Zarathustra Shrugged – What Apologetics should Look Like in a Skeptical Age

Andy Crouch’s essay entitled “Zarathustra Shrugged: What Apologetics should look like in a skeptical age” is a section of his book, “Engaging Unbelief” was originally published in Christianity Today, September 3, 2001 (vol. 45, no.11), p. 101. This is my summarization and critique on his essay.

In the present day of secularism and humanism, Andy Crouch says in his essay, Zarathustra Shrugged that today’s skeptic young generation poses the challenging question to the postmodern era’s apologists. The author Crouch tells us how his friend ended his one-on-one conversation with the young skeptic without any fruition. Despite a hard-fought and well-presented intellectual argument, Crouch’s friend could not win the soul of young man. His skepticism remains firm as it was. His reaction toward the logical argument is the explicit example for shaping the apologetics in a skeptic age.

The main point of the essay is the reflection question of the present skeptical age that if Christianity is worth believing and how apologetics should look like. In his own words, Crouch says that “many people do not ask ‘Is Christianity true?’ but ‘Is it worth believing?’” In the past centuries, evangelicals made every effort to give the reason for the hope they have in Christ Jesus. Every reason of the evangelicals counter-attacked the modern atheist, Bertrand Russell who authored celebrated book ‘Why I am not Christian?’ The counterarguments from Christian apologetics of his time weakened the position of postmodernism and atheism. Continue reading Shaping Apologetics in a Skeptical Age →