Publisher Insists Christians Have a Role in the ‘Defense of the Faith’
The defense of the Christian faith is in danger of becoming marginalized and dismissed by skeptics, warns the executive director of Athanatos Christian Ministries, an apologetics organization that is known for promoting and defending the Christian faith through the arts and literature.
ACM has issued a call for Christians in all fields and vocations to consider how their work might strengthen the Church or persuade unbelievers. Rising to answer its own challenge, ACM has formed a new publishing imprint called “Paley, Whately, and Greenleaf Press.”
The name of the imprint is derived from three prominent 19th century Christian scholars who were influential in their own time, but were not known specifically as ‘apologists.’ William Paley’s “Natural Theology” left a deep impact on Charles Darwin. Richard Whately skewered David Hume’s empiricism, using Hume’s own principles to ‘prove’ that Napoleon did not exist. Simon Greenleaf helped train a century’s worth of lawyers.
ACM’s executive director, Anthony Horvath, says, “These men are known today chiefly because of their contributions to Christian apologetics, but in their own day, they were active in areas such as theology, philosophy, politics, the law, and even science. Skeptics were forced to contend with their arguments, in large part because they encountered those arguments wherever they turned. Today, as ‘Christian apologetics’ becomes more popular than ever, there is a danger that Christians in all walks of lives will forget that Paul’s command to ‘be prepared to give an answer applies to every believer, not just those with a special interest in the topic.'”
In the hopes of expanding the reach of Christian apologetics into all the ‘nooks and crannies’ of society, “Paley, Whately, and Greenleaf Press” will publish nearly any work presented to it that even remotely can be construed as a defense of the faith, whether it is philosophical in nature, scientific, theological, or even an area that is completely unexpected.
“If an auto mechanic produces a work that might conceivably advance the kingdom of God, we’ll publish it,” says Horvath.
ACM has additional programs that incorporate apologetics into other vocations, such as its Christian Educators Training Program and its literary apologetics writing community. Their current catalog of published works is available at their website.
More information about “Paley, Whately, and Greenleaf Press” can be found at www.athanatosministries.org.
(Source: Christian Newswire)
