Scholars from a wide variety of Christian traditions (McGrath, Ward, Davison, Ordway) all have recognized the value of imaginative apologetics. However, contemporary introductions to the subject are often generalized and lacking in specific application. This paper will present a Lewisian framework for apologetics in the imaginative mode as a means of Christian engagement with the so-called “meaning crisis.”
The modern West does indeed face a crisis of meaning and purpose. This phenomenon has been recognized by scholars of various disciplines (Vervaeke, Haidt, Marceau) and has also fueled ongoing public discourse, led by intellectual figures ranging from agnostics like Jordan Peterson to Christians like Justin Brierly. The degradation of narrative, as outlined by Byung-Chul Han, has greatly contributed to this felt sense of purposelessness, disconnection, and disenchantment. Fortunately, the destructive results of narrative degradation also present an apologetic opportunity: Christians can harness the meaning-making power of narrative to present a re-enchanted world situated within a meaningful metanarrative.
After briefly defining the meaning crisis and defending its relationship to narrative degradation, this study will apply C.S. Lewis’s distinction between “author as author” and “author as man/Christian” to the world of Christian apologetics, arguing that narrative is the appropriate mode by which victims of the meaning crisis can be invited into an enchanted, purposeful vision of reality via the imagination. The study will conclude by situating imaginative apologetics relative to other apologetic modes, arguing that imaginative apologetics is: (a) uniquely well suited to this cultural moment, and (b) best considered as a ‘pre-apologetic’ complementary to and supported by classical approaches.