The Christian countercult movement or the Christian anti-cult movement is a social movement among certain Protestant evangelical and fundamentalist and other Christian ministries and individual activists who oppose religious sects that they consider cults.
Sola scriptura is a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The Catholic Church considers it heresy and generally the Orthodox churches consider it to be contrary to the phronema of the Church.
Apologetics is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called Christian apologists. In 21st-century usage, apologetics is often identified with debates over religion and theology.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:
Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was an American professor of Reformed theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. He served as the last principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1886 to 1902. After the death of Warfield in office, Francis Landey Patton took over the functions of the office as the first president of seminary. Some conservative Presbyterians consider him to be the last of the great Princeton theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Presuppositional apologetics, shortened to presuppositionalism, is an epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the results of those presuppositions.
Open-air preaching, street preaching, or public preaching is the act of evangelizing a religious faith in public places. It is an ancient method of proselytizing a religious or social message and has been used by many cultures and religious traditions, but today it is usually associated with evangelical Protestant Christianity. Supporters of this approach note that both Jesus and many of the Old Testament prophets often preached about God in public places. It is one of the oldest approaches to evangelism.
Catholic Answers is a Catholic advocacy group based in El Cajon, California. It describes itself as the largest lay-run apostolate of Catholic apologetics and evangelization in the United States. It publishes Catholic Answers Magazine, a bimonthly magazine focusing on Catholic outreach, religious formation and apologetics, as well as the website catholic.com. It also produces Catholic Answers Live, a radio show answering callers' questions on a variety of topics related to the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. Catholic Answers Live is syndicated on the EWTN radio network.
Joslin "Josh" McDowell is an evangelical Christian apologist and evangelist. He is the author or co-author of over 150 books.
Scott Walker Hahn is an American Catholic theologian and Christian apologist. A former Protestant, Hahn was a Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism. Hahn's popular works include Rome Sweet Home and The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth. His lectures have been featured in multiple audio distributions through Lighthouse Catholic Media. Hahn is known for his research on Early Christianity during the Apostolic Age and various theoretical works concerning the early Church Fathers.
Norman Leo Geisler was an American Christian systematic theologian, philosopher, and apologist. He was the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries.
Christian apologetics is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity.
Karl Keating is a Catholic apologist and author who founded and presided over Catholic Answers, a lay apostolate of Catholic apologetics and evangelization.
Patrick Madrid is an American Catholic, author, and radio host. His many books include Why Be Catholic?, Life Lessons: 50 Things I Learned in My First 50 Years, and How to Do Apologetics. His books have sold over one million copies, including foreign-language editions.
Robert M. Bowman Jr. is an American Evangelical Christian theologian specializing in the study of apologetics.
The following outline is provided as an overview of, and topical guide to, theology.
The Shape of Sola Scriptura is a 2001 book by Reformed Christian theologian Keith Mathison. Mathison traces the development of sola scriptura from the early church to the present. Matthison, a Reformed theologian at Ligonier Ministries and Whitefield Theological Seminary, views the Protestant Reformation as a time of recovery of the doctrine that had been under assault from the fourth century. He argues that relativism and individualism permeate present-day teaching on the subject, and that widespread misunderstanding of the doctrine of sola scriptura has been eroding the church from within. This, in Mathison's view, has led to conversions from Protestantism to other religions, and has undermined the relationship among Scripture, church tradition, and individual believers as set forth by the early church and restated by the Magisterial Reformers.
Dave Armstrong is an American Catholic apologist, author, and blogger.
Jimmy Akin is an American Catholic apologist, author, speaker, and podcast host. He has been working for Catholic Answers since 1993, their longest-serving staff member.
Gavin Rutherford Ortlund is a writer, theologian, and Christian apologist. Ortlund is the author of eight books and multiple academic articles. He serves as President of Truth Unites, a ministry which seeks to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. He is also Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.
