May (Web-only) 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

John G. Stackhouse Jr. is the Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology and Culture at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. A Christianity Today contributing editor, the father of three has written more than 400 articles and reviews and edited four books on Christian theology. He is also the author of five volumes, including Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today (Oxford University Press), which was recently excerpted in Christianity Today.

More recently, he is the author of Evangelical Landscapes: Facing Critical Issues of the Day and Church: An Insider's Look at How We Do It (both published this year by Baker). Dick Staub recently interviewed Stackhouse on Humble Apologetics.

How did you get interested in apologetics?

I grew up in a pretty conservative, faithful, Christian home. In high school, I met an English teacher named Mr. Eikenberg. And he was very cool, really "where it was at," as we said back then. Mr. Eikenberg was an ex-Roman Catholic, and I think part of his mission was to help other people become ex-Christians as well. He thought he'd maybe scuff up my faith a little bit, not to put me down but to help me grow up. And I was sufficiently challenged by him. My long years in the church did not prepare me to speak his language and to answer his questions. So I went to my parents and asked, What should I do? If they had been fundamentalist parents, they would have gone down to the school and complained. But being Anglo-Canadian parents, they said, "Now, this is what your teacher tells you to do, so we better prepare you for that." Dad brought me to his library, and I began to read and engage in this adult conversation about matters of faith. That really turned me on to the whole idea of defending ...