Talk:Christian apologetics

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Lede sentence?

I think the current lede sentence sourced to Catholic encyclopedia is quite misleading: a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity against objections, if the article is to cover polemics. I think this describes the modern Christian apologetic faith literature, which contains discussion like But what of the Church herself, she who has preserved the truths revealed and enacted by Christ^[1] However, based on scholarly sources, the apologetic writers engaged in a considerable amount of polemic (especially against Jews and Muslims).^[2]^[3]^[4]

And would we deal with anti-Christian polemic like this briefly in this article for balance? (The details would have to go in a separate article.)^[5]

References

↑ Markos, Louis (2010-10-06). Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century. Crossway. ISBN 978-1-4335-2465-3.
↑ Davis, Stephen J. (2014-05-13). Christ Child: Cultural Memories of a Young Jesus. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20660-9.
↑ Schoenfeld, Devorah (2013). Isaac On Jewish and Christian Altars:Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria: Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-4349-5.
↑ Ingram, Anders (2015-07-24). Writing the Ottomans: Turkish History in Early Modern England. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-40153-3.
↑ Bonfil, Robert (2011-10-14). Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-20355-6.

Why do Catholics call the priests father

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Why do priests father William Dalton jr (talk) 14:04, 22 November 2019 (UTC)Reply

"Varieties" section is not logically organized

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Here's the first paragraph of the "Varieties" section as it stands:

"There are a variety of Christian apologetic styles and schools of thought. The major types of Christian apologetics include historical and legal evidentialist apologetics, presuppositional apologetics, philosophical apologetics, prophetic apologetics, doctrinal apologetics, biblical apologetics, moral apologetics, and scientific apologetics."

As far as I can tell, this classification was pulled out of thin air. There is no reputable, authoritative source cited that uses this classification. It just sounds like someone listed as many different types of Christian apologetics as they could think of off the top of their head.

Moreover, it is what logicians call a cross-classification: Some of the categories listed belong underneath one another rather than as separate categories. For example, moral apologetics is obviously a sub-category of philosophical apologetics rather than a coordinate genus, as illustrated by the fact that the moral argument is repeated in the section on philosophical apologetics. In addition, many practitioners of philosophical apologetics include historical and scientific arguments as an integral part of their case, and historical and scientific arguments for Christianity are virtually always made in conjunction with philosophical reasoning.

This entire section should be reorganized. The first step would be to find a source like the book "Five Views of Apologetics" and use that as an authoritative basis for classification, with (probably) a miscellaneous section at the end for arguments that don't fit neatly into any of the indicated categories. Torin11 (talk) 15:35, 23 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

Is "Christian apologetic" a pejorative term?

Latest comment: 3 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

First off, is it "Christian apologetic" or "Christian apologist"?

Generally it refers to "someone who defends the Christianity". So would that mean only people who engage in debate? Asherkobin (talk) 00:01, 3 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

An "apologetic" is the writing or idea being espoused. An "apologist" is the person who does the writing. Vyselink (talk) 00:33, 3 June 2023 (UTC)Reply

[1] Markos, Louis (2010-10-06). Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century. Crossway. ISBN 978-1-4335-2465-3.

[2] Davis, Stephen J. (2014-05-13). Christ Child: Cultural Memories of a Young Jesus. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20660-9.

[3] Schoenfeld, Devorah (2013). Isaac On Jewish and Christian Altars:Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria: Polemic and Exegesis in Rashi and the Glossa Ordinaria. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-4349-5.

[4] Ingram, Anders (2015-07-24). Writing the Ottomans: Turkish History in Early Modern England. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-40153-3.

[5] Bonfil, Robert (2011-10-14). Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-20355-6.

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