There is, interestingly, no office of “apologist” in the New Testament. Paul tells that God’s “gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Eph 4:11-12), but no mention of apologists. Of course, Paul also has no mention of janitors, lawyers and IT guys building up the body of Christ (which they emphatically do), so the silence does not imply rejection but priorities. All human gifts can be exercised to the glory of God, but we should relate them to the gifts he specifically mentions in his inspired word so that they are rightly ordered to the Spirit-guided mission of the Church.
When we do that for apologists, we discover that apologetics is supposed to be the handmaid, not the Master, of evangelism. Evangelism is the proclamation of the Good News. If you proclaim the Good News and people respond, “Sounds good! Tell me more!” then apologetics is not necessary. It is only when somebody’s reason cavils at the gospel that apologetics becomes necessary to explain why the gospel, while it may transcend reason, never truly contradicts reason. In short, apologetics is about clearing away roadblocks to faith, but it cannot induce faith. Only the Holy Spirit can give that gift. And if you replace evangelization with apologetics, you wind up with a belligerent subculture (typically of young unmarried men) spoiling for a fight and starting conversation (as the meme below does) with “You probably think I’m a superstitious moron who hates Science, don’t you? DON’T YOU?” For some reason, people are turned off by that kind of defensive aggression that presumes the worst about them.
And it’s even more offensive when it get its target abysmally wrong, like this does:
Ok. Just to get the trivia out of the way.
Here’s the deal: This meme is 20 years out of date. Sure, you used to hear the antique 19th century “Science vs. Religious Superstition” stuff decades ago when Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris were busy capitalizing on 9/11 to say that all religion everywhere was nothing but anti-science idiocy. Catholics were well-employed responding to this kind of warmed-over late 19th century stuff (that was itself warmed-over 16th century Protestant stuff). The whole “Catholics hate science” thing was a popular trope. As was the equally popular “Liberals hate Catholics” trope.
But look around now. It’s the conservative Christian Podbro who hates science–and lots of them are Catholic fundamentalists with more in common with Evangelical ignorami than with the Magisterium of the Church. In short, it’s Catholic Traditionalist Theobros broadcasting from Mom’s basement, not liberals, who are at war with the Church for accepting evolution, promoting vaccination, and teaching that the sun is the center of the solar system.
Liberals, by and large, are becoming much more accepting of the Church’s role in the development of the sciences and are far more interested in her encouragement of scientific sanity in the present hour because they understand that the real threat is conservative MAGA Christian morons, Protestant and Catholic, battling to destroy our science infrastructure and spread kookery and lies about everything from climate change to COVID.
The podcaster in the fourth panel is not some mocking atheist. It is MAGA Catholic bigot and ignoramus Matt Walsh, spitting on the Magisterium for discussing climate justice and acknowledging the science that climate change is real. Meanwhile, atheists are celebrating the pope for telling the truth and appreciating him for being an ally on the side of the human race.
Advertisement
