Apologetics Part II – Understanding Who Creates Faith

In this class, Pastor Dan explores the cultural context that was present during the time of C.S. Lewis, that was commonly referred to as “modernity”. This was an age in which people generally assumed that there was one truth, and the way to discern this truth was through reason and logic. But by studying history and human nature, it eventually became clear to historians and human history is not a story of how people and nations behaved according to “natural law”.

This perspective led to what is now called “post-modernism”. Post modernists see history as a struggle between the powerful to take advantage of weaker nations in order to gain their resources. Another precept of post-modernity is that how a person identifies is a matter of one’s cultural context. Additionally, post-modern thinking rejects attempts to illustrate history in one overarching perspective – but rather looks at events from various points of view.

In order to connect the Christian gospel to others, you need to be aware of their assumptions concerning reality. C.S. Lewis was speaking to modernity when he wrote “Apologetics”, and he came to believe that Christianity made sense of the world. Consider a few Christian concepts concerning the fallen world we live in. We are not able to produce the joy, happiness, and love we long for. Our hearts long for the beauty of creation and we desire to live in places with high levels of social cohesion. There are times in life when we all go down a self-destructive path and we need forgiveness and a fresh start. Because we cannot save ourselves from our human condition, God does it for us. He meets our need for love, mercy, and forgiveness. He bears our sins himself, dies, and overcomes death. When we receive this gift through faith, we are restored to the people we were meant to be in a kingdom that will have no end.

Our next class will discuss how to connect these truths to others with post-modern thinking.