Cultural apologetics is about making arguments that showcase Christianity’s beauty and goodness, using cultural touchpoints as an opportunity for gospel witness.
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In his 1896 lecture “The Will to Believe,” American philosopher William James (1842–1910) described religious beliefs as either “live” or “dead” wires. A live hypothesis is a real possibility for someone.
For example, James said, if he were to ask you to believe in the Mahdi (someone claiming to be the messianic figure in Islam who is to appear at the end times to rid the world of evil and injustice), you’d probably not even know what was being asked. There’s no “electric connection with your nature.” No spark of credibility at all. It’s a dead wire for you. But if he were to ask an Arab (even if not one of the Mahdi’s followers), the possibility would be alive. “Deadness and liveness in a hypothesis are not intrinsic properties,” James said, “but relations to the individual thinker.”
