Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: Mere Apologetics: How To Help Seekers And Skeptics Find Faith

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Mere Apologetics: How To Help Seekers And Skeptics Find Faith Mere Apologetics: How To Help Seekers And Skeptics Find Faith by Alister E. McGrath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Book: ****
Performance: ****

An Excellent Discussion About Christian Apologetics

This was a very accessible book on what apologetics is, and more importantly how and with whom apologetics can be used (ref: Ch 2 & 4). The fact that the author identifies limitations to apologetics when used by itself was a new take for me and was a welcome addition to the discussion (ref: Ch 1 & 3) where we look at the need to combine this with evangelism. After that we get more of the traditional aspects and arguments of apologetics without much new (Ch 5 & 6), and this is the primary reason I didn’t give this a perfect score. That means this is more useful when addressing folks that are already believers, or at the very least open to belief. Finally, Chapter 7 provides four (4) methods for applying apologetics that was very helpful before it ends with basic challenges (questions) to faith in chapter 8 that were, once again, fairly standard in addressing suffering etc. Overall it was a solid effort with chapters 2, 4, and 7 making the whole worth the effort.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

1. Getting Started (29:56)
2. Apologetics and Contemporary Culture (27:25)
3. The Theological Basis of Apologetics (34:13)
4. The Importance of the Audience (31:13)
5. The Reasonableness of the Christian Faith (44:45)
6. Pointers to Faith [8 Clues] (76:17)
7. [4] Gateways for Apologetics (67:00)
8. Questions about Faith [2 Case Studies] (49:42)
9. Conclusion (8:53)

#MereApologetics #AudiblePlus

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