Dr William Edgar
Speaker and Author
The Art of Persuasion
Overview
World events appear to give credence to the connection of religion and violence. On a fairly visceral level, thinkers like Richard Dawkins assert that religious certainty always leads to war. At a deeper level, Samuel Huntington has proposed that after the Cold War, civilizations, many of them religiously based, will clash with one another. Various postmodernists claim that meta-narratives necessarily lead to coercion, even to a “final solution.” Is there any truth to these assertions? Christian persuasion is utterly unlike coercion. Everything hinges on the difference.
Outline
1. Religion, coercion and persuasion
1.1 Richard Dawkins against religion
1.2 The Huntington - Saïd debate
1.3 The claims of the postmodern condition.
1.3.1 Did metanarratives give us Auschwitz?
1.3.2 Does careless talk cost lives?
1.3.3 Emotive speech, a shared malady
1.3.4 The real word “coercion,” propaganda vs truth
2. In such a context, apologetics has been questioned
2.1 On the non-evangelical side, there is Karl Barth
2.2 On the evangelical side, there is a fear of the intellect, of argument, etc
2.3 Back to the Father Apologists
3. We must reconsider, though, at several levels
3.1 The sovereignty of God, his judgments, are always interfaced with integrity, free agency
3.2 We’re in the time of God’s patience
3.3 Consider the eschatological nature of apologetics
3.4 Non-manipulative, persuasive speech
3.5 It’s not a postmodern salad bowl, but a world against God. John 16:8. The gospel seeks to persuade of the realities: sin, righteousness and judgment. Apologetics is about God!
4. The “transcendental” approach
4.1 We (individually, socially, culturally) know God, but process the knowledge wrong
4.2 Disclosure
4.3 Homecoming
Suggested Reading
Peter L. Berger & Samuel P. Huntington: Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World, Oxford: Oxford U. P., 2002
David J. Bosch: Believing in the Future, Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1995
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene, Oxford, Oxford U. P., 1989
José Casanova: Public Religion in the Modern World, Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 1994
William Edgar: Reasons of the Heart, Grand Rapids: Baker/Hourglass, 1996
Os Guinness: Time for Truth, Grand Rapids: Baker/Hourglass, 2000
Samuel Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996
Roger Lundin: The Culture of Interpretation: Christian Faith and the Postmodern World, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993
David Lyon: Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000
Jean-François Lyotard: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota P., 1983
Mahmood Mamdani: Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War and the Roots of Terror, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004
David Martin: Does Christianity Cause War? Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997
Edward W. Saïd: “The Clash of Definitions,” In Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 569-590
Amartya Sen: Reason Before Identity, Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1999
© Dr William Edgar 2005
