Cultural Apologetics

Globally, the cultural apologist should be concerned with the collective mind-set, conscience, and imagination of the culture, including the people and institutions within the culture that shape this collective way of perceiving.

The tension that ensues resolves itself when the weak give voice to their plight, find solace, and discover meaning in the telling of their own stories. Humanity’s fundamental problem is oppression, and “salvation” is found through self- (or group) expression.

We, like Odysseus, must also face three jolting facts: we long for home, we are not home, and we can’t find our own way home.

Our lives, while ultimately insignificant, can at least be enjoyed along the way toward our meaningless mastery of the cosmos.

As agents of shalom, we are cultivators and creators of what is good, true, and beautiful. We experience joy in the midst of suffering, hope in the face of affliction, and peace in the shelter of the Almighty.

Our innate longing for meaning compels us toward a transcendent, while our longing for pleasure draws us to the mundane.

Christianity is good for two reasons. First, because it is true, and being rightly related to reality is a good thing. Second, Christianity is good for the world because you get Jesus, and when you get Jesus you get everything.

How might a Christian respond to Wielenberg? We can start by arguing that it is more plausible to think values and duties attach to persons rather than things, and in this, theism is rationally preferable to Platonic atheism. As I type I’m sitting on a chair. I don’t have any obligations to the chair. I don’t owe it to the chair to weigh less than

He powerfully demonstrates how technology is not neutral, and carried within it are the seeds of our own destruction as our loves and longings are redirected toward the petty and perverse.