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At the turn of every year, the famous, extensive and academic Gifford Lectures are given in Glascow, Scottland. At the turn of the 2nd millenium, these lectures will be given by renowned Christian philosopher Ralph McInerny, on the subject of apologetics and conversion! McInerny' s lectures will be published in two books. The title of his lectures is: The Preambule of Faith.
At least during the first quarter of the 20th century, an apologetic movement flourished in France, mainly as a result of pope Leo XIII' s encyclical Aeterni Patris (see also below, encyclical of pope JP2). One of the many produces of the revival was a huge dictionary of apologetics (in French), edited by Adhémar d'Ales in four (and later five) volumes, from 1915 to 1922. The dictionary was a success, and was reedited, revised and expanded a few times during the following years.
The French Catholic apologetics has long died out (more on this in the paper "Apologetics Schools in the 20th Century" on this site), but apologetics is now thriving in America, especially among the Baptists. "Master Apologist" Norman L. Geisler has written about 50 books, both academic and popular, covering many apologetic issues and is the president of an apologetics seminary he has founded. He has entirely written himself the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics and has given thereby produced what represents the culmination of American apologetics at the end of the 20th century. We are very pleased to sell this brand new encyclopedia at our shop, in the shelves "Hot of the press", year 1999.
This forum hosted by Leadership University will take place in Atlanta and feature the following scholars:
The forum will begin by a lecture of Zacharias, then all will engage in a exciting debate! The forum can be attended with real audio or real video. Learn more on this at Leadership University.
C. S. Lewis, through his many popular apologetics writings, contributed very much to sustaining Christianity in the English-speaking world. Not only did he defend Christianity, but he also brought Christians from various churches towards unity by emphazing the fundamental beliefs and practices of orthodox Christianity. Many celebrations and exhibitions are being organized in many countries throughout the world for his 100th birthday.
At the end of the 19th century, in 1879, confronted with a growing secularization, pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Aeterni Patris, a plea for a return to the realist and theistic philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas and for its use as a solid apologetic foundation for defending Christianity. He succeeded in launching a strong philosophical and apologetics movement, especially in France.This movement committed however a suicide when many Belgium and French theologians chose to prefer the "modern" views of Kant: it ended up in a philosophical relativism that could find an opening through the Vatican II council. In the years after the council, a wave of Marxism and postmodernism lead to the violent student revolt of may 1968 and to a sudden dechristianization, from which Western Europe has not recovered yet. (more on this in the onsite paper "Apologetics Schools in the 20th Century".)
For his twentieth year of papacy, more than hundred years after Aeterni Patris, pope John Paul II is delivering his major public contribution to the problem of dechristianization, with a plea against relativism and for return to the rational basis of Christianity in his encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). Our foundation was officially created on October 13th, and we were happily surprised to hear about the encyclical the day after! The encyclical can be downloaded at EWTN (faster and with bookmarks and bilingual titles) or at the Vatican (nice background and layout.)
Organized by the protestant evangelical organization Personal Freedom Outreach, this apologetics conference had a special emphasis on cults. Information for ordering the tapes of the lectures can be found here.
A famous debate between Christian philosopher and theologican William L. Craig, and atheist Oxford physicist Peter W. Atkins. The debate is particulary interesting because the positivist ideas of Atkins (who thinks that natural science is all there is) are very typical of the 20th century. The debate can be attended via real-audio or real-video at Leadership University.
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© 1998 Stichting Europese Apologetiek (Foundation European Apologetics)
Page created: Jan. 18, 1999
Last modified: Jan 30, 1999