Peter Enns: ‘We Are the Apologetic’ →

Peter Enns on his distaste for Christian apologetics:

I’m not a big fan of Christian apologetics. Nothing personal, and I know some smart people who engage in it.

It’s just not for me.

I’ve never seen an argument for why Christianity is true that can’t be met by some alternative argument.

And I am not interested in whether Christianity is “reasonable”–a lot of things are reasonable and I don’t center my life around them.

Nor am I interested in whether Christianity is probable or possible–a lot of things are probable and/or possible but I don’t dwell on them.

The very notion of “Christian apologetics” presumes that the intellect is the primary place of engaging the truth of Christianity.

And that hasn’t worked very well.

Instead, Christians should live faith out as an apologetic:

Living out the notion that, “The church must recapture its identity as the only organization in the world that exists for the sake of its non-members.”

That is the apologetic that can work, and that is much harder than a string of arguments.

We are the apologetic.

Side note: I’m thrilled that Pete is moving his site from Patheos to peteenns.com later this week. There are some incredible people writing at Patheos, but I cringe every time I click a link. The pages are ugly and the ads are awful. I hope more writers will follow Pete’s lead.