EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Paul M. Gould
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019
240 pages
USD $22.99
Reviewed by Jerry M. Ireland (PhD, Theology and Apologetics, Liberty University), Department Chair for Ministry Leadership and Theology at the University of Valley Forge (Phoenixville, PA).
The task of apologetics has had a rough go lately. On one side critics decry evidential apologetics as hopelessly aimed at “proving” the claims of Christianity and thereby think apologists should focus on acts of compassion and beauty (see for example Imaginative Apologetics edited by Andrew Davidson). Others see apologetics as a relic of modernity, hopelessly “proclaiming truth” to those who no longer believe such a thing exists.
Paul Gould’s Cultural Apologetics therefore appears as a welcome voice in this mixed and confusing environment. His approach neither denigrates evidence nor suggests that the evidence always answer the questions people are asking. Rather Gould, thoughtfully integrates into his work the cultural analysis of James K. A. Smith and the apologetic approach of C. S. Lewis in producing a hybridized apologetic method that is both rich and relevant. “I define cultural apologetics as the work of establishing the Christian voice, conscience, and imagination within a culture so that Christianity is seen as true and satisfying” (21). Re-enchantment for Gould amounts to reawakening human desire for goodness, truth, and beauty and “redirecting them to their proper end” (65).
The real strength in Gould’s work is that it overcomes the often-accurate portrayal of apologetics as grounded in the false assumption that the unconvinced merely need more data. While upholding the value of reasoned defenses, Gould also proposes that apologetics must not just “go” – in a missiological sense, but also “go deep,” thus “penetrating into the social and ideational structures of culture” that cause resistance to the gospel story (167).
Gould provides a valuable resource for both seasoned students of apologetics and for beginners and would make a welcome addition to any college or seminary course on the topic. Its relevance is grounded in its multi-layered approach – an approach that takes as its starting point the multi-dimensional nature of contemporary ambivalence and resistance to the gospel. This book is the sort one will want to read, and then read again. It is not so much an apologetic answer book (and thank God for that!), but rather successfully articulates an apologetic method that is at home in twenty-first century Western culture.
