First Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Temptation of Jesus Lectionary:  22 Reading 1 -  Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Reading 2 -  Romans 5:12-19 Verse - Matthew 4:4b Gospel -  Matthew 4:1-11 One does not live on bread alone. Every year, we begin our Lenten journey in the same place: the desert.   The Gospel for this Sunday places Jesus in the wilderness, fasting and praying, confronted by temptation. In that stark setting we find the pattern of our own Lenten journey: a movement away from distraction toward the heart of God, a testing that reveals what truly sustains us, and a call to conversion that reshapes our lives.  Throughout our lives, we are frequently confronted with tests … and these tests generally reveal something about ourselves: In school, we demonstrate that we have mastered an academic subject with a test  in sports, we demonstrate our level of a particular skill with a contest  In life, we demonstrate the integri...
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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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