What is the Public Square? The Role of Faith in the Agora Friday, May 15, 2015 Lemont Calvary Church Richard S. Park, D.Phil. Christianity in the Public Square Gay Apologetics Christianity in the Public Square (Re)defining: apologetics living and speaking as Christs ambassadors within plural contexts An apologist [is] someone who is willing and able to rise to the challenges to faith presented by the culture. Alister McGrath the men [of Issachar] who understood the times (1 Chr ). Christianity in the Public Square What is the Public Square? The Role of Faith in the Agora (1) What is the public square? (2) What is the role of faith in the public square? (3) What are best practices for engaging the public square? (1) What is the public square? The public square is the (sometimes) literal & (other times) metaphorical arena wherein we carefully consider the issues of our societydefined locally & globally that touch on certain central aspects of our common life. Its where we deliberate, discuss & deploy intellectual & social forces to engage the issues that matter most. Os Guinness, D.Phil. What is the public square? Parthenon Acropolis high city Areopagus Ares Rock Mars Hill Agora gathering (1) What is the public square? The New Agora is wider in two ways (1) in terms of its participants (2) with respect to its dimensions (1) What is the public square? What is the Public Square? The Role of Faith in the Agora (1) What is the public square? (2) What is the role of faith in the public square? The result of this stringent and one-way boundary maintenance [owed to secularization theory] has been the long-standing exclusion of religion and religious actors from the systematic study of world politics in general and international relations in particular. This has created a paradoxical situation: religion has become one of the most influential factors in world affairs in the last generation but remains one of the least examined factors in the professional study and practice of world affairs. One of the coeditors of this volume, Alfred Stepan, teaches at one of Americas largest and oldest schools dedicated to training graduate students for international careers in government, political analysis, international organizations, the media, human rights, the private sector, and academia: the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is currently teaching the first general course on the role of religion in world affairs in the schools fifty-year history. How ought Christians engage the public square? with excellence. Why excellence? salt and light (Mt. 5.13ff); redeem the time (Col. 4.3); in but not the world (Jn ff) (1) Its biblical. (2) Its effective. Why excellence? Make [Christianity] attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is Blaise Pascal Embodied apologetical excellence Goodness | Truth | Beauty The Doctrine of the Transcendentals To reify (Ltn. rs = thing) an object means to present a given human construction or cultural phenomenon as a bare fact or non- negotiable aspect of reality; and in turn to perceive and to re- present it as such. The Sociological Notion of Reification Why is excellence the proper mode of engaging public life? It is pure invention that pope, bishop, priests and monks are called the spiritual [i.e., religious] estate while princes, lords, artisans, and farmers are called the temporal [i.e., secular] estate... All Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference between them. (3) It leads to human flourishing which glorifies God. Cobblers Chemists Barristers Baristas Shoes Solutions Statutes Scones Principles of faith in public life neither privatize nor politicize faith seek faithfulness rather than effectiveness politics is downstream from culture (2) The role of faith in the agora Principles of faith in public life neither privatize nor politicize faith seek faithfulness rather than effectiveness politics is downstream from culture (2) The role of faith in the agora Principles of faith in public life neither privatize nor politicize faith seek faithfulness rather than effectiveness politics is downstream from culture Application of this principle (2) The role of faith in the agora Principles of faith in public life neither privatize nor politicize faith seek faithfulness rather than effectiveness politics is downstream from culture Application of this principle Redemptive critique (2) The role of faith in the agora (3) Best practices those before us N. T. Wright Lecrae Moore William Wilberforce The Spirit leads. An upside-down Kingdom. Organic byproduct of gospel. Leaders outweigh followers Centers outweigh peripheries Networks outweigh institutions Dr. Os Guinness | Culture & Kingdom What is the Public Square? The Role of Faith in the Agora Friday, May 15, 2015 Lemont Calvary Church Richard S. Park, D.Phil. Christianity in the Public Square