Our society thinks of itself - in public at least - as a rationalistic, scientific, atheist (or at least agnostic) modern world . . .
It's a well-kept secret that we are actually a very religious society. In an AGB McNair survey carried out over the past few years, 55% of the English, 56% of Australians, 45% of New Zealanders and 34% of the French, with a massive 88% of those in the United States, agreed that sins could be forgiven through belief in Jesus.
Add to that the large numbers of Muslims and the growing ranks of believers in the vague claims of New Age spirituality, and we see a picture, not of spiritual abandonment as most people believe, but of a very religious society - albeit unfocussed and ill-educated. We are not a secular society.
In the public perception of 20th-century culture, however, we do not receive this message. Religion in general is regarded as having little intellectual credibility, being at best an emotional response to life. In particular, the public Western world has largely forgotten that Christianity provides a coherent, comprehensive and convincing philosophy. Instead, it is seen as a personal faith for people with traditional ideas. Christians feel hesitant to put forward Christian ideas as part of public discussion, while newspapers cheerfully publish opinions which dismiss Christianity from a secularist point of view.
Christianity does have answers; it is an entirely respectable intellectual framework to hold, and rather better than most. We do not need to struggle to defend Christianity, as if it is somehow lost and floundering in the new world. The answers are there. What we need to do is remind the modern world of the answers it has forgotten. Christianity has not been disproved by the modern intellectual estate, despite what the popular media would have us believe.
Forgetfulness?
Why is it, then, that almost everywhere we look these days, Christianity is dismissed, disregarded, or simply ignored? History is being rewritten and language is changing to leach out the Christian contribution to our society. I noticed one example recently in the World Book Encyclopaedia entries for 'university' in 1988 and 1993. The 1988 version includes, in its brief history of universities, the comment: 'Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, was established chiefly to prepare men for the ministry'. By 1993, however, we read: 'The first (institution of higher learning in America) was Harvard, which was founded in 1636 . . .' with none but logistic details about dates and places following. Even the 1988 version, while describing the liberal arts curriculum of early universities, forgot to mention that the university movement grew out of a desire to better educate religious and lay churchmen.
If writing about universities has forgotten the Christian heritage, teaching within universities is not far behind. University English departments teach classic literature without teaching the Bible - as if the symbolism and themes of Western literature can be understood with no biblical knowledge. Major ideological struggles of history such as the Reformation are sadly misunderstood even in professional academic discourse. Students are coming through university basically uneducated in a huge part of our cultural heritage.
It is a pattern that is followed in most schools as well, perhaps unconsciously. I can remember myself as a sixth form Ancient History student the time when a Catholic classmate asked why we did not study the Bible for examples of life in the ancient world. Our teacher replied, in quite an off-hand, non-polemical manner, that it was because the Bible was a religious book and had no real history in it. At the time I accepted his word unquestioningly; but a trained Ancient History teacher, regardless of his religious affiliation, really should have realised that the New Testament contains reliable accounts of first-century life and customs.
The same 'forgetfulness' about Christianity extends beyond formal education to popular entertainment. The recent movie version of the classic Little Women managed to tell the story with all the Christian references removed-regardless of the fact that the book is based on Christian ideas and Christianity was a major part of the lives of the characters. The new Jane Eyre movie suffers from a similar extraction of Christian themes, which is quite remarkable considering the heroine's preoccupation with Christian ideas in the book. The same could be said of the modern version of Anne of Green Gables. There is no particular argument against Christianity; it is just left out, as if it was not important to the development of the story. The strength of the characters is appropriated by a modern, secular philosophy instead of giving credit to the Christianity that produced it.
Major intellectual force
Not surprisingly, Christians are feeling a frustration that the wealth of Christian thought and the importance of its message are being sidelined. The world needs to be reminded that Christianity is still here and is still a major intellectual force. The starting point must be with Christians - bringing together trained minds to think critically about their field of expertise and the public perceptions it fosters. The Christian thinkers are out there. There is a need for Christian minds to bring their ideas to the attention of more people.
In the ancient Athenian courts, the defendant made an apologia in reply to the charges against him. It was a reasoned case, answering the accusations and presenting a defence of his position. The word 'apologetics' has been part of Christianity from the early centuries, following this model. Christians reply to the accusations of the non-Christian world, defending their faith against charges of irrationality, lack of evidence, or whatever it might be.
This century has seen many fine contributions to apologetics, as well as much writing about it. Yet in all the debate about presuppositionalists and evidentialists, Van Tileans and Schaffearians and noetic effects, there is still something missing. It is all very well to defend the faith; but can't we do something more than defence? Where is the attack on and critique of the secular thinking that is pushing us out of modern intellectual life?
There is nothing wrong with defence; 1 Peter 3.15 tells us always to be prepared to give an answer to those who question what we believe. In a world where Chrisitanity is not attacked so much as ignored, however, we need a little more than that. We need to be a little more assertive. To extend a military metaphor, we need to come out of the bunker and mount a few attacks ourselves.
Precedent
There is some precedent for this in the literature on apologetics. It is similar to Francis Schaeffer's 'taking the lid off'-in other words, exposing the weaknesses of secular philosophies as a prelude to explaining the Christian alternative. This moves beyond apologia; it is more outward-looking, less on the defensive. In fact, the word apologia does not seem to encompass it. If apologia is the defence, what do we call the accusation - the accusation that we now want to level against the modern world?
It might be time to introduce into our vocabulary the word 'kategoria'. This is 'speaking against'. It is a word found in poets and historians of ancient Greece (even more than apologia, which is only used in a narrow legal sense) to describe the critical activity which apologia answers. This captures exactly the aims of a new publication from St. Matthias Press. kategoria consists of asking serious questions, uncovering the weak points of an argument or challenging misinformation. It goes beyond apologetics to critique our society, its philosophies and ideas.
It will not always be negative, but it will try to be 'critical' in the best sense of that word. Sometimes that might involve reminding ourselves and others of the solid defences we already have - the evidences, the arguments and replies that have formed part of traditional apologetics. It will also involve looking outwards critically at the philosophies of our society - a society which dismisses Christianity so blithely.
Need for application
Christians benefit from being involved in rigorous thought. When (for most of us) our education has been secular, it can take a considerable gear-shift to start thinking critically from a Christian point of view. Christians need to apply their Christian mind to their work. This means not merely realising that it is possible to be Christian and a scientist/ lawyer/teacher/doctor, but thinking critically about the current models of explanation used in these fields, and identifying where a secular philosophy has drawn conclusions which are not necessarily supported by the data. Having a Christian mind is more than just understanding current philosophies. It is having a little objectivity in assessing these philosophies and realising that they are not all necessarily true.
Such activities do not convert people. People are saved by the power of God revealed in the gospel of Christ, and intellectual critiques can never replace the power of preaching the gospel. To preach that gospel, however, is very difficult in a world where Christianity is not even given a hearing. In the long term, encouraging Christians to be more critical, and bringing Christianity back onto the public agenda, can only help evangelism. Talking about the gospel is that much easier when Christian concepts are already a part of everyday modern life. As far as the popular media is concerned at the moment, Christian concepts have been pushed out. If, however, Christians are thinking critically about their professional lives and the world, and taking part in the discussions of modern life from a Christian perspective, then we can create a foundation from which evangelism can build.
Christians have something worth saying to the modern world. Let's make public life a matter of critical discussion rather than passive acceptance.
Greg Clarke
The first issue of kategoria is available from St. Matthias Press, PO Box 665, London SW20 8RL, price £3.99 plus 40p p&p.
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