Classical Apologetics
Student’s Name
Course
Due date
Both religion and philosophy explain the reasons why some things exist while others do not. Philosophy contends the religious ideas and religion does the same in response. Marylin Monroe asserts that “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” The implication is that nothing is just random in life. While some events could be adverse, Marylin suggests that we could always leverage them to impact our lives positively.
In his mission to unveil the real implication of life, Aristotle proposed that there are two limitations in life. The first is that the world is continually changing and developing and that the future state of things will always be different from that of today. Second, he mentioned ‘entelechy’ which means, the change agent that transforms potential into reality. He believed that every event in one’s life has a drive since it transitions you into the future you. He also notes that though everything in in one’s life has a reason, our way of thinking determines how those things determine the direction our life takes. A positive attitude towards things, for instance, influences the actions we take after encountering some events in life.
Argument
The last thing anyone says after encountering a disturbing event is that everything happens for a reason and that there is a reason for everything. While the notion could be true to some extent, it has met an aggressive but convicting contention over decades that have passed. For instance, losing our loved ones is so sad, and no one wants to believe the inevitability of dying or losing their close friends and family. Nevertheless, whenever it happens, there is always an excuse to console our souls and justify the event. The most common assertion is that the deceased, for example, has fulfilled their purpose of life.
Referring to usual events in life ranging from a breakup with a friend, losing a job, failing an exam, or a road accident, the common excuse is that all these dark events happen for a reason. However, some of them occur as a result of our mistakes. For instance, overspeeding is one of the significant causes of road accidents, and it’s therefore avoidable. On the contrary, some things exist in life that we do not have control over. For instance, being born in a low-income family, being white and not black, and being tall and not short, among other phenomena, are absolute mysteries. Our perceptions about such events, however, influence our choices and actions concerning them.
Apologetics
The term apologetics is a broad term with diverse meanings. The overall meaning of the term apologetics is a methodical confrontational discourse. In Christianity, the succinct implication of the term is the branch of theology that seeks to defend and prove Christianity. In other words, it defends the divine origin and power of Christianity.
The five views of apologetics (Five views on apologetics-Gundry Cowan)
Classical
The classical view of apologetics supports the defense of Christianity against oppositions. It is the governing approach to apologetics in Christian history, particularly before the modern era. It highlights the demonstration of Christianity as logical or rather, as rationally articulate and backed up by rigorous proofs.
Evidential
The evidential view of apologetics highlights the use of facts or evidence to prove God’s existence. In essence, the evidence should be straightforward to the believer and the non-believer without necessarily assuming God’s existence. It looks at the historical manuscripts of the New Testament, then the miracles of Jesus Christ, particularly His resurrection, which the evidentialist adopt as the evidence that Christ is God’s Son.
The Cumulative Case
This view supports God’s existence by validating that it is the best rational view parallel to available evidence, compared to the alternate hypothesis. It uses different exhibitions, but none would be taken purposefully. However, each proof brings clear and specific conclusions evidentially, which affirms God’s existence.
The Presuppositional
It is a changed protestant strategy that asserts that assumptions are crucial to any ideological position and that there are no central or unbiased positions for a Christian to argue ordinarily with a non-Christian.
Reformed Epistemology
It is a proposition about the logic of religious norms. It asserts that a religious norm can be reasonable without any support from facts or reason. The view of reformed epistemology argues that there is no means to fruitfully create the accusation that religious belief is epistemically flawed if it lacks a backup of facts or reason. Secondly, reformed epistemology offers an account of the implication of a rational belief and proposes ways that religious norms may be fulfilling the requirements.
Defining Classical apologetics
The structure of classical apologetics entails three degrees of proof, namely, philosophical, the existence of God, and the realities of Christianity. The Philosophical foundation asserts that philosophy is instrumental in forming the basis for handling believers who may cause particular challenges, including the contention that reality is not impartial or the contention that truth only comes from natural sciences. The inference is that when contending with a believer or a non-believer, the Christian should uphold the fact that truth is identifiable, that judgment applies to the truth, and that ethically reduced individuals can understand particular assertions of Christian Faith, even though they ethically discard.
The existence of God upholds that several lines of evidence and reason can prove God’s being. Classical apologetics upholds that God’s existence should be declared before a particular confirmation for the reality of Christianity makes sense. Among other things, an appeal to miracles is one way to support the facts of Christianity. This is so because God performed miracles to acquit the messages declared by His prophets, apostles, and His own Son. Notably, miracles happen only because God is real, and miracles are unearthly accomplishments of God. The implication is that there cannot be God’s deeds unless there is a God who can perform them. The argument is that God’s reality must be validated before the particular debates for Christianity can be done.
The truth of Christianity gives the precise lines of reasoning concerning the Christian faith, including assertions from documented evidence, archaeology, and other corresponding historical facts for the historical dependability of the Bible. This level of Classical apologetics also mentions assertions from the Bible and other sources that show the individuality of Jesus as the Son of God and reasons from His teachings for the motivation and accuracy of the Bible.
From the above notions concerning classical apologetics, there is indeed a compulsion from the Bible to participate in apologetics. According to this methodology, proving the facts of Christianity calls for rational thinking that can be used to defend the existence of God and has particular traits and that God has unveiled Himself throughout history via His prophets, apostles, and eventually through His Son Jesus Christ.
The five arguments of Aquinas
Aquinas’s five arguments point to the rationality of God’s existence, thereby supporting the classical apologetics. While classical apologetics is seen in ideological assertions, proof of God’s existence, and the realities of Christianity, Thomas Aquinas’ arguments prove the second dimension of the classical apologetics: proof of God’s existence through logic. They include;
The proof of the mover
Aquinas uses the term movement in his assertion to infer, a transition from potentiality to reality. He argued that our conscience proves that some events or phenomena are continually moving or transitioning from one form to another. In essence, things move when possible motion becomes a real movement. This functional movement converts the possible move into actual movement. He asserts that nothing can exhibit a neutral quality of possibility and reality at the same time. Concerning this assertion, nothing can change or move.
Aquinas argued that in the contemporary world, some things are continually evolving. According to him, whatever is reforming, is being changed by something else. The argument proceeds to assert that the change agent in this context is reformed and that it, too, was transformed by something else. The implication is that there is a definite chain of change that traces the immutable cause of change, which is God. In other words, the first mover, forced to move by no other, is God.
The proof of the efficient cause-
In this proof, Aquinas uses the real concurrently present dependency relationships that explain the chain of causes of things. He uses an example of a plant that depends on sunlight to grow, which depends on gravity, which again depends on the mass and so forth. Similarly, everything has its cause reason, and the cause had its cause too. In other words, nothing in the universe that is the efficient cause of itself. This series of efficient causes trace back to the first existence of the cause, which is God.
In the world, we all perceive things that are a result of others. However, something can’t be the result of itself since this would imply that it exists before itself, which is a paradox. The inference is that if the changer agent was also reformed, then there is what reformed it. However, the chain of the change agents traces back to the immutable reformer, which is original and has never been changed by anything beyond. That immutable one is God.
The proof from contingency
In the contemporary world, animals, buildings, machines, and other beings exist for a given period, and they die or are damaged. However, if everything followed this pattern, at some point, nothing would exist. The argument is that there is nothing like an infinite past. If the past is infinite, then all things are bound to disappear at one point in life.
Aquinas argues that everything that exists was brought to being by something else. In other words, every being in the universe is contingent since it depended on a supernatural being, to exist. He argues that some things exist on their inevitability without depending on other beings, but instead, causes them all. There is only one being that causes them all, which all human beings call God.
The proof from the degree of perfection
Aquinas argues that there is a perfect being which causes the degree of perfection o other beings. This being, which is God, determines how good or bad, how valuable, or how crucial a being is. There exist things that are different in levels of reality or nobility, among other qualities. A good comparison is healthy men to unhealthy ones. Aquinas argues that things that exhibit defective or incomplete existence depict that they are not their causes of being. His theory is embedded in the notion that the most prominent in a species is the cause of all others in that genre.
The proof from design
In the real world, different non-living objects with no understanding seem to behave in inconsistent ways. They do not do so randomly, but instead, their behavior is programmed by something else. The programmer in this context is God. For instance, a citrus seed can only germinate to give a citrus plant, which eventually grows to produce citrus fruits. The inference is that if something has an objective or an eventuality it works to achieve, it is either because it has understood or because something prudent is directing it.
Aquinas asserts that the design by which natural bodies among other beings function is proof that, indeed, God exists. Referring to natural bodies, Aquinas asserts that they work to achieve particular objectives, and they do not do so randomly or by chance. According to him, most of them lack understanding, but he mentions an example of an arrow directed to its target. The implication is that whatever lacks acquaintance fulfills its goals by being focused on something intelligent. The ultimate truth concerning this argument is that some prudent beings direct all-natural beings to their ultimate halt and that intelligent being is God.
Early Church Fathers and their contributions
Aurelius Augustine
Aurelius was a thinker and a theologian of the late Roman/ early medieval period. He is frequently perceived as the father of orthodox theology and the ultimate father of the Latin Church alongside St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory. Contrary to the subsequent scholastics who used Aristotle as the standard model to be incorporated into Christian ideology, Aurelius created a rational and theological system that used elements of Plato and Neo-Platonism to backup Christian orthodoxy. His medieval works widely inspired the medieval worldview.
Popularly known as Saint Augustine of Hippo, Aurelius is probably the most influential Christian thinker following St. Paul. He is famous for his version of classical theory to Christian teaching, which developed a system of extreme power and unwavering influence. He not only wrote much to teach Christianity, but he also practiced what he thought was upright. One of the most memorable events of his life was his conversion to Christianity.
In his book Confessions, Augustine explains how he first rejected the Christian faith. However, he later experienced what he called the fundamentals of the preordained God’s grace that acted as an apologetics function. Six apologetics-connected aspects impacted Augustine’s conversion. One of them was eliminating theoretical oppositions to Christianity. He played a significant role in defending Christianity both in literature and lifestyle. The other aspect was eliminating scriptural and exegetical opposition to Christianity. He also practiced the third aspect of apologetics, which is living as an example to the other believers. The other factor that affected Augustine’s conversion was the factual truth of death. The fifth one was, challenging the sinful condition of man. The last one was the study of the Bible. All these factors remain to be relevant tools in teaching Christianity today.
Anselm
Anselm is perceived to be the founder of scholasticism and the first scholarly thinker of Christian theology. He is specially famous for his bid to explain a reasonable system of faith, and as the engineer of the ontological thought for God’s existence. The ontological argument developed by Anselm asserted that if God can be referred to as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived,” then God cannot just be a sheer intellectual. The notion is that a God that exists would be superior. According to him, God’s existence is inferred by the same perception of God, and to say that God does not exist is a paradox in terms. This argument, among other ideas of Anselm, has remained relevant Christian thoughts of all time.
Modern Apologists and their contributions:
Norman Geisler
Norman was one of the principal thinkers of modern American evangelicalism. He was a Christian thinker, apologist, theologian, instructor, and a debater. He is recognized as the engineer and the preceding president of the international society of Christian Apologetics. He was a famous defender of the Christian Gospel, a quality he acquired for frequently quoting the Bible, Philippians 1:16, which says, “I am put here for the defense of the gospel.” He was enduring in his quest to defend the faith. In his book, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist,” Norman unveiled the carnal, earthly opinion that is overriding the Western Culture and being passed down to the coming generations. He asserted that unlike the standard syllabuses and theories taught in schools, the truth could not be equated to anything since it is absolute. According to him, if something is factual/real, it applies to all people everywhere. He wrote many books that reflected the scriptural teachings that will continue guiding and rebuking believers who lose track of the Christian pathways.
William Lane Craig
William has made significant contributions to defending the Christian faith by opposing atheism. He is famous for his article, “Does God Exist”. In the article, he asserts that there has been a “resurgence of interest in an old subject, natural theology.” Natural theology is the effort to prove God’s existence without referring to any assumed revelation, but instead, depending on purely ideological thoughts. Craig is famous for his eight reasons for God’s existence. Firstly, he asserts that God is the top reason why everything exists. Secondly, Craig notes that God is the best clarification of the origin of the world. Third, he asserts that God is the best enlightening factor for the possibility and applicability of Math to the contemporary world. He also notes that God is why the world evolves in intelligence, technology, and other innovations. He also notes that God is the best cause of the states of cognizance. In other words, the implication is that our minds and common knowledge comes from God. Craig also affirms that God is the paramount reason for morals and ethical duties among human beings. Number seven, he argues that the mere chance that God exists means that God indeed is real. Lastly, Craig notes that God can be personally identified and encountered. While these eight reasons for God’s existence sound logical and substantial evidence that God exists, it has aroused heated debates that counter his arguments. Nevertheless, while the debate continues, the more the gospel of Christianity spreads.
Why classical apologetics is my preferred methodology.
The best reason I preferred classical apologetics to the rest is its wide range of ways to defend God’s existence from theistic proofs to Biblical perspectives. For instance, Kenneth D. Boa uses logic based on classical apologetics to prove God’s existence, an argument that beats all odds.
Kenneth uses theistic proofs, a method used by classical apologetics, to prove the existence of God. In an attempt to refute the arguments by modernists and postmodernists’ views that knowledge is a human construct, he argues that the assertion cannot be sustained for three distinct reasons. One, Kenneth uses an example of a simple sum, such as two added to two, which gives an obvious answer, four. Alternatively, he uses the common human knowledge that man needs water in the body to live. While the two answers seem to come from the reasoning of man, he argues that such integrity would have been real even if the man did not, for some reason, realize it. Second, he argues that the assertion that human knowledge is developed or executed by the human mind is futile. He uses an example of a fictional character, John, who claims that all human knowledge is developed by people’s minds, which the same John, claims to know. According to Kenneth, the irony is that John’s perception that knowledge is constructed in human minds is enough proof that he constructed the perception.
Third, he argues that despite what cynical thinkers have said, and despite what many ordinary people repeat when they experience the truth, which upsets them, understanding of truth is something we all have and make use of, every day. He uses an example of someone crossing a busy highway road. He argues that this universal knowledge tells pedestrians to look right and left to ensure that there is no oncoming traffic that would otherwise interrupt them while crossing. The implication is that no one would cross the road if they realize that something would interrupt them. The assertion is that all humans have the standard knowledge of what choices to make in their daily life.
Moreover, he continues to unveil the human understanding embedded in the conscience of man. He uses an example of a report revealing that several people have died in a terrorist attack. While the people receiving the news may not have previously known the specific victims of the terrorist attack, they tend to sympathize with them while at the same time showing a recession against the proprietors of the attack. This is proof enough that human common sense tells them that killing fellow humans is terrible. This trait could only be attributed to one power, which is God.
Classical apologetics is the most preferred method of defending God’s existence. Notably, Classical apologetics is a two-phase method. The first phase is to reveal God’s existence through ancient theistic proofs, such as devised reason, cosmological arguments, and ontological ones. This phase upholds the likelihood of natural theology, which refers to the capacity of logic to exhibit God’s existence. The second phase demonstrates the truth of Christianity by revealing, for instance, the Bible is dependable. In this context, Jesus proves to be God and the Son of God in the Bible. It is referred to as a classical method since it has been the conventional, ancient way throughout history. The two steps of classical apologetics make it easier to prove God’s existence.
Besides the elaborative nature of classical apologetics, different verses of the Bible back it up as well.
Acts 17:22-34
In this verse, for instance, Paul meets the casual and ignorant worship style in Athens. According to the scriptures, the people of Athens worship a God that they do not know. In essence, people believed that God exists. The implication is that common knowledge tells us that God is real, even though He is theoretical. This is in line with the philosophical dimension of classical apologetics that explains God’s existence through rationality.
Romans 1:18-23
Like classical apologetics, the Bible states that the visible things in the world, such as lakes, mountains, and other beings is evidence of God’s eternal power and divine nature. The scriptures also indicate that the rationality of humanity has been made so by God. This aligns with the assertion of classical apologetics that logic is enough to explain God’s existence.
Romans 2:14-16
The Bible mentions non-believers, who, without necessarily following the Christian doctrine, do what is considered lawful and morally upright. Their acts reveal that the law, according to the scriptures, is printed in their hearts and their conscience at times judging, convicting, and accusing them of their deeds. This again aligns with the methodology of classical apologetics, which asserts that God, the creator of all beings, is connected to humans and communicates to them through conscience. The fact that one can make rational decisions and behave as expected explains the wiring of the man’s brain, which came from God.
1 Peter 3:15
This verse directly advocates for classical apologetics, where it instructs Christians to defend Christianity and the existence of God. The Bible, in this verse, instructs the Christians always to be ready to give answers to everyone who contends their faith in God.
John 6:37-65
The Bible uses miracles as evidence that God exists. For instance, Christ teaches about the manna that came from heaven to feed the Israelites in the wilderness when they went hungry. It took God’s enormous power that proves His existence.
1 Corinthians 1-2
Like in Classical apologetics, in this verse, Paul asserts that all people in the universe should always refer to one God as their Christ, the Lord. The classical apologetics state that the integrity of Christianity is that God is a God of all human beings regardless of which God they pay their allegiance to.
2 Corinthians 10:5
The Bible supports every act that defends Christianity against all the odds. The Bible advocates that the Christians should destroy all contentions and every posturing that elevates itself against God’s wisdom and turning every objective mind to obey God.
Conclusion
In conclusion, classical apologetics is an instrumental methodology in demonstrating God’s existence and the existence of other beings. In comparison, the methodology explains how all things are related to God as the original cause of all things. The reason for the existence of all things is a result of a chain of other causes. However, these chains are not infinite since they trace back to the immutable being who causes all these things to happen or exist.
The classical apologetics methodology is an ideal way of explaining why people behave the way they do even before they become believers. Aquinas’s five views regarding apologetics assert that proving God’s existence or Christianity is not dependent on factual evidence. Instead, logic and rationality of man are enough to prove God’s existence.
The rising of the Sun in the East and its setting in the West is one way to demonstrate the existence of God. Besides, the ordinary functioning of natural bodies and beings such as plants, which are non-intelligent, is proof of God’s existence. This is proof enough too that nothing is random. The Sun rises in the East, and not the West is proof that a supernatural personality is continually directing the bodies. The inference is that nothing exists without a cause or reason, and the same thing happens for a reason. For instance, plants depend on that same sunlight to grow and mature. The reason, therefore, demonstrates why everything exists.
Bibliography
Boa, Kenneth, and Robert M. Bowman, Jr. Faith has its reasons: Integrative approaches to defending the Christian faith. InterVarsity Press, 2012.
MCDOWELL, JOSH. “Models of Christian Apologetics.” Evangelical America: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Religious Culture (2017): 273.
Montgomery, John Warwick. Defending the gospel in legal style: essays on legal apologetics & the justification of classical Christian faith. Vol. 19. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017.
Chatraw, Josh, and Mark D. Allen. Apologetics at the cross: An introduction for Christian witness. Zondervan Academic, 2018.
Gundry, Stanley N. Five views on apologetics. Zondervan Academic, 2010.
Moreland, James Porter, and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian worldview. InterVarsity Press, 2017.
Geisler, Norman L. Christian apologetics. Baker Books, 2013.
Thoreau, Christian. “Saint Augustine.” (2019).
Novikoff, Alex J. “Anselm, dialogue, and the rise of scholastic disputation.” Speculum 86, no. 2 (2011): 387-418.
New International Bible (NIV) Version