What Is the Future of Apologetics?
By Douglas Groothuis
The future of apologetics is as bright and promising as the power of Almighty God to make his truth known through compelling arguments offered by faithful and competent apologists (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 3:20-21). Christians will bear witness to God’s truth until Jesus comes back in one way or another. But what about the prospect for apologetics in the near term and before the End?
Academic Apologetics
Apologetics has experienced a renaissance in the past forty years in several ways. Academically speaking, high-level philosophers of religion, such as Alvin Plantinga, J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, Richard Swinburne, C. Stephen Evans, and Stephen T. Davis have used the analytic philosophy of religion to advance the case for Christian theism. Scholarly societies, such as The Society of Christian Philosophers and The Evangelical Philosophical Society have made a mark on the academic world, part of it by way of apologetics.[1]
Talbot School of Theology, led by the estimable J. P. Moreland, has trained hundreds of master’s students in Christian philosophy and apologetics, many of whom have gotten doctorates and are teaching in universities. Other schools offer advanced degrees in apologetics, such as Houston Christian University, and New Orleans Theological Seminary. Denver Seminary, where I taught from 1993, had a degree in apologetics for nearly fifty years (led by Professor Gordon Lewis before me) before they discontinued it immediately after my resignation in 2024. We placed students into Ph.D. programs and others went into various ministries related to apologetics, in the US and in other countries such as Albania. Biola University also offers a master’s degree in apologetics as does Colorado Christian University, led by up-and-coming philosopher and apologist, Andrew Shepardson.[2]
However, higher education is struggling to draw students into undergraduate and graduate programs in recent years. Finding full-time employment as a philosopher (Christian or otherwise) is a daunting task, and has been for over forty years. One must complete a Ph.D., which takes years and a lot of money, and then compete with a vast pool of applicants for a small number of positions. Where that leaves evangelical philosophers in the academy is uncertain, but not promising (humanly speaking). However, with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; see also Jeremiah 33:3; Ephesians 3:20-21).
General Apologetics
Outside of the academic world are many apologetics ministries and publications—far more than when I became a Christian in 1976. Some have a strong academic backbone, such as William Lane Craig’s ministry, Reasonable Faith, and Reasons to Believe, which sports two Ph.Ds. in science, Hugh Ross and Fazale Rana. Others have less of a scholarly pedigree, but are intellectually credible, such as Cross Examined and Stand to Reason. Summit Ministries has been training mostly high school students in apologetics and Christian worldview since 1962 when it was founded by David Noebel (b. 1936).[3]
Christian home schooling has blossomed the past thirty years, and many of these curricula include worldview and apologetics material. Many Christian high schools include apologetics. Of course, all of them should do so! Mama Bear Apologetics offers books and materials to help parents teach their children apologetics.
Making a Better Future for Apologetics
For our part, we can invest in a fruitful future for apologetics in several ways. The first concerns a style or method of apologetics.
First, although it is not new, cultural apologetics opens up significant doors for outreach to unbelievers and should be developed. Traditional apologetics focuses on giving arguments for Christianity and refuting arguments against Christianity. Cultural apologetics is more concerned with the general intellectual and moral mood of society and how to combat sensibilities that hinder people from even considering the Christian message. As Paul Gould puts it in his book Cultural Apologetics: “I define cultural apologetics as the work of establishing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination within a culture so that Christianity is seen as true and satisfying.”[4] Francis Schaeffer (1912-84) was a master of this discipline, but his work should be updated.[5]
Second, apologetics should be brought into the center of the Christian life as part of spiritual formation and evangelism. As such, Christian families, schools, campus ministries, and churches should include some emphasis on defending the faith. This means opposing fideism and outright irrationalism in Christianity.[6] This should include serious prayer and meaningful financial commitment (Ephesians 6:19).
Third, a significant place for apologetics and worldview formation is in Christian study centers. I worked in study center ministry from 1979-84 (The McKenzie Study Center, Eugene, OR)[7] and 1986-89 (Probe Center, NW, Seattle, WA). A study center is a Christian think tank associated with a secular university, which offers classes, events, and tutoring on how a Christian worldview is pertinent to academic subjects and the life of the mind in general.[8] The outreach is to students and professors. To my delight, the study center ministry is thriving around the United States through the auspices of The Centers for Christian Study. For example, Anselm House has had a significant ministry at The University of Minnesota for forty years.
Fourth, some Christians should pursue academic careers related centrally to apologetics in some way, such as theology, biblical studies, philosophy, and history. Although it is challenging, Christians should seek academic vocations in secular colleges and universities. But every academic discipline should be understood from a Christian worldview with some apologetic application in mind. Faculty at Christian colleges and universities have great freedom and opportunity, as do I and my colleagues at Cornerstone University.
Apologetics in the Future
The future of apologetics—and of everything—is in God’s good and sovereign hands (Ephesians 1:11). We should work hard and work smart to make the faith given once for all to the saints known to the watching world the most compelling account of existence available. But only what is done in the power of God will accomplish God’s will, in apologetics or otherwise (John 15:5).
Resources
1. Joe Carter, “Why Retro is the Future of Apologetics,” The Gospel Coalition, October 10, 2024, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/retro-future-cultural-apologetics.
2. Paul Gould, Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019).
Notes
[1] This movement is noted in James Kelly Clark, ed., Philosophers Who Believe (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995) and Thomas V. Morris, ed., God and the Philosophers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). On Christians in academia more generally, see Paul B. Anderson, ed., Professors Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of Christian Faculty (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998).
[2] Andrew Shepardson and I wrote a book on apologetics: The Knowledge of God in the World and in the Word: An Introduction to Classical Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2022). See also Andrew Shepardson, Who’s Afraid of the Prime Mover? Postmodernism and Natural Theology (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2019).
[3] Dr. Noebel wrote an influential book on the Christian worldview called Understanding the Times, which has gone through several editions. The most recent is Jeff Myers and David Noebel, Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2015).
[4] Paul M. Gould, Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2019), 21, Kindle Edition.
[5] See especially, Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020).
[6] Against fideism, see Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity-Academic, 2022), 53-55; J. P. Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind, 2nd ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2013); John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011); and Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994); Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994); however, I part company with Noll on his embrace of theistic evolution and believe that Christians should not make peace with Darwinism. See Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, 267-327.
[7] See R. Wesley Hurd, “The McKenzie Study Center,” Gutenberg College, February 26th, 2001, https://gutenberg.edu/mckenzie-study-center-3.
[8] See Charles Cotherman, To Think Christianly: A History of L'Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity-Academic, 2020).
— Douglas Groothuis is University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity-Academic, 2024) and Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (InterVarsity-Academic, 2022).
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Check our Impact 360! They work with talbot/biola and sean mcdowell as well as JP moreland are visiting professors. I think Huf’s ministry, Apologetics Canada is also doing great stuff
Great overview of the history of apologetics and its future. I became a Christian from atheism in 1971 through the ministry of apologists, so have had several decades to see what you described. The Apostle Paul wrote multiple times that Christians are in spiritual 'warfare,' and we know that apologetics is one of the primary weapons in the 'armor' God has given us to wage war with the enemy. I especially liked what you wrote at the beginning and ending of your article - "The future of apologetics—and of everything—is in God’s good and sovereign hands." Agreed, sir.