Are There UnEducated, Poor Christian Apologists?

[WinePusher]

Yes! I can think of one right now, Lee Strobel. I was listening to him at Saddleback Church and I was baffled by his lack of scientific, historical and philosophical knowledge.
Another person would be Matt Slick, the person who runs the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry website.

So, what makes a good christian apologist?

I think that a good christian apologist is someone who can pull information from fields of study other than theology and biblical studies. I'm always impressed with christians who can cite history, science, and literature to support their arguments, rather than just using the same old appeal to scripture.

Here's a great quote on the definition of apologetics:

"The job of apologetics is janitorial work, its role is to clear away the brush and hedges blinding people from seeing the cross and to remove every objection so that the person's only reason for saying no to God is 'I will not'."

[otseng]

Actually, I like Lee Strobel. I particularly liked his show Faith Under Fire where he allowed Christians and non-Christians to debate. And he tried to keep it civil and balanced. Too bad it didn't last very long though.

Since Strobel is a journalist, I don't expect him to be strong in the sciences or philosophy. His book style is simply interviewing people, which is pretty much expected for a journalist. And in terms of the reach of books, his books probably has the most influence out of any of the apologetics books out there.

I see his audience as mainly towards the general population. So, I don't expect him to be very effective with specific groups (like scientists, historians, philosophers). For specific groups, it's better to look elsewhere for effective apologists.

I also think he is a very good speaker. He does a better job than many others in keeping me interested in what he has to say.

[Jester]

I can't think of one that I'd consider bad, and probably would have forgotten him/her if I'd ever reached that conclusion about an apologist.

However, I did want to plug my personal favorite theologian, who has done some apologetic work as well, Tim Keller. His understanding of scripture is brilliant, and is very useful material for contradicting New Atheist ideas about what Christians believe.