Christian Apologetics, like sport, has two aspects, negative (or defensive) and positive (or offensive). Like the tone of much of this web site, 'defensive' apologetics is concerned with righting wrongs, correcting and sheding light upon pertenent facts which might have otherwise led to incorrect understanding. 'Positive' Christian apologetics, as defined by Alister McGrath, states that the reasoned defense of Christianity which might "Be expected to include argument to the effect 1) that there is a God; 2) that human beings are estranged from God; 3) that the life and death of Jesus Christ would be such as to remedy this estrangement from God; and 4) that this life and death ocurred as a matter of historical fact." (The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1993, p. 9). Often, a defensive presentation would require the reader to 'reading between the lines' in order to put together a positive case.
Christian apologetics, throughout history, has traditionally been divided into four camps (though some also include a 5th camp of Reformed Epistemology espoused by John Frame and Kelly Clark. though it was derived from Presuppositionalism developed by Cornelius Van Til in his The Defense of the Faith).
Apologetics is normally divided into: Evidential, Classical, Presuppositional, Verificational or Combinationalist and (sometimes the newer) Reformed Epistemological model. In the following treatment, we will also look at 'Experimentalism' which, though it is not a real school of apologetics, does represent existentialism and the more fideistic thought. Contrary to what some Christians (and some non-believers who lump all Christian aggressive evangelistic strategies together) believe, Christian Apologetics is not necessarily swinging a theological 'bat' at others who simply disagree with us on some fine (or not so fine) doctrinal points. Some Christians have done a great disservice to the field of Apologetics, and more importantly, to the name of Jesus Christ, by taking aim at someone they disagree with and letting loose with a barrage of isolated verses used as a machette as well as a sharp tongue- have they forgotten what the Bible says about 'killing' another person verbally?
Christian Apologetics is a reasoned, logical, informed and mature response against the negative portrayal of Christian beliefs that are so popular. That is commonly known as Negative or Defensive apologetics. This approach includes the examination of certain non-Christian worldviews and the exposure of where their shortcomings. Here is where Positive or Offensive comes into play. This approach's intent is to show that the Christian can provide a reasonable alternative model, one which not only passes the tests of 1) Consistency (must not lead to a contradiction or be self refuting). Some critics confuse seemingly difficult events which are only contrary to one another, with blatent contradictory ones. Two or more reports can be strained and contrary, but they are not contradictory. To be contradictory, two reports cannot be both true at the same time and in the same sense. 2) Correspondence also known as Empirical Fit (how the worldview in question 'fits' reality); 3) Comprehensiveness (how well one worldview explains more of the evidence over a worldview which explains less); 4) Simplicity (also called Occam's Razor, we are to prefer less complicated (& multiple) systems over those that propose more complex ones); 5) These next two tests may be grouped as Pragmatic Criteria. The 5th test for truth, thanks to the late Francis Schaeffer, is that if Livability. That is, a worldview must be livable (not to be confused with #2, the test of Correspondence). Schaeffer used the example of the late 'composer' John Cage who dogmatically opposed any design or order of musical notation in his search for complete randomness & how a hobby of Cage was mushroom hunting. Schaeffer pointed out how Cage had to exercise great caution when eating his finds so as not to get a poision mushroom & how this illustrated that the complete random abandon of Cage's composing style would not be livable as a lifestyle; 6) Fruitfulness. What are the consequences of specific worldviews? This is one point the creationist brings up when he or she ponders how coult the unfathomable complexity of subatomic particles or the doule helix or DNA could be arranged (sorry, wrong word) randomly fall into the very exact place and sequences by randon passes and explosion; as well as 7) the test of Conservation (when anomalies are found, we first look for solutions that require the least radical alteration to make place for that anomaly before the more radical solutions). More about these truth tests in Cumulative Case.
Following is an overview of each camp within Christian Apologetics as well as concluding comments.