The No-Nonsense Way to Maintain Your Religious Convictions

For the Christian believer, there are inevitable periods of loneliness, questioning, and distance from God. We may be able to repeat the promises of God to anyone who inquires, but there is a profound difference between the intellectual knowledge of a thing and its immediate emotional force. Latin has a helpful dichotomy of two words relating to knowledge which illustrates this duality. Ratio (root of “rational” in English) was reserved for the actual knowledge of the thing, the logical discussion surrounding it. Intellectus conveyed the contemplation of the thing; the intuitive almost emotional awareness of its truth. A proper combination of both is required for a fulfilled Christian life.

There are many reasons why people go through these seasons of dryness in their spiritual lives, but it’s increasingly common among college students, who are experiencing a lack of understanding of the truth claims of Christianity: a lack of ratio. If I am supposed to center my life on the transformative power of Christianity, I better be certain of its veracity. Providing this intellectual foundation is the function of Christian apologetics. From the Greek word Apologia meaning “to give a defense” this word describes the project of rationally defending doctrines of the faith, the historicity of the Bible accounts, and the philosophical coherence of the worldview as a whole.

If a college freshman walks into a Philosophy 101 course and is accosted with the claim that some aspect of Christianity is self-contradictory, he will justifiably be concerned. God created us as rational being who have the capacity to converse with God. “Come let us reason together” we are told in the Isaiah. Yet, what recourse does the Christian community provide to this troubled freshman? All too often he is told by his that he needs to pray harder and read his Bible more.

For the intellectually curious, this is one of the most destructive recommendations to offer. The questions of the mind are not solved by devotions any more than our physical hunger is satisfied by reading a cookbook. Apologetics undertakes the task of hearing each objection at its strongest and providing a rational answer to the difficulty. There are encouraging trends on some college campuses like the proliferation of chapters of the apologetics organization Ratio Christi. These groups get students together to wrestle with deep questions with believers and non-believers so that they can investigate the truth claims of Christianity in a safe environment. However, much more is needed in the wider Christian culture.

If you are a Christian, next time you feel spiritually distant, ask yourself if you are truly convinced of the promises of God. You may know the doctrines, but if you lack the intellectual support of the evidence, arguments, and historical data, you will have a hard time transferring your loose awareness of the power of Christ into the immediate conviction of the validity of your faith. If a God cannot handle difficult questions, he is utterly unworthy of your devotion. The joyous truth is that there is one who can.