But I must comment further on the apologetics article cited below.

Heh.

Anyway, one of the great mysteries of church life to me is how some folks can’t quite grasp the lesson of this past Sunday’s second reading: you know, many parts, one body.

“Apologetics” is…apologetics. It’s not theology. It’s not spirituality. It’s apologetics, which means it serves a certain purpose not served by other styles of religious discourse.

Very briefly, apologetics exists to answer questions and to address challenges, not to unpack the depths of theological resonance in various penumbras of doctrinal formulations.

Apologetics does not exist to replace theological thinking or spiritual reflection, although I do get concerned sometimes that with the current popularity of apologetics, we are sometimes tempted to forget that.

But the point is simply this: apologetics exists because people ask questions. They want to know how you, a reasonable person could actually hold belief in God to be reasonable. They want to know how you seriously could consider yourself a Christian, although you admit to being a Catholic. Apologetics answers those questions in the context in which they are asked. What is the alternative? Change the subject?

Update: Thanks to one of Those Apologists for stopping by in the comments!