I have been involved in Christian apologetics in one way or another for most of my adult Christian life. Over that time, I have become disillusioned over some aspects of what I call the apologetics industry. But this is not to the time to vent about that.
There are many who believe that time for Christian apologetics is over. There are many arguments for its demise. Some see it as too closely tied to evangelicalism. Some see us as being in postmodernism which makes apologetics obsolete. Some see apologetics arguments as haven been shown to be false.
I believe that claims of the death of apologetics are very much premature. In fact, apologetics will remain as long as Christianity exists.
I do believe that apologetics will have to evolve with our culture. Some apologists get so devoted to apologetic tradition that they will hold to the old methods whether or not they connect with people of today.
I think our model should be C.S. Lewis but not in the way people often use him. Some people see the apologetics of C.S. Lewis as something frozen in time to be duplicated long after his death.
Instead we should look at how innovative he was, adapting to changing technology, getting to know the people he was communicating with, and even changing his methods over time.
There will always be people who want to believe but struggle with certain issues. Some of those topics may not have convincing answers but others will be a matter of misunderstandings. The internet, as helpful as it is, is also a source of great misinformation.
Our job is not to determine whether or not apologetics is still important, our job is to determine how we are going to do apologetics for each new culture and generation.
