Cultural Apologetics

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

As we narrate the story of our lives and embody habits that are motivated by misplaced desire, our character (de)forms, and our perception of the world changes. We become blind and foolish. Money, entertainment, excess, gluttony—the litany of vices and her spoils—blind us to goodness and beauty. This blindness and foolishness lead to the fourth cha

The Holy Spirit woos us through the beauty and imaginative stories depicted in these works of art. Ultimately this quest can only be satisfied with Jesus and the gospel. These stirrings in art and media provide a means of escape that is, according to J. R. R. Tolkien, heroic.16 They remind us of our homeland and invite us to embark on an epic journ

What began as the suppression of truth about God has led to, in the West at least, disenchantment. Emptied of transcendence, the human experience of the world fades to grey.

Some fourteenth century theologians didn’t like the idea of God being restricted by his own essence or the essence of things in the world. William of Ockham (1287–1347) argued that God can do whatever he wants. God’s power is absolute. Extreme versions of what is called voluntarism allow that God could command murder as morally right, make contradi

As rational animals, human beings naturally desire to know the truth about reality. As Aristotle puts it at the beginning of The Metaphysics, “All men by nature desire to know.”

In light of these local and global concerns, how can art, beauty, and the imagination help us point others to Jesus? Let me offer three practical suggestions.

Ockham argued for a view called nominalism. Nominalists reject belief in universals. There are no shareable essences in the world. Whatever traits chickens have in common can be explained without an appeal to universals. So too for every other creature in the world, including humans. They share things in “name” (nomen) only in virtue of the absolut

Finally, Paul confronted their rank idolatry. In Acts 17:29 Paul moved the discussion out of the familiar world of the Greeks and into a distinctively Christian view of reality.