of The Dust of Death "Lucid, engaging, and properly modest in its goals for apologetics."--Choice "Stackhouse mounts as cogent and eloquent a case for apologetics as I have ever read. It's cogent because of what he understands apologetics to be: not browbeating the other into intellectual submission but sincerely and lovingly commending Christianity to the other for his or her shalom. If that's apologetics, I'm all for it."--Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale Divinity School "A witty, lucid, and extremely intelligent analysis of what Christian apologetics is and how it should be practiced at the beginning of the third millennium. Stackhouse is an acute observer of and commentator upon contemporary North American intellectual culture in general, and because of this what he says about the situation of Christians in a broadly (and deeply) post-Christian culture illuminates the deep pluralism with which all religious people now live." --Paul Griffiths, University of Illinois at Chicago "Stackhouse has done the most extraordinary thing: he has made apologetics winsome. You will find that this book convinces you not only by the clarity of its arguments but by the gentle humility of its author. When I started this book I assumed I would hate it. When I got done with it I discovered it had renewed my love for our faith."--M. Craig Barnes, Senior Pastor, National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.