Reasonable Faith:Introduction

William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

1、护教学的三个主要目的:

  • To unbelievers the truth of Christian
  • To confirm the faith to believers
  • To reveal and explore the connection between Christian doctrine and other truths

2、护教学的目的不在于:

  • Training in the art of answering questions, or debating, or evangelism, though all of these draw upon the science of apologetics and apply it practically
  • Teaching you “If he says so-and-so, then you say such-and-such back.” 

总结:Apologetics to repeat, is a theoretical discipline that tries to answer the question, What rational warrant can be given for the Christian faith?

2、Three vital roles which the discipline of apologetics plays today:

a)Shaping culture(社会、集体层面)

  • 启蒙运动对西方社会与无神论的产生有着巨大影响,许多人认为神学并非 source of genuine knowledge
  • 福音并非孤立地被听见,而往往是在一个人所生活的文化环境为背景下(against the back-ground of the cultural milieu in which one lives)被听见。一个人的观点会被成长环境中的文化所影响,所以护教学有助于塑造并维持一种文化氛围,让福音能够被人们以一种 intellectually viable option 的方式所听见

b)Strengthening believers(个人层面)

  • 一个人需要同时在情感和理性上去明白信仰。如果缺乏后者,那么许多孩子对信仰的问题就无法得到解答。我们不应该满足于只在主日学教授圣经故事,孩子们也需要教义和护教的内容(We dare not send them out to public high school and university armed with rubber sword sand plastic armor)
  • 我们需要具有一定现代科学、哲学、圣经批判等方面知识的牧者,从而在当代文化中更好地牧养
  • 有些基督徒不敢面对非基督徒提出的问题或挑战,而护教学则可以帮助他们知道如何为自己的信仰提出充分的理由,并对不信者可能提出的典型问题和反对意见作出充分的回答(have good reasons for what one believes and good answers to the typical questions and objections that the unbeliever may raise)

c)Evangelizing unbeliever

  • 既然护教学只能对极少数人产生影响,那为何还要学习它?首先,因为上帝爱每个人;其次,护教学可能会影响一些在社会文化中有影响力的人,比如 C.S. Lewis,医生,律师,工程师等,向这少数人传福音将给神国带来巨大收益(a great harvest for the kingdom of God)
  • 不少人通过护教类的布道或书籍而相信上帝

3、护教学的两种类型:Offensive (or positive) apologeticsDefensive (or negative) apologetics

a)Offensive apologetics:提出对基督信仰的 positive cases。它又可以分为

  • natural theology:provide arguments and evidence in support of theism independent of authoritative, divine revelation. The ontological, cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments for the existence of God are classical examples of the arguments of natural theology.
  • Christian evidences:show why a specifically Christian theism is true. Typical Christian evidences include fulfilled prophecy, the radical personal claims of Christ, the historical reliability of the Gospels, and so forth.

b)Defensive apologetics:nullify objections to those claims

  • 与 natural theology 相对应的是:defensive apologetics will address objections to theism. The alleged incoherence of the concept of God and the problem of evil would be the paramount issues here
  • 与 Christian evidences 相对应的是:a defense against objections to biblical theism

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