5 Metaphors for Christian Apologetics

by Hope Beyond Reason

How Metaphors Work

In their book Metaphors We Live By (1980), George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are not ornamental to language. They shape how we see and think about the world, and therefore they have the power to shape entire cultures. One example that fits the bill is the “TIME is MONEY” metaphor: in western culture we don’t just compare time to money – we actually think and act like time can be saved, spent, or wasted! Metaphors, then, are extremely powerful.

Lakoff and Johnson also show that metaphors are partial in their scope: they highlight some features of a concept but hide or downplay others. For example, MONEY is not the only way to conceptualize TIME. We can also conceive of TIME as an ARROW or a STREAM. All of these metaphors are needed to adequately grasp the human experience of TIME, and we do injustice to that experience by privileging one metaphor over others or by reducing them all to a single one. In other words, reductionism with respect to metaphors is dangerous because it leads to a myopic and truncated understanding.

The Warfare Metaphor

Now, you may be asking, what do metaphors have to do with Christian apologetics? Let me explain. I was listening to a YouTube video yesterday by a Christian apologist whom I respect highly (and who will remain unnamed). He was delivering a talk to clergy about the importance of training young


people, especially teenagers, in apologetics so that their faith will remain in tact when they transition to college or university. I agree with the thrust of this apologist’s argument, but I was surprised when his words took on an almost apocalyptic tone during a climactic point in his presentation. He said,

“In high school and college, Christian teenagers are assaulted intellectually with every manner of non-Christian philosophy and ideology conjoined with an overwhelming relativism and subjectivism. How dare we send them out unarmed into an intellectual battlefield! We’ve go to prepare our kids for war!”

Before I critique this statement, allow me to state what I agree with. I have no problem in principle with viewing apologetics through the lens of warfare. I know full well that university campuses in Canada and the U.S. are generally unsympathetic to religious belief and to religious discourse in the marketplace of ideas. I am also aware that some professors (sadly) make it their mission in life to ridicule or de-convert students who profess to be Christians. It is a war out there! Moreover, there is biblical precedent for viewing apologetics as war, e.g. when the Apostle Paul speaks of “demolishing arguments” that set themselves up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5).

However, in an effort to awaken the church from its intellectual slumber and warn complacent parents/clergy of the real dangers that kids will face on university campuses, I fear that this apologist (and many who follow him) are promoting an overly militant view of their craft. Why do I say this?


5 Metaphors for Christian Apologetics | Hope Beyond Reason