Christian Apologetics
by Cornelius Van Til
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Book Summary Information
Author: Cornelius Van TilEditor: William Edgar
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-01
ISBN: 0875525113
Number of pages: 206
Publisher: P & R Publishing
Book Reviews of Christian Apologetics
Book Review: "Christian Apologetics" Isn't
Summary: 2 Stars
The back cover of this book informs us that Cornelius Van Til is "the most important apologist of the twentieth century". Personally I'd never heard of him before seeing the book, but that's okay. I've never heard of a lot of the world's most important people. Two things should be noted by the prospective reader, however. First, "Christian Apologetics" is not a work of Christian apologetics. It is an introduction to Van Til's method of arguing for the faith. Second, Van Til says that Calvinism is the only biblical form of Christianity. This leads, not surprisingly, to a book very different what most would expect. It's difficult to take Calvinists seriously when there are barely any of them left.
Others have praised the book for being straightforward and accessible. This only goes to show, I suppose, that simplicity is relative. From my layman's perspective it's incredibly dense with complex theological concepts and philosophical terms. A true beginner would likely be totally lost by the end of the first chapter.
Said first chapter presents Van Til's version of the Christian worldview, such as it is. Much of the text is actually devoted to distinguishing his Calvinist theology from Catholic and Evangelical Protestant teachings. Hence the book is more likely to repel than stimulate many readers. Van Til's favorite practice is to hammer the sinfulness of man into the ground over and over. His main beef with the Catholic Church concerns the worth of human reason. He sees no possibility of successful human reason--or human anything--without the action of the divine. Needless to say, this involves a lot of careful navigation around biblical passages which do say that a certain amount of divine truth is implanted even in the hearts of the pagans. Van Til asserts that successful apologetics actually demand a complete denial of any common ground between believers and unbelievers. Instead, he insists that the only possible "point of contact" lies in recognition of the total depravity of human nature.
This, of course, is only the crudest outline of Van Til's book. I lack the knowledge to plunge into it more deeply. The important point, as I see it, is that Van Til's method is unlikely to win many converts outside of academic philosophy departments. His arguments are too opaque and too foreign to any modern reader to have much impact. Books like Miracles, Orthodoxy, or The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition (Plus) would work much better in that regard. "Christian Apologetics" is likely to explain much more about the failure of Calvinism than the success of Christianity.
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