Preliminary Thoughts
Trying
to figure out how to share the essential contents of the gospel of Christianity
in a way that a secularized culture can understand can be a daunting task to take
on. I remember in my military experience encountering different people who
vocalized different but similar perspectives on Christianity. Some would say,
‘Believing in Jesus is a nice thing and I’m happy for you’ to ‘How can you
believe a bunch of fairy tales?’. These two people both arrive at the same
conclusion (Christianity is not for me) but have different approaches for how
they arrive there. The first person who thinks that believing in Jesus is a
nice gesture but won’t commit himself to becoming a follower of Christ probably
harbors the notion that religious belief or commitment is more about sincerity,
heartfelt attitudes, or perhaps preferences. As long as a Christian is sincere
in what he believes, this person thinks, I have no beef with him being a
Christian. He might even think it’s alright if the Christian is a Christian
regardless of whether his beliefs are true because the unbeliever thinks that
sincerity and heartfelt attitudes matter more than truth or fact. He also might
think that whether you become a Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, or Christian is
really a matter of preference. If you like the Christian religion or the
other religions, then you are free to help yourself to any or mixture of those
religions. However if you do not like them, you don’t have to adhere to those
religions.
The second
guy might buy into the idea that Christians are welcome to believe what they
want if it gives them meaning, hope, and purpose for life but he won’t become
or even consider becoming a Christian because he does not think Christianity is
factually credible. It is ‘fairy tales’ that really lay at the heart of the
Christian faith. If people like Christianity because it helps them despite the
fact it is rooted in false beliefs (i.e. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead),
according to the skeptic, then they are welcome to it but do not try to convert
me because I care about fact, evidence, and logic, not faith. I have no doubt
that many of us have encountered at least two kinds of people. How do we
communicate to them successfully and remove their blinders that are blocking
them from seeing the gospel message of Christianity the way it actually is?
That’s what this book The Gospel in the Marketplace of Ideas is about.
The two
authors of this book are Paul Copan and Kenneth D. Litwak. Paul Copan is the
Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University
in Florida. He has written Is God a Moral Monster? And wrote An Introduction to Biblical
Ethics: 3rd Edition with Robertson McQuilkin. Kenneth D. Litwak
is currently adjunct professor of New Testament Studies at Azusa Pacific
University and Asbury Seminary. He is the author of Echoes of Scripture in
Luke-Acts: Telling the History of God’s People Intertextually.
Summary
There
are overall ten chapters in the book. Chapter one lays out the contents of each
chapter in summarized form. Chapter two interacts with an objection that Paul
failed at his attempt at Athens to reach the Gentiles and this is apparently
reflected in 1 Corinthians 2:2 where Paul said that he wanted to “know nothing
but Christ and him crucified”. Some even have pointed to Paul’s claim that he
did not preach with “excellence of speech” and human reasoning, but by the
power and Spirit of God (P. 21). Copan and Litwak masterfully explode the idea
that Paul rejected philosophical reasoning or thought in his ministry.
Chapter
three is concerned with the various backgrounds in Athens in their cultural,
philosophical, and religious affiliations and commitments. In chapter four
Copan and Litwak shift our focus of concern from the 1st century
A.D. to a kind of modern day Athens. This would involve “using Athens
and Athenians metaphorically to refer to people and their cultural,
religious, academic, political, philosophical, and social context in our own
world.” (P. 15). Chapter five deals with the particular focus, strategy, and
end goal Luke – the author of Acts - had in mind when he had recorded Paul’s
speech and incorporated it into his work of Acts. In chapter six, for the
group(s) of people who had a sympathetic ear to Paul’s speech, it is important
to understand their belief structures – religiously and philosophically – in
order to appreciate why they would have responded positively to Paul. Chapter
seven explores some of the different views Paul simultaneously held as a devout
Jew and committed Christian. Chapter eight “examines Paul’s approach to his
Athenian audience in detail so that we can see what principles or practices
Luke wants us to follow.” (Ibid.)
Finally
chapters nine and ten incorporate the necessary background for understanding
today’s Athens and applying the lessons we can learn from Paul’s situation to our
current situation in the American, secularized culture.
Taking
it all away
There
is a valuable insight I gleaned from this book that somewhat repeated itself
many times over. Namely, no beliefs can ever be understood as much as they
should be without examining the relevant historical, religious, political, and
philosophical contexts of that time period. Basically, I cannot understand or
appreciate a belief or teaching anywhere whether in the Gospels, Paul’s
letters, Plato’s Dialogues, Secular Humanist Manifesto, and so on without
understanding the different contexts they are or were situated in. In short,
beliefs are rarely formed in a vacuum. If I want to understand certain elements
of the Apostle Peter’s words of encouragement in his opening first letter, then
I need to somewhat have an understanding of what was happening during that time
period. Why would Christians need words of encouragement to persevere and not
give up if times were easy and convenient?
Ways to
Benefit Believers
I
declare that every Christian needs to read this book. I have not read any other
book that so clearly and systematically laid out the necessary and sufficient
groundwork for pre-evangelism and evangelism work. As Christian philosopher and
apologist William Lane Craig has often stated, “…the gospel is never heard in
isolation. It is always heard against the background of the cultural milieu in
which one lives.” (http://www.reasonablefaith.org/in-intellectual-neutral).
One
vital way this book can be of tremendous help to believers is by making them
realize the importance of understanding the viewpoints that dominate and
by-and-large control the public square. J.P. Moreland who famously wrote the
book Love Your God With All Your Mind said that one of the ways one
defeats fortresses (opposing views to Christianity) as mentioned in 2
Corinthians 10:4 is by arguing against them. Christians must understand
how the entire framework of naturalism, which is the view that only physical
entities are real and nonphysical entities – if they exist at all – are
determined to be what they are based on the physical structures of the
universe, penetrates all areas of thought and decisions in life.
This
book would be suitable for any college student who is going into any NON-stem
(Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) related field such as the
arts, literature, philosophy, history, archaeology, music, psychology, and so
on. I also think every pastor needs to read this book because it will greatly
benefit him in understanding how to integrate cultural issues with Christian
teaching and thinking so that his congregation can have something to reflect on
in their working situations. Overall this was an outstanding book.
