As a former Christian who was an active apologist for the faith, I think one of the keys is the presupposition that God exists (and perhaps that it is likely that God is like the Christian God).
From there, you can build a pretty sophisticated and coherent theology that, when maintained through prayer/devotion/church attendance, is a suitable apologetic that is basically invincible to reason.
So, there are (roughly) three “levels” of apologetic in my mind...
Apologetics to support the presupposition that a god exists.
Apologetics to support the presupposition that the Christian God exists.
Apologetics granting presupposition #1 & #2.
Depending how you define “god”, #1 can be interesting. (I’m agnostic and consider of range of views to be rather reasonable on this level.)
I don’t think #2 almost ever works, apart from (mostly childhood) indoctrination. People may go through an emotionally vulnerable time where they are more open to new ideas, or become some level of “cultural Christian” because they found a church they like and enjoy, etc. Generally, there is just too much information available in 2013 for people to consider anything resembling the Christian God to be a reasonable belief.
’#3 is for those already in the fold. And I think it makes up the majority of published Christian apologetics books. People parrot these ideas and try to use them online against atheists and agnostics.
One other note: I do think you might be overstating the overall interest in Christian apologetics on the behalf of Christians themselves. It has risen in popularity, I think. But there is some still some huge number of Christians in the “I believe on faith & am quite content not to mix rationality in with my warm Jesus fuzzies.”
You mentioned books in regard to this. As far as CT’s list… meh. I’m not sure that indicates much apart from the CT staff opinion. Total sales may be a better indicator… but Purpose Driven Life is self-help drivel and sold 30 million copies. The Left Behind series of “books” sold 65 copies. I don’t think most Christians are nearly as interested in defending the faith as they are assuming they are right, enjoying their “relationship with God” and all the positive things it gives them—Christianity works for them, and they aren’t that interested in it beyond that.
As a former Christian who was an active apologist for the faith, I think one of the keys is the presupposition that God exists (and perhaps that it is likely that God is like the Christian God).
From there, you can build a pretty sophisticated and coherent theology that, when maintained through prayer/devotion/church attendance, is a suitable apologetic that is basically invincible to reason.
So, there are (roughly) three “levels” of apologetic in my mind...
Apologetics to support the presupposition that a god exists.
Apologetics to support the presupposition that the Christian God exists.
Apologetics granting presupposition #1 & #2.
Depending how you define “god”, #1 can be interesting. (I’m agnostic and consider of range of views to be rather reasonable on this level.)
I don’t think #2 almost ever works, apart from (mostly childhood) indoctrination. People may go through an emotionally vulnerable time where they are more open to new ideas, or become some level of “cultural Christian” because they found a church they like and enjoy, etc. Generally, there is just too much information available in 2013 for people to consider anything resembling the Christian God to be a reasonable belief.
’#3 is for those already in the fold. And I think it makes up the majority of published Christian apologetics books. People parrot these ideas and try to use them online against atheists and agnostics.
One other note: I do think you might be overstating the overall interest in Christian apologetics on the behalf of Christians themselves. It has risen in popularity, I think. But there is some still some huge number of Christians in the “I believe on faith & am quite content not to mix rationality in with my warm Jesus fuzzies.”
You mentioned books in regard to this. As far as CT’s list… meh. I’m not sure that indicates much apart from the CT staff opinion. Total sales may be a better indicator… but Purpose Driven Life is self-help drivel and sold 30 million copies. The Left Behind series of “books” sold 65 copies. I don’t think most Christians are nearly as interested in defending the faith as they are assuming they are right, enjoying their “relationship with God” and all the positive things it gives them—Christianity works for them, and they aren’t that interested in it beyond that.