A History of Apologetics

Rating:
Summary: Classic Survey of Apologetics
Review: This is the classic text on the broad sweep of apologetics. Dulles begins with apologetic motifs in the NT, then continues on to the patristic era, rich in apologetics classics.

Each section in ended with the author's concluding analysis. He then moves to the middle ages which focused primarily on Aquinas. Then to the Reformation era, 16-18th. Ends with a chapter each on the 19th and 20th centuries.

I appreciate his splitting his historical sweep beginning with the 16th C. forward into Catholic and Protestant. Lacking in my mind is the apologists of my era, the Craig's, Geisler's,Montgomery's, etc., but I didn't really buy nor use this to get a historical fix on them. What Dulles provides so succinctly in this work is so useful to gaining an overall timeframe on the apologetic topic.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Excursion
Review: With luxuriating readability and marvelous conciseness, Cardinal Dulles offers a splendid excursion through Christian Apologetics. From Paul and Augustine to men and women of the middle twentieth century, the reader becomes familiar with all the high points of religious and philosophic argumentation. For people interested in religious inquiry, this volume becomes the ultimate study guide from which to delve more deeply into the original texts. This is not "hardpan" reading, it is as smooth as silk.