There is much I could say about what I'm learning this week as I study under Jerram Barrs at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. But I'll try to sum it all up in one sentence:
"Apologetics is not just for brains, it is also for hearts."
"You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." - Matthew 22:37-38 (ESV)
5 comments:
Your summary reminds me of something similar from John Piper:
"The God of Romans 9 seemed to be saying to me, 'I will be heralded and not just analyzed. I will be proclaimed and not just explained'."
Without heart the purpose of apologetics becomes not evangelism but that of arrogant intellectual superiority.
Maybe your summary tells us something about why "Five Views on Apologetics" is so deadening. You know--too much academics and not enough heart?
I love that quote from Piper. Thanks Scott Y!
Agnus, I'm sorry to say that there have been times when I've been more concerned with winning arguments than incarnating the life and love of Jesus. But God is gracious. And let's not forget the importance of seriously answering people's real intellectual problems with Christianity.
To be fair to the Five Views book, it has a lot of heart too. And I commend it to you as a very helpful read. I was just complaining a bit about how this type of book can perpetuate disunity among Jesus' followers.
Honestly, I don't think we can have too much academics or too much heart. That's why I love listening to Piper so much - a brilliant mind and an enflamed heart. God, please give us all more of both!
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