The way of imagination

       How to integrate cultural apologetics into practical Christian ministry?   The pioneers of 20 th -century Christian apologetics used the latest mass media technology to evangelize and offer a rational defense of the faith.   In the U.S.A., Fulton Sheen (1895—1979) used radio and TV to expound/defend Roman Catholic Christianity from 1930—1968.   In the U.K., C.S. Lewis (1898—1963) argued for “mere Christianity” on the BBC radio from 1941—43 and offered both rational and imaginative defenses of Christian doctrine through the publication of numerous books.   The 21 st century has seen many apologetics ministries avail themselves of the power of the internet to defend the faith.   American Robert Barron (b. 1959) founded Word on Fire Catholic Ministries [1] at the turn of the third millennium.   Fr. Barron began his evangelistic efforts by delivering homilies on a Chicago-area radio station at 5 a.m. on Sundays.   His first aud...

       Worship.   This is a recurrent theme in Matthew’s Gospel.   The magi “make obeisance” [1] to Jesus (2.11; cf. 2.2, 8).   During Jesus’ testing in the desert, Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will “make obeisance” to him.   Jesus retorts that it is written that one should only make obeisance to God (4.9-10).   Various characters make obeisance to Jesus throughout the narrative – a leper (8.2), Jairus the ruler of the Capernaum synagogue (9.18), the disciples (14.33), a Canaanite woman (15.25), the mother of James and John (20.20), the women at the tomb on Easter morning (28.9) and other disciples that saw him after his resurrection (28.17).   Jesus is worthy of worship because he is “God with us” (1.23; 28.20).      The Devil.   Hart’s translation renders each Greek word that denotes “the Devil” differently in the desert temptation episode.   Jesus is led into the wilderness to...

       The 7 th century saw the former (united) Roman empire split into three entities – the “barbarian west” where Catholicism predominated, the Eastern Byzantine empire which was Orthodox, and the Muslim world which would soon stretch from Persia to Spain (south of Europe for the most part).   Christians in Muslim lands were dubbed “people of the Gospel” and were often obliged to pay the dhimmi tax.   It is not always easy to distinguish between the polemical caricatures of Muslims in Christian texts and historical reality.   Undoubtedly, there was sometimes religiously inspired violence against Christians in Muslim lands during this period, but there doesn’t seem to have been anything approximating “genocide” perpetrated against Christians once their lands had been conquered.   Three of the five historic Christian patriarchates – Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch – quickly fell into Muslim hands.      Indeed, it was...

                Augustine had been a Manichean before his conversion to Christianity and his engagement with Manichean ideas would shape Christian views on both the nature (and “origins”) of good and evil as well as personal holiness.   Manichaeism was essentially dualist, believing the universe to be “governed” by two equal and opposite powers – i.e. good and evil – engaged in an eternal cosmic “duel”.   Augustine would come to reject this worldview, and insist that the Bible portrayed one, all-powerful Creator God, who had neither equal nor rival.   Although a cursory reading of the Gospels might give one the impression that Satan is God’s counterpart, the Hebrew Scriptures portray ha satan as a member of the (heavily populated) heavenly court, a sort of “public prosecutor”.   Eventually, the image of Lucifer/Satan as a fallen angel (i.e. creature) would become the predominant view, according to which Sat...

  I.                     Gn. 6.5—9.17: The Great Flood A. OBSERVATION 1. General observations      The Flood narrative begins with God regretting having created humanity, due to its “great wickedness” (Gn. 6.5-6).   Things have apparently escalated since the murder of Abel.   “But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord” (6.8).   Indeed, Noah’s unique destiny had been portended since his birth (cf. 5.28-29).   Noah’s father “prophesizes” that his son will provide humanity “relief [1] from the toil caused by the cursing of the ground” (cf. 3.17-18).   Like his great-grandfather Enoch before him, Noah “walked with God” (6.9; cf. 5.22-24).   Indeed, Noah is the only “righteous” [2] person among his generation (7.1; cf. 6.9); presumably, this is because, in the preceding verse, he is said to “have done all that God commanded him” [3]...