The Complete Apologist
Four Essentials Every Christian Is Called to Embrace
by Donald T. Williams
American conservative Christians are not as biblical as we think we are. While we are clearly commanded always to be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that is within us (1 Pet. 3:15), vast swaths of us think it is somehow unspiritual to obey this biblical commandment. While we now have an Apologetics Industrial Complex with enough interested consumers to keep it in business, it has virtually no influence on the rank and file in the pews, the conduct of life in the church, or the practice of evangelism outside the closed circle of apologetics nerds. Therefore, we need some theses on this critical and essential but much misunderstood branch of Christian theology and ministry.
I. Full Readiness
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
subscription options
Order
Print/Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Order
Online Only
Subscription
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on apologetics from the online archives
33.3—May/June 2020
On Flight & Fight in the Present Tribulation by Douglas Farrow
31.4—July/August 2018
The Difficulty of Apologetics for Dead Souls in the Real World by R. J. Snell
31.2—March/April 2018
How Best to Face the Total War of the Anti-Culture by R. J. Snell
more from the online archives
36.4—Jul/Aug 2023
Our Political Void & the Disintegration of Truth by Michael Hanby
25.4—July/August 2012
The Corrosive & Far-Reaching Fallout of the Sexual Revolution by Anthony Esolen
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
