When I came to small-town New England to plant a church, I expected that my new neighbors would define themselves as “nones” and be hostile to the church. It surprised me to find instead that most people in my town still maintain membership in churches which they visit on Christmas or Easter. Even if they have little knowledge of the Scripture and no familiarity with the gospel, my neighbors continue to see churches as valuable institutions.
The people of my town view churches a lot like they view hospitals: they are glad the churches are there if they need them, but would rather avoid making time in their lives for something they don’t see a daily purpose for.
My neighbors are typical of American culture as a whole. Consumerism, rather than atheism, has led many to forsake the rhythms of life in relationship to God and his people. Instead, they pursue experience, enjoyment and accomplishment as our sources of meaning, reaching out to religious establishments only at times when they acutely feel the lack of meaning and need a “spiritual experience” to fill the gap.
Meaning rooted in the individual and our consumption, however, does not produce a satisfying purpose for life because it has become unhinged from the actual story of reality with God at its center. Our culture is actually broken and does not know — or cannot admit — that our search for meaning in self-actualization, consumerism, and identity politics is not working.
Into this reality The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics (Zondervan, 2025), edited by Collin Hansen, Skyler R. Flowers, and Ivan Mesa, proposes cultural apologetics as both a recovery of an ancient practice and a strategy for our secular age. Cultural apologetics, as the authors define it, asks how the gospel can speak plausibly to a culture that no longer assumes its truth.
The book contains 13 chapters whose authors already think and write on the topic. In “The Gospel After Christendom,” they define cultural apologetics, explain how it works, examine the questions cultural apologetics seeks to answer, and explain the contexts where cultural apologetics is needed.
In his chapter on cultural apologetics as a tool for evangelism, Trevin Wax suggests a test from philosopher William James for understanding what speaks into a culture. Ask if an idea is a “live wire.” Is it plausible to the listener? The plausibility of a religious hypothesis (not its actual truth) depends on the cultural assumptions it shares with the listener.
For example, in James’ day, agnosticism and Christianity were both “live” options for most of his contemporaries, while Islam and theosophy were “dead.” As cultural assumptions have shifted with time, Christianity has shifted away from being a “live” option. The cultural apologist’s goal is to demonstrate Christianity’s plausibility, to “zap” the culture with the reality that the wire is still live.
As Wax notes, “cultural apologetics is a form of preevangelism.… We shine the light of the gospel in a way that affirms their God-given deepest longings and aspirations while exposing the misdirection that leads to lies, half-truths, and unhappiness.” The work of the cultural apologist is “showing how the gospel fulfills the deepest longings of the people in a society and exposing the lies people in that society believe” (18).
As N. Gray Sutanto said, “the goal of apologetics… must be unmasking to see that we have always known God but don’t want God to exist” (88).
The book is organized into four parts. Part One defines cultural apologetics. Wax shows its practical function: it is right for the church to respond wisely to new narratives, be concerned for others in our culture, address them as whole persons, and demonstrate the goodness and beauty of Christ. To do this, we depend not on a culture of Christendom laying the groundwork for conversion, but on the Holy Spirit.
Christopher Watkin argues for the biblical foundation of cultural apologetics. Because the God who made our world has revealed himself in his Word, the gospel is “familiar but strange.” The Bible’s description of our world and condition “fits the human condition like a glove” (41). But gloves are strangely shaped so they can envelope the human hand. All of our culture’s longings are perfectly addressed in God’s Word. Joshua Chatraw demonstrates that, though the term is new, the approach described as “cultural apologetics” appears across church history in the work of apologists from Origen to Augustine, Pascal to C.S. Lewis.
Part Two looks at how to do cultural apologetics. Alan Noble argues that the apologist’s posture must avoid both cowardly accommodation and hostile condemnation. From a posture of grace the apologist desires to see the Holy Spirit working in their interlocutors, and this posture frees apologists from veering into confrontation or syncretistic compromise.
Daniel Strange urges apologists to subversively fulfill the unrecognized desires of the culture. The utter uniqueness of the gospel both calls us to repent of our failures, and appeals to our deepest desires as fallen image bearers. Sutanto delves into the goal of apologetics mentioned above. Because only God can change hearts, the apologist has hope for the outcome of their task. Gavin Ortlund calls the apologist to expose unbelief as “unlivable.” Contemporary culture believes the world is disenchanted, meaningless, and lonely. The apologist gets to invite members of that culture into the reality of wonder, meaning, and restored relationships.
Part Three asks what questions cultural apologetics answers. Rebecca McLaughlin shows that apologetics answers the question “Is Christianity good?” by demonstrating that the whole basis for accepted international morality rests on biblical presuppositions.
Rachel Gilson takes up “is Christianity beautiful?” by noting that beauty requires morality. She illustrates this with the film “Rudy.” The reason we get emotional when the best athletes demand the hardworking, talentless little guy get a chance to play,is because there is a beauty in the strong caring for the weak even if it defies efficiency. Without morality there is no beauty; there is only the fittest. This is why our culture can see the church as ugly when it doesn’t live up to its own standards – and why we must repent when this happens and point our culture back to Christ himself.
Derek Rishmawy answers “Is Christianity true?” by examining the idea that “Christianity works for me.” While there is much to be said for the fact that Christianity “works,” its founder claimed to be “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Christianity is far more foundational than mere pragmatism. While the truth of Christianity “works” for our subjective needs, it also must be universally true, or it provides nothing.
Part Four addresses the context of cultural apologetics. Bob Thune notes that apologetics is thoroughly ecclesiological. People experience the gospel in the context of relationship; they experience Christ in his body, the church.
James Eglinton argues for the need for “porches”— contexts where the implicit experience of Christianity could progress to explicit discussion of how Christianity shapes life—to engage with religious “nones.” These can be Christian schools accepting non-Christian students, ministries that serve the poor, small-group book clubs, public lectures, and invitations into a Christian home. Sam Chan translates Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 to address our cultural idols: youth sports, step counters, movies, air travel, doing laundry. His insights are a good, practical challenge and reinforcement to our own practice of evangelism.
Looking at the contributor lineup — all fellows with The Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics — it can be easy to assume that cultural apologetics is for people living and ministering in contexts like New York City and Cornell. Though I am a church planter in a small New England town, I frequently interact with friends and ministers in Bible Belt towns, and I see that even the Bible Belt increasingly resembles my own context in attitudes toward the church and religion.
“The Gospel After Christendom” is theology for Smalltown USA and suburbia as much as the academy or the big city. This book brings theology to where your neighbors live, how they think, what they value and fear, and how they spend their time and money. Your neighbors are part of our post-Christendom culture, and they need apologists to serve as the tools of the Holy Spirit in drawing them into experiencing the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ.
Dr. Curran Bishop is the pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Milford, Connecticut.