Linguistically, when today's modern person hears "Apologetics," they either don't know what this is, or they think it's like an "apology" in which a Christian "apologizes" for having a lot of "dumb" beliefs in irrational things like God as a big white man up in heaven on a throne, to whom we plead for indulgences. Ms. Ordway has written a concise, useful, and insightful book about apologetics, and its strongest aspects lie in her focus on language. She not only explains that we live in a post-Christian society (bad enough) but that we live in a society in which the non-believers need to "unlearn" what they "know" about Christianity including about important concepts such as faith, the Trinity, and (last but not least) the person of Jesus Christ himself before they can a) understand what Christianity is really all about, and/or b) come to believe. Our linguistic concepts and symbols, simply put, have gotten in the way of our path to understanding.
Her recommended strategy (a bit implicit in the book) is to begin at first principles, what a smarty pants person would call "epistemology" and "ontology," and what a practical lay person might say in an over-a-cup-of-coffee conversation with a friend and non-believer, namely: "Let's first attempt to define some basic concepts such as God, faith, reason, reality, proof, etc., so we have some 'common ground' to have a more fruitful conversation about religion vs. science vs. atheism or perhaps religion AND science AND atheism." Once a person thinks deeply and realizes that he or she might not really have a clear definition of what the word "God" means, or what the word "evidence" means, or even what the word "tea" means... that might open the door to a more fruitful conversation. Secondarily and very importantly, she points out that we as believers should approach others with a humility of heart and mind, being respectful of our shared experience as humans who struggle to find the Way as opposed to "arguing" our path to "victory" against atheists and others. (In this regard, she emphasizes the use of imaginative literature as one pathway of Apologetics that might be more fruitful than the "logical" or "argumentative" path).
She also points out that really it is the Holy Spirit that moves a non-believer to begin the journey to faith (not "rational" arguments), and that the best "arguments" by another person can only act as supplements to that mystical experience that propels a person to begin to believe. Having an open mind and heart to faith is the first mystical step towards believing, and everything that comes after depends on that first important step. To that end, those of us who do believe would do well to help people "see" that they have sloppy and/or erroneous concepts as to what constitutes "proof," "evidence," "science," "God," and "belief" among others... as a first step towards having a fruitful conversation about our faith with others. We are all God's children, she seems to argue, and as such are owed a respect of our diversity and differences, even if we shall never come to a full and complete agreement on any topic, not the least of which God and/or Jesus.
Perhaps we could start the conversation by Googling 'The Treachery of Images' by Rene Magritte... and pondering for just a moment, "What is a pipe?" to see that that by which we call "pipe" has many reflections in "reality." She does this masterfully with a discussion of the word "tea" and learning that it was only on a real trip to England did she begin to understand what "tea" really was. There's the "tea" you get at 7-Eleven and there's the "tea" you get at High Tea in England, and they aren't exactly the same thing! (I should know, I am very passionate about "tea.").
Those of us who are Christians, already, might do well to ponder 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Or those who love the Greeks, to paraphrase Socrates, we should know enough to know how little we truly know...
I am rambling on here, because I am a busy guy... and, as Mark Twain said, if "I had had more time, I would have written a shorter novel." Suffice it to say if you are interested in apologetics, in language, and in how art (especially but not only literature) can help you be a better "apologist" for Christ... this book comes highly recommended. It is a path forward out of fruitless arguments with atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers who hunger for the Truth yet are so blind as to not realize just how blind they actually are. (Just don't tell them that, yet ;-)).
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