How to Defend Your Faith

I taught the senior theology course at a Catholic high school for seven years. The course name was “Apologetics.” This term has its roots in the Greek word apologia which is used in the New Testament when the apostles were defending their faith (see Acts 22:1).

The field of apologetics is concerned with providing evidence for why one believes in their faith. It attempts to show that there are no claims of faith that contradict reason.

The intention of the course was to equip students going off to college with rational evidence for their faith to fortify it for college and give them the tools to defend their faith to those who don’t believe.

The assumption of the Religion Department was that their faith will, undoubtedly, be tested in college.

Whether it is a professor or a roommate–there will be someone who questions your faith and calls it foolish. Many Catholics, and Christians in general, struggle to explain why their faith is true to those who question it. If we seek to keep our faith and bring others to see its validity, we must be knowledgeable about why it is true.

St. Peter exhorts his community to, “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). Our hope is in Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Christians don’t simply hold the claim that Jesus is God; it is an opinion.

The foundation for a healthy apologetics is to understand that truth is the conformity between one’s mind and reality.

One can hold something to be true and be incorrect about it. Apologetics seeks to uncover the rational evidence for the doctrines of faith. Since truth is a key understanding for Christians, we must explain the definition of truth above and come to an agreement with the person we are “arguing” with on what truth is.

This can be done by simply explaining the principle of noncontradiction. This is a core principle of reasoning that states that two opposing claims cannot both be true. Any logical and reasonable person will agree with this. From there we have created common ground with the person that disagrees with us. This is critical.

If the one we are arguing with does not believe that we respect them as a person, it will be much more difficult for us to show them why the faith is true.

People must know that Christians are not bigots, but compassionate and caring individuals that are intelligent, joyful, and own their faith in a captivating manner.

Faithful Catholics and Christians are not merely concerned with winning an argument with someone as they are in showing the person that we care for them because we love God and have encountered Christ. Without this foundation, we will argue in unproductive and possibly vehement ways rather than dialogue about the evidence.

Typically, those who tend to question the faith of others will point to a generic misunderstanding of Christianity. They’ll claim that no one has ever seen God or that no one can prove that Jesus existed. They might also claim that the Bible has contradictions in it or the apostles who claimed to see Jesus at the resurrection were lying.

All these claims either misconstrue or misrepresent a teaching of the faith.

What a good apologist does is simple: he or she calmly asks questions. This shows that we are willing to dialogue and that we sincerely desire to know the position the person is holding against us. Doing so also often reveals that the claims of the person against the faith are not well thought out.

If the claims are difficult for us to answer and appear to be above our capacity to answer, we have three strong options.

First, you could admit that you don’t have the answer and offer to continue the conversation once you have done more research into the topic. This shows honesty and integrity as well as a willingness to continue the conversation in a cordial and rational manner.

Second, you could go into a more detailed analysis for why you believe in God and Christ while citing personal growth in your understanding of the faith and your own sinfulness. This route reveals vulnerability and the sense that you have reasons for your belief.

Finally, you could choose to bring the conversation to a spiritual level. Explain what your prayer life is like. How you have had experiences of God that are unexplainable or about how you know of others who have experienced the same. You can also lean into the facts of the faith that you know with depth and clarity to show that your faith has been well thought out.

Any of these three options is meant to build a stronger bridge and relationship between yourself and the person that disagrees with you so that we can show them that Jesus is truly alive.

Ultimately, the call to defend one’s faith is an invitation to pray more intentionally for the gift of courage and intelligence. It is also an invitation to study the faith with seriousness so that we have ways of explaining the proofs for God’s existence, the evidence for Jesus’ divinity and the rationale behind divine inspiration of the Bible.

For the more we know with clarity the more confidently we will engage with anyone who calls our hope into question.