Evidential apologetics or evidentialism is an approach to
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity.
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in ...
emphasizing the use of
evidence to demonstrate that God exists. The evidence is supposed to be evidence both the believer and nonbeliever share, that is to say one need not presuppose
God's existence
The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorize ...
. Evidential apologetics is not necessarily evidentialism, however many associate them as the same. Evidential apologetics method looks at the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
's historical documents first, then upon to
Jesus' miracles in particular the
resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...
which evidentialists believe points to
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
as the
Son of God. Some of the top supporters of this method include
Gary Habermas
Gary Robert Habermas (born 1950) is an American New Testament scholar and theologian who frequently writes and lectures on the resurrection of Jesus. He has specialized in cataloging and communicating trends among scholars in the field of histo ...
,
John Warwick Montgomery
John Warwick Montgomery (born October 18, 1931) is a lawyer, professor, Lutheran theologian, and author living in France. He was born in Warsaw, New York, United States. From 2014 to 2017, he was Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at ...
,
Clark Pinnock
Clark H. Pinnock (February 3, 1937 – August 15, 2010) was a Christian theologian, apologist and author. He was Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College.
Education and career
Pinnock was born in Toronto, Ontar ...
, and
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Wolfhart Pannenberg (2 October 1928 – 4 September 2014) was a German Lutheran theologian. He made a number of significant contributions to modern theology, including his concept of history as a form of revelation centered on the resurre ...
.
See also
*
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) is a nonprofit, nondenominational Protestant apologetics ministry with an internet and radio outreach. It is involved in evangelism, including full-time support for several foreign missionar ...
*
Evidentialism
Evidentialism is a thesis in epistemology which states that one is justified to believe something if and only if that person has evidence which supports said belief. Evidentialism is, therefore, a thesis about which beliefs are justified and which ...
*
Presuppositional apologetics
Presuppositionalism is an epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the results of those presuppositions.
It claims that apart from ...
References
External links
* .
* http://coldcasechristianity.com/category/writings/evidence-writings/
Christian apologetics
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