The Library of Historical Apologetics

By Sarah R. Enterline

In 1826, Jane Haldimand Marcet said, “If old books could be gotten into general circulation among all classes as much as they deserve, there would be no occasion for new ones on sacred subjects; but so long as many are indifferent to religion, as well as some opposed to it, no effort on its behalf, when conducted by right means, can be regarded as unnecessary.”

When I first started studying apologetics twenty years ago in Bible college, I ignorantly assumed it was a new discipline. After all, growing up in the church, I had never heard about it. Now I realize what a travesty that was. I will be forever thankful to Dr. Tim McGrew for introducing me in 2016 to the wonderful world of historical apologetics! I was teaching history and apologetics at the time, and never even had a clue as to how those two disciplines were so wonderfully connected.

I started out doing some research and writing as part of the Special Divine Action project, a joint venture between the John Templeton Foundation, Western Michigan University, and the University of Oxford, found at https://sda.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sda. The project aims to “give insightful guidance by means of summaries and interconnections … thereby reducing the time and cost of exploration of ideas.” In simple terms, it is a way of mapping arguments on the topic of Special Divine Action (or Special Revelation) by means of summaries, biographies, and mapping and connecting authors whose arguments influenced others. It’s similar to a search engine like Google, but specifically relating to the topic of SDA in order to lessen research time for scholars.

The more I read, the more I was fascinated by the arguments I was coming across. I was finding arguments that had been attributed to modern scholars like C. S. Lewis and William Lane Craig, in books that were written one-to-two hundred years before they were even born! What really fascinated me was the fact that there were women publishing apologetic works from as early as 1728. Being a female apologist myself, I could not help but gravitate towards those works specifically, and now they make up the bulk of my personal research and publishing (see sarahrenterline.com for more info).

In the short time I worked on the project, I realized that there was a wealth of theological and apologetics riches to be learned from these historical works. I wanted to stay connected to them in any way I could, and continued to work for Dr. McGrew as a volunteer with the Library of Historical Apologetics (https://historicalapologetics.org/).  The Library’s work is described on its website:

“At the Library of Historical Apologetics, our mission is to be the world’s leading resource for lay apologists, pastors, students, and scholars seeking historical apologetics materials for self-study, church classes, sermon preparation, and research. Our digital collection currently contains references to about 3,000 items with a focus on works in English from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Beyond simply providing access to these materials, our long-term vision is to create a digital learning environment that incorporates personal and collaborative reading, note taking, and study tools. We want to support a community in which more experienced scholars help newcomers find the material they need and construct secondary resources such as curricula, study guides, and course syllabi that can be shared by all users.

These classic works of apologetics are profoundly relevant for the 21st century. Most of the objections raised against Christianity today are variations on objections that go back hundreds of years. These objections were thoroughly discussed by some of the finest minds of the 18th and 19th centuries, and their responses are as cogent now as when they were first printed.

Unfortunately, there has been little guidance to this literature for interested Christian readers. As a result, some masterpieces are almost unknown even among seminary graduates and students of apologetics… Many such remarkable books have slipped out of sight. Now, however, rather than publishing more volumes than anyone but a nobleman could afford to purchase, we can make these books available to you digitally.”

While many of the works specifically on the topic of SDA are catalogued on that website, there are so many more on many other topics that modern apologetics scholars and even lay Christians should be reading! I offered to catalogue them and create a public database of historical apologetic works that anyone can access, and it is located at the Library of Historical Apologetics website. Currently, I have works by authors with the last name starting with “A-F” done, I am working on “G,” and am hoping to get the rest done as time allows. Eventually, we would love to not only have these works categorized by the author’s last name, but also tagged by topic, written biographies of each author, and short summaries of each book.

As a pastor’s wife, women’s ministry leader, mom of a teenage son with autism, author, and full-time teacher, I have very little free time, which is why it can often take up to a few months to get more works added to the library. There is a lot of time-consuming research that goes into finding author information and quality electronic versions of each work. I would love to see more people invested in this kind of work, but volunteers are hard to come by because people assume history is dry and boring, but I can guarantee that in this case, it is quite the opposite! We specifically need people trained in historical research, OR interested in reading/quote-mining, and/or creating graphics for our social media platforms.

The benefit is that reading these works is almost like getting a free degree in apologetics. René Descartes is reported to have said, “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” If you are a believer who cares about defending the historic Christian faith, and you are not reading books that were written before Lewis, you are missing out on a wealth of riches that will not only enhance your apologetics knowledge, but will bless you as believer to read about the passionate faith that motivated these apologists to go toe-to-toe with the prolific skeptics and non-believers of their day.

If anyone would be interested in joining the team at The Library of Historical Apologetics, please email me at sarah@historicalapologetics.org.

— Sarah Enterline is an author, apologist, pastor’s wife, mother, and teacher.  She has undergraduate degrees in Biblical Studies, Christian Studies (Theology and Ministry), Social and Behavioral Science, and Philosophy; a CA State Credential in teaching History; and an M.A. in Christian Leadership.  From 2009–2016, she was the President of The International Society of Women in Apologetics, and a writer and editor on the Special Divine Action Project.  She is also currently working as an apologist and writer with the Library of Historical Apologetics. She has taught Apologetics, Biblical Studies, Philosophy, and History at both the secondary and college levels. She also speaks at churches and conferences around the country, and has frequently guested on numerous radio shows and podcasts.  No Apologies is her first full-length book, and she hopes to continue a series on women in historical apologetics, as well as other curriculum and projects.

Image by Michael Brandl from Pixabay

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