Christian Apologetics Week Post #1: Introduction

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This post kicks off a week of posts on Christian apologetics.

During the upcoming week (7 business days; not the weekend), starting today, I will post twice a day on the topic of apologetics. Each day there will be a book review: 4 new book reviews, and 3 updated reposts of books I have already reviewed. Each day there will also be a second, more personal, post: this introduction, an exploration of 1 Peter 3:8-22 with apologetics in mind, personal stories and experiences, thoughts on what some consider to be the biggest obstacle to Christian apologetics, further book recommendations, thoughts on apathy and peace, and a conclusion.

On to the introduction then. It seems like most books and such on apologetics feel they need to start off with a defense of why they are doing apologetics (of why apologetics are important)and what they are trying to accomplish. I figure I might as well follow suit.

Why Christian Apologetics are important:
1. There are a lot of really good and really tough questions to be asked about Christianity. We ought to care enough about our faith to consider them seriously.
2. We should know ourselves and our faith well enough to be able to give reasons and explanations for why we hold on to Jesus.
3. Intellectual issues really do keep people from meeting Jesus. We should be ready to help others, and ourselves, overcome this potential barrier.
4. Integrity and rationality demand intellectual rigor and consistency (despite the well known anti-intellectual tendencies of evangelicalism) and apologetics can lead to these.
5. It must be important, because a lot of people have devoted a lot of time to writing about it! (j/k :)

What I am hoping to accomplish:
Well, I am not writing a book about apologetics. I am reviewing some books and sharing some thoughts, so I suppose my main goal is twofold: 1. to peak your interest in the subject, hopefully leading you to take your own faith more seriously. 2. To point you in the direction of some good materials and interesting thoughts on the subject.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Christian Apologetics Week!

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