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Mere Apologetics - 5d Making Sense of Things: A Case Study
Mere Apologetics - 5d Making Sense of Things: A Case Study
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Making Sense of Things: A Case Study To explore this further, we shall consider how effective the Christian way of seeing things is at making sense of what we observe. How good is the fit between theory and observation? So how can we make sense of the shape of history and the dis…
Mere Apologetics - 5c The Philosophy of Science as a Resource for Apologetics
Mere Apologetics - 5c The Philosophy of Science as a Resource for Apologetics
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
The Philosophy of Science as a Resource for Apologetics In narrating the story of his conversion in Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis makes it clear he did not come to believe in God as the result of a deductive argument, but rather by reflection on his experience. This thought leads…
Mere Apologetics - 6 Pointers to Faith
Mere Apologetics - 6 Pointers to Faith
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Pointers to Faith American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) spoke of “a meteoric shower of facts” raining from the sky. These facts are like threads that need to be woven into a tapestry, clues that need to be assembled to disclose the big picture. As Millay pointed out, …
Mere Apologetics - 7b Opening the Door to Faith
Mere Apologetics - 7b Opening the Door to Faith
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Opening the Door to Faith First, this approach is not well-grounded in the Bible. Truth, especially for the Old Testament, primarily designates reliability and trustworthiness. The apologetic issue is that God is a secure base, a place of safety on which to build the life of fait…
Mere Apologetics - 8b Case Study 1: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Mere Apologetics - 8b Case Study 1: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Case Study 1: Why Does God Allow Suffering? Our first case study is an issue that is regularly raised both in public debates and private conversations. If God is good, why is there suffering in the world? Why do bad things happen in a universe created by a supposedly loving God? …
Mere Apologetics - 8c Case Study 2: God as a Crutch
Mere Apologetics - 8c Case Study 2: God as a Crutch
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Case Study 2: God as a Crutch One of the most familiar criticisms of Christianity is that it offers consolation to life’s losers. The only way such sad people can cope with life, it is argued, is by inventing a God who comforts them. Real people don’t need such spurious reassuran…
Mere Apologetics - 8 Questions about Faith
Mere Apologetics - 8 Questions about Faith
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Questions about Faith Apologetics is about communicating the joy, coherence, and relevance of the Christian faith on the one hand, and dealing with anxieties, difficulties, and concerns about that faith on the other. This has always been the case, from the time of the New Testame…
Mere Apologetics - 8d Working the Angles: Applying the Case Studies
Mere Apologetics - 8d Working the Angles: Applying the Case Studies
by SPCK - Alister McGrath
Working the Angles: Applying the Case Studies In the previous two sections of this chapter we have explored some themes relating to two classic questions of Christian apologetics and identified some components of answers to two important anxieties about faith. But apologetics is …
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 1 Introduction
THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD - 1 Introduction
by SPCK - N T Wright
Chapter One Introduction The land of Israel is a small country. You can walk its length, north to south, in a few days, and from its central mountains you can see its lateral boundaries, the sea to the west and the river to the east…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Be Strong and Resolute!
The Women's Bible Commentary - Be Strong and Resolute!
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Be Strong and Resolute! That the reader enters a particular ideological and theological world in Joshua is evident from the first verses of chapter 1 (1:6–9), which introduce the voice of the Deuteronomistic editor…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Construction of the Sanctuary and Priesthood