This episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast focuses on the topic of apologetics, or defending the faith. Myron Bradley Penner, an Anglican priest from Canada, discusses his new book, The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context. In the book, Penner addresses problems he sees with certain modern apologetic methods, but they might not be what you expect.
He writes: “When our concern is with how we believe, not only what we believe, and when being in the truth is just as important as possessing it, then our Christian witness must be such that it is edifying to those who receive our witness. Our passion for the truth is connected as much to the form our witness takes and how it is received, as it is to the content of that to which we witness” (The End of Apologetics, 138).
We could only cover a few aspects of the book in this interview. Anyone interested in apologetics should consider picking up a copy.
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About Myron Bradley Penner
Dr. Penner earned a BS and MA from Liberty University (Virginia) and a PhD from New College, Edinburgh University. He has taught at Prairie College and Graduate School and currently resides in Bolivia. In addition to The End of Apologetics, he is editor of Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views and coauthor of A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging Toward a Postmodern Faith.
Sources:
- Robert D. Hales, “Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship,” October 2008 General Conference.
- Søren Kierkegaard, “The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” in The Book on Adler, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 173-88.
- John S. Tanner, “Of Men and Mantles: Kierkegaard on the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” BYU Studies 40/2 (2001): 149-64.
- Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007).
- “God or Godless Edmonton Debate,” moderated by Myron Penner.
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