“Apology” is a misunderstood term, and 21st century can mean anything you want.  By “apology” I mean it the classic sense of a reasoned argument (hence, Justin Martyr above), not a statement of regret.  By 21st century, I mean to lump together a number of tired termsthat have the prefix “post,” such as post-structuralist, anti-metanarrative, post-western, post-literate, post-national and most important, post-Christendom.  To those fancy words I’d add some broader cultural shifts such urban, pluralism and global monoculture. And let’s not forget some changes in technology and their social ramifications such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and transhumanism.

Apologetics, as I have encountered it from fundamentalist camps, often comes across smarmy, and painfully embedded in enlightenment thinking.  (That’s not to say there isn’t some brilliant stuff out there.)

The problem is that traditional “reasoning” makes some assumptions that need to be reconsidered.  What makes you think people will even respect your reasoning?

Here’s a few things I’d address in a post-modern apology:

• The need for a narrative, even in a culture “incredulous” of them.
• The reality that assuming present day man has anything figured out that past generations do not is, as Lewis would say “chronological snobbery.”
• The need for a model a way of life in an increasingly complex and hostile world.

An underlying assumption of such an apologetic is that the end point is discipleship, not conversion.  I have to believe that if people are constantly pouring over scripture to follow the model of Jesus that conversion will take care of itself.

What do you think?  What would you include in your apology?

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A small book, made of lead pages the size of credit cards may be the biggest archeological discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.  According to researchers, the books were found in an area of Jordan thought to be home to Jewish Christian who fled the fall of Jerusalem in 70 BC.

The researchers are quoted as saying:

‘As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck,’ he said. ‘That struck me as so obviously a Christian image. There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city.

‘There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem. It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls.’

One fascinating element, that seems to be overlooked by researchers, is what this tells us about what early Christians actually believed.  Popular skeptics like to argue that Jesus was just a teacher, whose legend grew, and was codified centuries later.  However, if the books are authentic, it means that there is concrete evidence of the teaching that Jesus was divine, was crucified and raised from the dead.

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