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Richard Dawkins believes science’s ability to admit ignorance is one of its greatest strengths. On the flip side, he proposes that faith remains arrogant and all too certain of its validity without any rational set of proofs.

Part 2 of 7 with N.T. Wright discussing his book Simply Christian.  This is audio only.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7nbWpOKyw[/youtube]

One of our small groups in our church has begun a study of Dan Kimball’s book, They Like Jesus but not the Church. In the first section, Dan speaks about talking with two folks in a coffee shop. The two folks he met had come into the coffee shop and were discussing Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is becoming more widely known and practiced in culture. It is something that Christ followers need to understand.

One of the things we’re doing in our study is putting together information that can be used in an apologetic sense to share with folks around the themes Dan deals with in his book. Since he has a discussion of Kabbalah, I’ve done some, just a little actually, research on the topic and provide a couple of those links below. I would love to hear what you know about the topic especially if you have interacted with folks apologetically.

Resources:

• wikipedia
• Kabbalah 101 – this website has a scheduled 42 part series on Kabbalah. Currently, there are 23 articles posted.
• Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism
• LearnKabbalah.com – this website is a free source of Kabbalistic teachings, texts, and resources. It is suitable for those new to Kabbalah, and those with some background who wish to deepen their knowledge. Learnkabbalah.com was created by Jay Michaelson, who is both a teacher and a student of Kabbalah, meditation, and spirituality. Jay has learned Kabbalah in both traditional and academic contexts; he is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

If you have any references, other than those listed about, that you could provide, please let me know. I am trying to put together as many sources of reputable information as possible.

A new blog I’ve found recently is from Bob Robinson at Vanguard Church. Bob recently was able to have lunch with Josh McDowell at a conference in Ohio. The thing that stood out to me as Bob was recounting McDowell’s discussions at the table is how McDowell talks about truth. He says:

McDowell then explained “how we got here,” with a quick review of history, from the Enlightenment to the Industrial Revolution to Darwinism, explaining that instead of God being the source of truth, nature and science had taken God’s place as that source. “Hmm,” I thought, “He’s pretty tough on Modernism. That’s good.”

He never said the word “Post-modernism,” preferring instead the phrase, “The Cosmic Shift.” He explained that we have experienced a shift in our epistemology. This shift is characterized by how the new generation processes truth. The older generation saw truth as something to discover, but the younger generation sees truth as something to create. The older generation said, “If it is true, it will work”; the younger generation says, “If it works, it is true.” In other words, the younger generation bases their idea of the true based on experience; they don’t believe in things that have, in their minds, proven not to produce good results.

He then goes on to describe McDowell as saying (emphasis mine):

McDowell pleaded with these Christian leaders that ministry to the young generation needs to bring together “unfailing love” and “truth.” He insisted that it’s not just about being sure of the truth, it’s also about lovingly showing it to people.

And then he said, “I’m sick of McLaren and Bell putting me in the modernist camp. I am anything but a modernist.”

He proclaimed that he was advocating a “Relational Apologetics” and that “all truth is through relationships.”

I was amazed. At first I thought McDowell would advocate a mere reasoned apologetics and a fight for the concept of propositional truth. Instead, he was arguing for churches to create opportunities for young people to have genuine relationships with Christians so that they can experience what its like to live out their Christian convictions in real-life situations.

He was arguing for incarnational apologetics (what I’ve called “Emmanuel Apologetics”)!

All I can say is WOW! McDowell appears to be arguing for truth as relationship, not proposition. Now I’ve got more in common with McDowell than I knew as well!