The 2018 Conference of the International Society of Christian Apologetics will be held April 6-7 on the campus of Southern Evangelical Seminary near Charlotte, NC. The conference theme is "The Centrality of Christ in Apologetics" which focuses on confronting myths about Christ in atheism and culture and false perceptions of Jesus in American evangelical mysticism. Everyone is welcome to attend.
 Michael BrownDr. Brown earned a Ph.D. at New York University and currently serves at the FIRE School of ministry and Southern Evangelical Seminary. He has preached throughout the United States and more than twenty nations and has written more than twenty books. He focuses specifically on Jewish apologetics, Old Testament, and Hebrew studies. He also hosts the daily Line of Fire radio program. |
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Michael KrugerDr. Kruger is the President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC. In addition, he is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as an Associate Pastor at Uptown PCA, Charlotte, NC. He is the former Vice-President of the Evangelical Theological Society, co-chair and cofounder of the New Testament Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature study section for the Evangelical Theological Society. Some of his publications include: The Question of Canon, Christianity at the Crossroads, and The Heresy of Orthodoxy. |
Historically, some portions of the church have struggled to understand the practical relationship between Apologetics and Spirituality. This was especially prevalent in Schaeffer’s time. He regularly encountered those who were critical of the discipline of Apologetics and saw it as merely academic and conceptual, and likewise often saw Spirituality as something with little relationship to the mind. In contrast, on the other hand, perhaps fulfilling the skepticism of the former, there were frequently those that practiced forms of Apologetics that could be construed as more purely academic and intellectual and arguably, out of touch with the everyday situation of the non-believer. Schaeffer felt very strongly that Apologetics needed to be brought into the “rough and tumble” world of the common man
Michael Polanyi – Part III: Away from Objectivity and Towards Personal, Biblical Truth
The challenge to objectivity in casual and academic discourse is quite common by Christians and non-Christians. This invitation is a hermeneutical device to correct fanciful, or even robust, disagreements. But, the philosopher Thomas Nagel, calls this directive “a view from nowhere.” That is, it is a viewpoint that is not only impossible to achieve, but one that cannot fulfill its intended purpose. Michael Polanyi has soundly demonstrated that modern science is not objective and that the claim of objectivity is destructive to the pursuit of science, as well as social and academic freedom. Instead, the pursuit of knowledge and truth is centered in the person and his or her calling. This paper, then, is a beginning view at what apologetics and theology might achieve from such “personal knowledge” that is Biblically grounded. Jesus statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” is one text among others that indicates this direction. A few theologians who have moved in this direction will be explored, along with other suggestions for future study. The accusation of subjectivity is avoided by the objective nature of biblical inerrancy, sound theology, and principles of reason.
Book review of
Michael R. Licona, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? What We Can Learn From Ancient
Biography, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 308 pp. $35.00. (Cloth) ISBN 9780190264260.
