In Christian Apologetics and Philosophy: An Introduction, Paul Herrick presents the basics of classical Christian apologetics in the form of an inference to the best explanation argument that builds from the book’s first chapter to its last. Drawing on contemporary philosophy, logic, and biblical scholarship, Herrick incorporates thoughts from Socrates, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, and C. S. Lewis, as well as scholars such as William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Richard Swinburne, and Craig Blomberg, to present a multifaceted argument for the Christian faith.
Justin Martyr’s conversion to Christianity is a model of how Christian apologetics can work. The process had four parts:
- Dissatisfaction with an existing philosophy of life
- Rational challenge
- Consideration of logical arguments
- Following reason to where it points, aided perhaps by spiritual preparation, help from others, prayer, and God’s grace
Before he became a Christian, Justin spent years studying Greek philosophy. Initially, he concluded that Plato’s philosophy comes closest to the truth. Plato and his teacher Socrates both stated deep philosophical arguments for the existence of God or a supreme being. Indeed, Socrates, Plato, and Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle (384–322 BC), all argued that reason, when followed with an open mind and an open heart, points the soul toward a supreme deity who is the source of all things. Philosophy, as they taught the subject, is an ascent of the mind, heart, and soul toward God. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were all monotheists.
Justin agreed with Plato’s monotheism, but at some point in his life, he came to believe that Plato had left something out—the final stage, a personal and lived relationship with God. Consequently, he was still searching when he came across an old man near the seashore. The man was a Christian who challenged him to investigate the logical evidence for Christianity. Justin took up the challenge and with an open mind examined the apologetical arguments of the day—carefully, in the manner of a philosopher. After study accompanied by prayer, he became convinced that reason, when followed sincerely to its logical conclusion, points not just to God but to God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Reason, in short, leads the inquiring mind toward the Christian faith. His conversion followed.
But after becoming a Christian, Justin did not give up philosophy. He moved to Rome, put on the purple robe of the philosopher, and opened a school of Christian philosophy where he and his students studied the works of Plato and the books of the New Testament, seeking to harmonize Plato’s philosophy and the central tenets of the Christian faith, including the amazing claim that Jesus was the uniquely divine Son of God who entered into human history, died for our sake, and was miraculously raised from the dead. Justin was the first Christian Platonist (one who seeks to harmonize Christianity with the central tenets of Plato’s philosophy).
The list of Christian Platonists is long and includes most of the Church Fathers and many great philosophers such as Saint Augustine, Saint Bonaventure, Richard of Saint Victor, and the most famous Christian apologist of the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis, who began his career at Oxford university teaching philosophical classics. When Lewis began working on his doctorate at Oxford in 1924, the subject he chose was the philosophy of Plato as expressed in the work of the great Cambridge Plato scholar Henry More (1614–87). Plato was Lewis’s favorite pagan philosopher.
So, there is no inherent conflict between philosophy and Christianity. Christian apologists from Justin Martyr in the first century to C. S. Lewis in the twentieth have employed the methodology found in philosophy to argue for their faith, namely, carefully reasoned arguments on fundamental matters, combined with the courage and spiritual strength to follow reason to where it points. Indeed, most of the historically significant philosophers in the Western tradition over the past two thousand years have been believing Christians.
(excerpted from chapter 1)