Book Review: The Fernandes Guide to Apologetic Methodologies by Phil Fernandes

Very often when a Christian begins to share the gospel with others, he or she encounters objections to essential Christian beliefs. Naturally, a desire to defend the truth of Christianity takes root in the Christian, and the journey of becoming and growing as an apologist begins.

What often goes unquestioned, however, is how the Christian should go about defending Christianity. With so many apologetics resources available, it is very easy for one to piece together his or her own apologetic without first considering the foundations for a coherent apologetic methodology that remains faithful to scripture. (Put simply, an apologetic methodology is a systematized and well thought out way of defending Christianity.) This is where The Fernandes Guide to Apologetic Methodologies is helpful. Dr. Phil Fernandes seeks to provide a concise summary of the various approaches and methodologies for defending Christianity. He is very attune to the features and differences of thought that distinguish various ways of doing apologetics, and steers clear of the oversimplification that often takes place in classifying apologetic methodologies.

Classifying Apologetic Methodologies

From the beginning, Dr. Fernandes suggests a new approach for classifying apologetic methodologies. He states, “[S]ince there is so much diversity in classifying apologetic methodologies, it is probably best to discuss each apologist as an individual and then detail the different approaches or evidences he uses.” This is precisely what Dr. Fernandes does. After first establishing the basis for apologetics, its need, and surveying various notable and influential apologists in church history, Dr. Fernandes details and analyzes the apologetic methodologies of many well known apologists in our time. In doing so, he utilizes a classification of seven broad apologetic ‘approaches,’ containing seventeen distinct apologetic ‘methodologies.’ They are as follows:

1. Traditional Apologetics – arguing to God.
   • Classical Apologetics – a two-step approach of giving arguments for God’s existence and providing historical evidences for Christianity. Notable apologists: Stuart Hackett, Norman Geisler, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland.
   • Evidentialism or Historical Apologetics – focusing on historical evidences for Christianity. Notable apologists: Josh McDowell, Gary Habermas, and John Warwick Montgomery
   • Cumulative Case – using numerous and various arguments in order to build the probability of Christianity. Notable apologist: Paul Feinberg.
   • Combinatinalism – combining various apologetic apologetic methodologies to give a better defense of Christianity. Notable apologist: Edward J. Carnell.
   • Scientific Apologetics – utilizing scientific evidences to give proof of a personal God, often arguing against evolution. Notable apologists: Henry Morris (young earth creationist), Hugh Ross (old-earth creationist), and Francis Collins (theistic evolutionist).
   • Testimonial Apologetics – using evidence of changed lives to persuade others of the truth of Christianity. Notable apologists: Michael Brown, Josh McDowell, and Barry Leventhal.
   • Psychological Apologetics – looking at the psychological make-up of man to argue for the truth of Christianity. Notable apologists: Blaise Pascal and Soren Kierkegaard.
   • Dialogical Apologetics – a person-centered approach to apologetics that seeks to use the arguments that work best for specific individuals. A hybrid between cumulative case and combinationalism. Notable apologist: David Clark
   • Cultural Apologetics – defending Christianity by showing its positive effects on culture. Notable apologists: C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer.
2. Presuppositional Apologetics – arguing from God.
   • Transcendental Presuppositionalism – presupposing the God of scripture, and arguing that God is the necessary precondition for all thought, morality, and meaning. Notable apologists: Cornelius Van Til and Greg Bahnsen.
   • Dogmatic Presuppositionalism – dogmatically presupposing the God of scripture and deducing all other knowledge from that starting point. Notable apologist: Gordon Clark.
   • Scripturalism – holding that truth can only be found in the Bible and what can be deduced from it. Notable apologist: Gordon Clark.
3. Verificationalism – arguing from God while maintaining Christian presuppositions as hypotheses to be tested. Notable apologists: Francis Schaeffer and John Frame.
4. Basic Belief Apologetics – maintaining belief in God as properly basic, holding that Christians may be justified in their belief without evidence. Notable apologist: Alvin Plantinga.
5. Comparative Religious Apologetics – refuting alternative religions and belief systems by comparing them against Christianity. Notable apologist: Walter Martin.
6. Narrative Apologetics – defense through story-telling. Notable apologists: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and John Bunyan.
7. Paranormal Apologetics – offering a Christian explanation for paranormal reports and encounters. Notable apologists: Chris Putman and Edmond Gruss.

The Fernandes Guide to Apologetic Methodologies is a great resource for the budding apologist who wishes to survey and gain bird’s eye view of the Christian apologetics landscape. Readers will most definitely gain insight to the various apologetic approaches and methodologies, and possibly discover new ways of defending the faith. I believe Dr. Fernandes is correct in stating that the classification of apologetic methodologies is all too often oversimplified. Moreover, certain unique ways of defending the faith often go unnoticed as being distinguishable ways of doing apologetics. For example, comparative religious, narrative, and paranormal apologetics. To neglect these would be to overlook the work of effective apologists, such as Walter Martin, and to forget also that Christianity needs to be defended in the realms of the imagination and the paranormal. Dr. Fernandes is correct to say that Christians must not neglect to provide answers in these areas, nor cede ground to non-Christian belief systems.

In all, Dr. Fernandes provides us with an excellent method for classifying apologetic methodologies. That is, by apologist. He carefully considers the apologetic of various individual apologists, chapter by chapter. In doing so, he is able to fully appreciate and classify each apologist that he surveys, and he successfully avoids misclassifying or oversimplifying the thought and work of each. The only qualm that I could mention is that Dr. Fernandes sometimes provides more criticism or adulation to the work of one apologist or another, and where he stands on the apologetics spectrum is easily discernible. However, if one is looking for a concise summary and classification of the work of many of the most well-known Christian apologists, he or she need look no further than this book.