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Introduction

I got started in apologetics about thirty years ago. There was nothing then even remotely resembling the robust and widespread apologetics movement that now exists in the United States. Back then, before apologetics had become “cool” in certain circles, there were no contemporary Catholic apologetics books to be had, no audio resources, no apologetics magazines, conferences, or training programs. There was no Catholic radio to speak of then, and the fledgling Catholic network EWTN featured virtually no apologetics programming. Of course, being the pre-Internet era, there were also no apologetics websites, YouTube videos, or apps. About all an Anglophone student of apologetics had available to learn from in those days were the relatively few apologetics books from decades earlier — important works by men such as Fr. Arnold Lunn, Fr. Ronald Knox, G.K. Chesterton, Frank Sheed, and Archbishop Fulton Sheen. One particular apologetics gold mine that helped me immensely was the classic three-volume tour-de-force, Radio Replies, by Frs. Leslie Rumble and Charles M. Carty, originally published in 1942. The fact that it is still in print and still selling steadily, seventy-five years later, is testimony to the power and clarity of the answers these two priest apologists brought to the table in their efforts to defend the Faith against challenges raised mainly by Protestant skeptics and atheist critics of the Church. More to the point, Radio Replies’ remarkable longevity attests to the profound and very often irresistible potency of the truth when it is presented cogently and plainly.

I feel most fortunate to have embarked on what became my life-long love for and exploration of the world of apologetics at a time when apologetics materials were scarce and few people bothered with it. It made the exploration that much more of an adventure for me — exhilarating, at times — when something I read, whether from a modern or very early apologist, turned into a key that opened doors leading to new and unexplored aspects of Catholic doctrine, praxis, and history. Learning both the mechanics and the content of apologetics was for me, in those earlier days, immensely satisfying. The more I learned, the more I realized how vastly more I had yet to learn. And it was contagious. Along the way of this exploration, I met men who would become lifetime friends and colleagues, many of whom have made prodigious contributions in this field. Maybe we will be the “Rumbles” and “Cartys” for future generations.

As the years wore on, the American apologetics movement began to come into its own. At first, in the late 1980s, “defending the Faith” was regarded by not a few priests and bishops as retrograde, antiecumenical and (worst of all!) “pre-Vatican II.” After all, this suspicion of apologetics had been drummed into American seminarians by professors who, in the 1960s and 1970s, saw that project as hopelessly at odds with the new “spirit of Vatican II” and all the dubious notions that that stood for. In one sense, they were right about that. Authentic apologetics, one that seeks to clearly and convincingly present the truths of the Faith in a way that is conducive to conversion, is antithetical to a wishy-washy, insipid Catholicism. But as time went on, those of us who were actively involved in the Catholic apologetics movement (Karl Keating, Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Tim Staples, Mark Brumley, Jesse Romero, Steve Ray, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Fr. Ray Ryland, and several other key figures I was privileged to have as colleagues and fellow workers in that particular corner of the Lord’s vineyard) began to see the sudden, rapid rise and proliferation of apologetics resources — a veritable explosion of tracts, magazines, books, tapes (then CDs, then digital downloads), conferences, and eventually websites, and so on — all in just the past thirty years. It was truly amazing and very gratifying to go from essentially nothing to where things stand today. (Thank you, Lord!)

And now, thirty years later, as I find myself riding if not exactly into the sunset, at least off in that general direction, and as more and more young, new apologists are taking their places in the vineyard, I thought that it would be right and just for me to offer a modest synopsis of many of the things I have learned along the way. This book is my attempt to crystalize as best I can what I’ve come to see as the broader outline of apologetics as such — its structure, components, and primary methodologies — at least as I’ve experienced them. I’m eager to acknowledge with gratitude that everything I learned as an apologist I learned from countless greater minds and nobler souls than mine. As a fledgling “defender of the Faith,” sitting at the feet of the true masters of apologetics — the Fathers, the medieval doctors, the Counter-Reformation apologists, and all those who explained and defended the Catholic Faith in each subsequent generation down to my own, I truly came to understand the meaning of the old adage, that the only reason we can see as far as we do is because we sit on the shoulders of giants.

To borrow a line from St. Paul, perhaps the most preeminent Christian apologist ever, “For I have received from them that which also I deliver unto you” (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:23).

My hope in writing this book is to pass along to you something of that great patrimony I have received. To convey it in my own words as shaped by my own experiences in endeavoring to put it into practice for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.