The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics

Tim Keller once said, "The job of the missionary is to enter sympathetically the worldview/story of the culture yet challenge and re-tell the culture's story so they see their story will only have a happy ending in Jesus." This way of evangelism and apologetics has come to be known as cultural apologetics. Still, the concept has gone largely undefined in any formal sense. The Gospel after Christendom seeks to step into this conceptual gap. Gathering leading scholars and practitioners who serve as fellows at the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, this edited volume defines cultural apologetics, explains its biblical and historical grounding, and demonstrates how it is an important resource for the church today.

Cultural apologetics studies the cultural climate to seek out unique opportunities for the gospel to be proclaimed in compelling ways to meet and fulfill the lives and longings of a person with the truth, beauty, and goodness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church, inhabiting the culture and social imaginaries as well, is simultaneously edified and renewed by this sort of apologetic. The church that habituates cultural apologetics in its life, practice, and teaching will find itself offering an alternative culture and society to the one the people near it inhabit in their daily lives.

The Gospel after Christendom is a guide for Christians, churches, and leaders who desire to create these missionary encounters and see hearts transformed by the power of the gospel entering hearts and minds through the practice of cultural apologetics.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: We Need Cultural Climatologists - Collin Hansen

Part I: What Is Cultural Apologetics?

1. A Tool for Evangelism - Trevin Wax

2. A Biblical Vision - Chris Watkin

3. A Framework for Retrieval - Joshua D. Chatraw

Part II: How Is Cultural Apologetics Done?

4. The Posture: Neither Accommodating nor Condemning - Alan Noble

5. The Missiology: Subversively Fulfilling the Social Imagination - Dan Strange

6. The Goal: Healing Hard Hearts and Dark Minds - N. Gray Sutanto

7. The Approach: Exposing Unbelief as Unlivable - Gavin Ortlund

Part III: What Questions Does Cultural Apologetics Answer?

8. Is Christianity Good? - Rebecca McLaughlin

9. Is Christianity Beautiful? - Rachel Gilson

10. Is Christianity True? - Derek Rishmawy

Part IV: Where Does Cultural Apologetics Happen?

11. The Church: A Witness to the World - Bob Thune

12. Front Porches: Why We Still Need Them - James Eglinton

13. Everyday Life: The Cultural Texts We Live By - Sam Chan

Conclusion: The Narrow Road to Eternal Life - Collin Hansen