Having just read Five Views on Apologetics, I’m tempted to immediately categorize the apologetic methodology of William Edgar into one of Steven Cowan’s five views. But that is not as easy as we might hope it to be. The quick and dirty method would be to read Edgar’s bio, find out that he’s a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary and assume that he embraces reformed epistemology apologetics. But that would be lazy, the assumption might be wrong and we definitely wouldn’t learn anything. And why bother classifying the book at all? Why not interact with it and think about what we learn? That’s where this review is headed.
Based on the vocabulary and choice of illustrations, The Face of Truth appears to be written to university-educated spiritual seekers who have been affected by postmodernism, whether consciously or unconsciously. I often get to select gift books for visitors and newcomers to my church in
Edgar starts his apologetic where the Bible starts, with arguments supporting the existence of God as creator, but he doesn’t start with a plainly logical exposition of the Kalam cosmological argument like a William Lane Craig. His jumping off point is a story about a young academic defending his thesis, but then like a music video on MTV, Edgar quickly cuts to an illustration from Jodi Foster’s movie Contact. Then another quick cut takes the reader to a brief biblical theology of general revelation, which is followed by reflections on the universal human experiences of self-awareness and a guilty conscience. Edgar’s explanations are nowhere near exhaustive, but they are biblical and therefore have the cumulative effect of weakening the strongholds that exist in many unbelieving readers’ minds.
In the chapters that follow, Edgar writes in a similar manner. He surveys the history of impressionistic art to make an analogy about the philosophy of knowledge. He discusses Thomas Kuhn’s term “paradigm shift” to expound on the true nature of repentance and faith in conversion. He compares the postmodernist Michel Foucault with Pontius Pilate and quotes theologian John Murray to solidify the notions of objective truth in the Lordship of Christ. Edgar probes the historical context of Galileo versus the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Scopes Monkey Trial to shake the foundations of scientific methodological naturalism and open a door in the reader’s mind to the credibility of intelligent design theory. The lyrics of Bob Dylan and Isaac Watts introduce two chapters dealing with the problem of evil. Unexpectedly, reformed characters like John Calvin, the Huegenots and Jonathan Edwards appear to the reader not as enemies but as potential friends. Occasionally, theological terms like atonement and expiation are used without shame in the context of Christian explanations of the human condition. Throughout the book, Edgar illustrates with aspects of culture that still reflect the image of God in mankind even though they are ruined by the fall. From these points of contact, he consistently shows his readers how the Christian view of things makes the best sense of the world we find ourselves in.
The Face of Truth contains a unique, but clear presentation of the Christian gospel and multiple calls to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Students of popular evangelical apologetics works might be a bit surprised at what they come across in this book, but in the end our truthful God's face shines bright and clear. And of course, His loveliness is unbeatably satisfying.
1 comment:
Thanks for your excellent review! Face of Truth is available at Dr. Edgar's "home" bookstore: Westminster Bookstore (www.wtsbooks.com) for a very good price.
Post a Comment