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...