Well, it seems that I’m the Intellectuelle who breaks away from the C.S. Lewis tradition! My involvement in apologetics began after I was married and had my 3 kids, but before I began my educational pursuits. When pregnant with my 3rd son, I found myself in a crisis of faith. The fundamental question for me was “Why am I a Christian and not a _______?” You can fill in the blank with Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, or anything else. I just wanted to know why, but at a more foundational level -- and I didn’t start with any light reading either! I dove into books like J.P. Moreland’s “Love Your God with All Your Mind” and Norman Geisler’s “Christian Apologetics.” I spent a couple of years trying to figure out how I was going to teach other Christians how to make, for example, the cosmological argument for the existence of God. Enter Cornelius Van Til.
In an AOL chat room I met someone who challenged my preferred apologetic method by asking me some very basic questions about how I know God, how I know something to be true, and why I was engaging non-Christians in a way that assumed the possibility of neutrality – an objective place where the Christian and the non-Christian could “meet” – as if on the basis of the unbeliever’s worldview s/he could arrive at a content-full knowledge to God. This was my introduction to the presuppositional apologetic method of Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bahnsen, Francis Schaeffer, John Frame, et al. as well as the field of epistemology.
Over the years I’ve lost track of the timeline of these events, but it was my deep passion to understand my faith and desire to communicate it to others that inspired me to go to college in 1998. At the age of 28, and with my youngest of 3 children being only 4 months old, I began my bachelor’s program at Trinity International University and graduated in 2002 with a b.a. in Christian Ministry. Two weeks later I entered seminary. May 14th of this year I graduated with a master’s degree in Christian Thought with an emphasis in systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. My thesis was essentially an integration of theology/apologetics and ethics and is titled “H. Tristram Engelhardt on Christian Participation in the Public Square: A Van Tilian Philosophical Critique.” I’ll probably continue in my education, perhaps working towards doctoral work in ethics and/or theology. Currently, I’m on staff at The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and promote apologetics and worldview thinking to women through The Foundation for Women of Faith in Culture.
So today, my mission from God (I watch the Blues Brothers way too often) is to help people see how the “bits and pieces” approach to faith and living is insufficient, that we need to live out our faith in a way that acknowledges God’s sovereignty in all areas of life. I want people to understand that everyone has presuppositions, Christians have them and secularists do, too. To suggest that only Christians have a bias is just plain insanity.
Finally, I just want to say what a privilege it is to be part of the Intellectuelles. I look forward to the dialogue we will have with each other and with our readers. This is going to be an incredible time of growth for each of us and I’m excited about engaging in the blogosphere. And another thanks to Joe Carter for his support of this project!!!
***DISCLAIMER*** Anything I post on this blog does not represent the views of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, they are my own. But they will wish they were theirs!!!
