Prolegomena to Christian Apologetics

Since Christianity is a way and not simply a theory, commending the faith to others is an activity in which every Christian participates. Confessing and Commending the Faith discusses the presuppositions which underlie the intellectual commendation of Christianity in the face of the philosophical challenges of the present day. Following his earlier books, John Locke and the Eighteenth-Century Divines and Philosophical Idealism and Christian Belief, Alan Sell proposes a way of proceeding with Christian apologetics in the twenty-first century. He discusses what Christians wish to proclaim, asks whether these claims are reasonable and examines what is involved in the intellectual commendation of the Christian faith. Confessing and Commending the Faith makes extensive use of the historical tradition of apologetics and brings this work to bear on contemporary questions such as the meaning, use and reference of religious language, and the question of transcendence in relation to history. Alan Sell argues that if the intellectual commendation of Christianity's claim to truth is to be viable, contemporary apologetics must draw upon reason, revelation and experience to do justice to Christianity's basic confession of Christ as Saviour and Lord.