Finding the Right Apologist for the Right Moment

This article is part of a monthlong series about the role of apologetics in youth ministry. You can read YPT’s other articles about apologetics here. This article also features Amazon Affiliate links. These provide a small financial benefit to YPT, which we use to provide you with the free resources you enjoy.

The difficulty of apologetics may not necessarily lie in the chosen method, but in the setting through which it’s taking place. In this regard, well-known apologists offer more than theories and ideas – they offer an example. Certain apologists will favor a particular style of encounter due to their variety of cultural experiences. 

Consider Joseph Bradley’s excellent contribution to this particular apologetics series, “Apologetics as a Posture, not an Argument.” Bradley’s breakdown of the style of encounters we face in our delivery of the Good News is an excellent starting point. The wisdom of adjusting your apologetic depending on the type of conversation is also found in Proverbs: 

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters (Proverbs 25:11-13, ESV). 

Rather than profiling one historical apologist and hoping that their tactics apply to every posture (let’s be honest, they definitely won’t), let’s look at each posture and one apologist who exemplifies each occasion. For that reason, it would be helpful to read Bradley’s article (linked above) if you haven’t already. 

Positive Encounters with C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller

Suppose you attempt to share the good news with someone deeply in love with the arts, literature, and the diversity of languages and cultures. Look no further than the apologetic strategies of C.S. Lewis and Timothy Keller. We can see this approach in Lewis’ Mere Christianity or The Weight of Glory, or Keller’s The Reason for God or The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. Rather than appealing to deductive evidence of the divine, Lewis and Keller assume that the loves of order, art, meaningful stories, and the values of community, justice, and goodness all stem from our desire to know and encounter Jesus. Rather than appealing to a thirst for truth and evidential probability, Lewis and Keller understand that most apologetics end in a deductive standstill, but our deepest needs for meaning, hope, justice, and beauty drive us to know the source of all wisdom and order.

Their appeal presumes that you already know and see the need for a God who gives shape and meaning to our deepest desires. The loves within the questioner are not threatening to their knowledge of God, but are God’s very means to draw them to Christ, out of his own lovingkindness. So if your primary method is to appeal to the beautiful and to draw those you encounter to see that all of their deepest desires are already pointing them to someone all the more beautiful, spend some time with Clive and Tim. 

Negative Encounters with Athanasius of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Anselm of Canterbury

What about the need to correct aberrant or heretical views from questioners who appeal to their “Christian faith” while in complete contradiction to the essentials of orthodoxy? Utilizing Keller or Lewis in that situation might get a lot of nodding agreement, or well-meaning responses like “I already know this.” Since most heresies are simply playing the hits from the Early Church, look to the letters of Athanasius or Irenaeus, or read through the dialogical stylings of Anselm of Canterbury. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation and Irenaeus’s Against Heresies are explicitly written to those that claim to be orthodox but are damnably misled. They traverse between the gentleness of Lewis and Keller and the heavy-hitting methods of Tertullian, trying to find words suited to the occasion. Love for the reader is evident, because of the “they’re so close to getting this right” feelings beneath the lines of argument. 

Anselm of Canterbury, while a bit later in church history (11th Century A.D.), is also a master of conversational apologetics. What better way to encourage dialogue than by creating a whole book written from two perspectives? Cur Deus Homo (Why God became Man) is a conversation between Anselm and his questioner (maybe not so lovingly referred to as Boso). At each turn, Boso asks a common question that you would expect in a conversation about the person and work of Christ, and Anselm responds conversationally and academically at the same time. He is prone to some heavy handed scholasticism (he is a scholastic, after all), but there is gentleness in the midst that isn’t the continuous anvil thumping you would get in an encounter with Tertullian. If you’ve ever been in an apologetic encounter that routinely boomerangs back to your questioner saying “but wait, what about this,” then you’ll find a kindred spirit in Anselm of Canterbury.

Reactive Encounters with Tertullian of Carthage

What if your questioner is belligerent but still willing to give a hearing to your proposals? A Lewis or Keller response could be met with scoffing, or a dialogue with Anselm may not provide the necessarily stern warning. If you’re in a conversation where the gloves are off and accusations are flying, the boxing trainer in your corner ought to be a Carthaginian firecracker named Tertullian. 

Tertullian may be the “in case of emergency, break glass” of apologetics. His outright confrontation of the inconsistent and maddening cultural values of the Roman Empire in the midst of their oppressive persecution and total misunderstanding of Christianity boils over in The Apology. Don’t expect to see quotes from Tertullian’s Apology on a throw pillow or a swoopy-fonted Hobby Lobby kitchen sign. But when it comes to an encounter with a secular apologist or a puritanical spitfire coming after Christianity with all the grace of a Pharisee, look no further than Tertullian for polemical fury or a text that reads like a series of uppercuts. 

All Things to All Seekers

Church History is absolutely loaded with apologists fit for each occasion. A deeper look into the different movements and styles that built Christ’s church provides tremendous insight into strategies and temperaments fit for each apologetic encounter. They are no substitute for seeking the wisdom that can only come from the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit can use our great historical treasure trove for his own uses as well. 

Don’t be Tertullian all the time, but if you find yourself being gentle to the point of never saying anything, then get your eyes on the works of Anselm or Irenaeus. Learning from the old masters will prepare you for each kind of encounter, not for the purpose of winning, but in order to seek and save the lost.