OLD PRINCETON APOLOGETICS: COMMON SENSE OR REFORMED?, THE

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2003 by McConnel, Tim

3. "The Practical Importance of Apologetics." Greene began his article entitled "The Practical Importance of Apologetics" by defining apologetics: "Apologetics is the science of the rational proofs that Christianity is the supernatural and so the authoritative, the exclusive, the final, in a word, the absolute religion."45 In this article he set forth the dual roles of apologetics, the negative and the positive. The negative role is to give an answer to the critics of Christianity, and in fact, to show that their position is untenable.46 The positive role is to "rationalize the supernatural,"47 which is to say, to show that the supernatural, although "above" reason, is still congruous with it. The problem that reason has with the supernatural is not that it is irrational, but rather that it goes far beyond the rational. Greene proposed three areas in which apologetics should seek to "rationalize the supernatural." First, apologetics proves the reasonableness of the historical facts of Christianity. Second, it shows the reasonableness of the eternal truths of Christianity, which interpret those facts. Thirdly, it shows that "it is precisely because Christianity is incomprehensible that it is reasonable."48 What he meant by this, is that, if Christianity is indeed the religion based on God's revelation, it must surpass human reason: "The supernatural would no longer be supernatural, if it could be expressed in terms of the natural."49 Throughout his discussion Greene assumed that Christianity is rational, because God is rational (though far surpassing human rationality). Thus apologetics was seen as developing the proper use of reason with respect to religion.

4. "The Metaphysics of Christian Apologetics." Greene gave the fullest development of his apologetical system in his series of articles on the "Metaphysics of Christian Apologetics." The first article dealt with the topic of "Reality." He introduced the general subject by defining apologetics in almost identical form to that given earlier.50 He further stated, "Apologetics . . . presupposes the denial or the doubt of Christianity; it assails unbelieving systems of the universe; if it appeals to the Bible, it is only as reason has proved the latter to be the Word of God."51

Greene went on to define the subject matter of the series. He wrote, "Metaphysics is 'the science of first and fundamental truths.' . . . Hence they are called first truths: they are prior to all experience; it starts out with them, it does not gather them. . . . Hence they are called fundamental truths: the knowledge of them conditions all other knowledge; the latter would lack coherence without the former."52 Greene considered metaphysics to have two references, the epistemological (the process of knowing these metaphysical truths) and the ontological (the objects of metaphysical thought, the "transcendental realities"). It was with the latter that he was concerned in this series of articles, and in particular, with those truths which are first and fundamental for Christian apologetics.53