Jesus: Philosopher and Apologist
January 12th, 2005 | 09:55 PM |(5 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 2 hours, 31 minutes ago)
Justin Taylor of Beyond Two Worlds has pointed out another excellent article on Jesus’ use of logic. Jesus: Philosopher and Apologist (a PDF file) by Douglas Groothuis details what kind of logic and evidence Jesus used to silence his critics. Here are some excerpts:
I had to face the question of whether Jesus was a philosopher and apologist head-on when I was asked to write a book on Jesus for the Wadsworth Philosophers Series. I already knew that Jesus articulated a developed worldview and reasoned brilliantly with His opponents. As I studied the subject carefully, however, I came to appreciate Jesus, the philosopher, more than ever. When Jesus defended the crucial claims of Christianity — He was its founder, after all — He was engaging in apologetics, often with the best minds of first-century Judaism.
When we inspect Jesus’ mind in action in several familiar stories from the Gospels, we see that His thinking was sharp, clear, and cogent. Not only should we believe what He taught because He is our divine Master, but through hard work, prayer, and reliance on the Holy Spirit, we should also strive to emulate His intellectual virtues because we are called to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).
Highly recommended!
