__"A quest for truth in its deepest sense, which draws in every element of human longing and aspiration"__   
The Augustine Way retrieves Augustine's scriptural and ecclesial approach for a healing and hopeful apologetic witness for today.  
  
"To discover a great thinker of the past as an exciting and challenging contemporary is always a wonderful moment. This book, lively, honest, humane, and wide-ranging, introduces us to one of the most brilliant of all Christian writers and lets us realize just how much good news he has to give amid the muddles and longings of our age."  
--__Rowan Williams__, former Archbishop of Canterbury  
  
"How refreshing it is to find apologetics in this book being recovered in its more ancient forms, such as Augustine and his philosophical forebears represented so richly: not as an imperialistic imposition, nor as a merely dispassionate assessment, but as a quest for truth in its deepest sense, which draws in every element of human longing and aspiration."  
--__Rev. Canon Sarah Coakley, FBA__, University of Cambridge (emerita)  
  
"A superb account of how one of the world's greatest classical theologians can give new depth and vitality to contemporary apologetics. This 'apologetics of retrieval' opens up some theologically rich and apologetically compelling approaches, which will be invaluable to us today as we face new cultural challenges. Essential reading for apologists!"  
--__Alister McGrath__, Oxford University  
  
"Chatraw and Allen have done Christians an immense service in retrieving the bishop of Hippo's thought for a contemporary apologetics that is robustly ecclesial, culturally responsive, intellectually rigorous, and--most beautifully of all--generously ecumenical."  
--__John Sehorn__, Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology  
  
"With keen attention to the social imaginary of late modernity, The Augustine Way enlarges our imaginations for how we might persuade others of the truth, beauty, and goodness of the gospel within our current age of anxiety."  
--__Kristen Deede Johnson__, Western Theological Seminary  
  
"I teach a whole course on what makes theology Augustinian because I believe Augustine has much to offer today's church. I therefore welcome and resonate with the thought experiment behind The Augustine Way--namely, to articulate what Augustine would likely say and do as a pastor and defender of the faith if he were alive today."  
--__Kevin J. Vanhoozer__, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

__Joshua D. Chatraw__ (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Billy Graham Chair of Evangelism and Cultural Engagement at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama.  
  
__Mark D. Allen__ (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is professor of biblical and theological studies at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has served as a pastor and church planter for over twenty years.

"At a time when modern-day Tertullians are telling Christians to withdraw from culture and politics, and when modern-day Eusebians are envisioning a new Christianized eternal city, The Augustine Way strikes a powerful, challenging, and deeply biblical note. This book connects us with a long tradition of biblically soaked thinking that brings ever-fresh perspectives to bear on today's problems. Readers of this book will find in its pages a Bible-shaped way of inhabiting late modernity that combines clarity with compassion, critique with constructiveness. It is a word that both the culture and the church sorely need to hear."  
\--__Christopher Watkin__, Monash University, Melbourne  
  
"Far more than a thoroughly researched, beautifully written work of retrieval, this book is a sorely needed plea to mend what has come undone in our attempts to defend and commend the faith to our late-modern contemporaries. Herein is a theologically informed approach to apologetics that takes seriously the fact that we are doxological creatures with disordered desires, that we are more than intellects but are storytelling, story-consuming, and culturally situated creatures. Chatraw and Allen remind us that Augustine's apologetic work was done not as an academic but as a shepherd of God's people. He was, as the authors put it, a 'pastor-theologian-apologist.' How the church needs such leaders today! This volume is a valuable aid for preparing those leaders."  
\--__Keith Plummer__, School of Divinity, Cairn University  
  
"In contemporary times, it is easy to associate apologetics with winning rather than witnessing, where apologetic training becomes an exercise in controlling the conversation. Chatraw and Allen show us a more excellent way: a nonanxious posture of persuasion that is critical and constructive, intellectual and imaginative, humble and hopeful. This accessible retrieval of an Augustinian apologetic calls us to recenter the local congregation and to renew the polluted cultural ecosystems where we live."  
\--__Justin Ariel Bailey__, Dordt University  
  
"The insights of St. Augustine are like a treasure in the church's attic. The Augustine Way brilliantly continues the overall project of dusting off this treasure and displaying its ongoing value for today."  
\--__Curtis Chang__, author of Engaging Unbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine and Aquinas

What can we learn from Augustine about apologetics? This book shows how Augustine defended the faith in late antiquity and how his approach to engaging the culture has great significance for the apologetic task today.  
  
Joshua Chatraw and Mark Allen, coauthors of the award-winning Apologetics at the Cross (an Outreach magazine and Gospel Coalition Resource of the Year), recover Augustine's mature apologetic voice to address the challenges facing today's church. The Augustine Way offers a compelling argument for Christian witness that is rooted in tradition and engaged with contemporary culture. It focuses on Augustine's best-known works, Confessions and The City of God, to retrieve his scriptural and ecclesial approach for a holistic apologetic witness.  
  
This book will be useful for students as well as for pastors, church leaders, and practitioners of Christian apologetics. It puts pastors and churches back at the center of apologetics, transcending popular contemporary methods with a view to a more effective witness in post-Christendom.

This book puts pastors and churches back at the center of apologetics. It retrieves Augustine's scriptural and ecclesial approach for a healing and hopeful apologetic witness for today.

Introduction: Time to Make Room at the Table  
__Part 1: Going Back for the Future__ 1. A Prodigal Son Returns Home . . . as an Apologist  
2\. An Augustinian Assessment of Contemporary Apologetics  
__Part 2: An Augustinian Vision for Today__ 3. A Renewed Posture  
4\. An Ecclesial Pilgrimage of Hope  
5\. A Therapeutic Approach  
Conclusion: The Return of the Bishop  
Index

Chatraw, Joshua D. ;Allen, Mark D.

Back Cover

Christianity Today 2024 Book Award Finalist (Apologetics/Evangelism)  
Outreach 2024 Resource of the Year (Apologetics)  
  
What can we learn from Augustine about apologetics? This book shows how Augustine defended the faith in late antiquity and how his approach to engaging the culture has great significance for the apologetic task today.  
  
The Augustine Way recovers Augustine's mature apologetic voice to address the challenges facing today's church. It offers a compelling argument for Christian witness that is rooted in tradition and engaged with contemporary culture. The book focuses on Augustine's best-known works, Confessions and The City of God, to retrieve his scriptural and ecclesial approach for a holistic apologetic witness.  
  
This book will be useful for students, pastors, church leaders, and practitioners of Christian apologetics. It puts pastors and churches back at the center of apologetics, transcending popular contemporary methods with a view to a more effective witness in post-Christendom.  
  
"This unique work offers an innovative approach to apologetics. . . . The result is a robust analysis of our current cultural moment with a confidence rooted in our past."--Outreach

The Augustine Way

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