Passionate Conviction: Modern Discourses on Christian Apologetics
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Is your heart on fire for God?
Passionate Conviction brings together the most popular and heart-stirring presentations in defense of Christianity from the annual fall conference on apologetics held in association with the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the C. S. Lewis Institute, and the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University.
Applicable to pastors, serious-minded lay people, and university and high school students, these twenty essays are grouped into six dynamic categories: (1) Why Apologetics? (2) God (3) Jesus (4) Comparative Religions (5) Postmodernism and Relativism (6) Practical Application. Among the greatly respected contributors are J. P. Moreland (“Has the American Church Lost Her Mind?), N. T. Wright (“The Resurrection of Jesus as an Event of History”), Francis J. Beckwith (“Is Morality Relative?”), Sean McDowell (“Apologetics for a New Generation”), and Gary Habermas (“Dealing with Doubt”).
- Presents a series of essays that address issues related to apologetics, such as the existence of God, Jesus, religions, postmodernism and relativism, and practical application
- Seeks to affirm readers in their faith, strengthen their minds and embolden their witness
- Draws from material presented at the apologetics conferences held by the Evangelical Philosophical Society which featured various evangelical scholars who offered pro bono training in the defense of the Christian faith
Top Highlights
“Nor does his commitment to truth make the Christian intolerant, as Bloom’s students erroneously inferred; on the contrary, the concept of tolerance entails that one does not agree with that which one tolerates. The Christian is committed to both truth and tolerance, for he believes in Him who said not only, ‘I am the truth,’ but also, ‘Love your enemies.’” (source)
“We are told that we change spiritually by having the categories of our minds renewed (Rom 12:1–2), that we are to include an intellectual love for God in our devotion (Matt 22:37–38), and that we are to be prepared to give others a reasonable answer to questions they ask us about why we believe what we believe (1 Pet 3:15).” (source)
“A model for us here ought to be a man like John Wesley, a Spirit-filled revivalist and at the same time an Oxford-educated scholar.10 Wesley’s vision of a pastor is remarkable: a gentleman, skilled in the Scriptures and conversant with history, philosophy, and the science of his day.” (source)
“Malik emphasized that as Christians we face two tasks in our evangelism: saving the soul and saving the mind, that is to say, not only converting people spiritually but converting them intellectually as well.” (source)
“If Christian laymen do not become intellectually engaged, then we are in serious danger of losing our youth. In high school and college, Christian teenagers are intellectually assaulted by every manner of non-Christian philosophy conjoined with an overwhelming relativism. As I speak in churches around the country, I constantly meet parents whose children have lost their faith because there was no one in the church to answer their questions. In fact, George Barna estimates that 40 percent of the youth in our churches, once they leave for college, will never darken the door of a church again.” (source)