Refresh Conference

Eunice and I went to the Refresh Conference at Wycliffe College yesterday. We attended the lectures by Dr. Alister McGrath (ha! and I got two books signed by him). He's a gentleman with a British sense of humor. His lectures on "Recovering Christian confidence" were insightful.

In the first lecture, he mentioned that in this age of skepticism and cynicism where there seems to be no absolute truth, we as apologetics should be prepared to give an answer to those who ask you. Apologetics is, quoting what he said, "not just about intellectual arguments, but also about engaging the mind, the heart and imagination". In this age of post-modernism, which emphasizes on "lure" or "attraction", he suggested us to look into storytelling and images in order to communicate through our audience the attractiveness of our faith. In other words, we have to present our faith as more attractive than other ideas/faiths floating around. Some people may agree with him and some of them don't, but nevertheless I believe it is a good reminder that when we share our faith with others, we need to keep it simple and try to make use of stories and pictures. To be honest, his suggestions actually surprised me a bit in the first place because Dr. McGrath is a person who mastered in abstract thinking and logical reasoning. I found this very interesting.

The second lecture was about his response to a book called "The God Delusion" written by an atheist named Richard Dawkins. It is a good lecture to listen to, especially for those who have friends who believe science can explain the world. Here's also an interview with Dr. McGrath by CBC on this issue. One interesting moment occurred during the Q&A session. Someone asked him a question, saying, if Dawkins described the belief in God as a "virus" of the mind, then the Anglican denomination would be the "mildest and weakest strain of virus", and how would Dr. McGrath respond to this? Everyone laughed when the question was read out aloud by the Wycliffe College principal, but of course, Dr. McGrath handled it easily. I believe, if the Anglican church can produce theologians like Alister McGrath and J.I. Packer influencing thousands of minds, then it won't be too "mild or weak" afterall.