„A Creative Apologetics” according to Pope Francis

Abstract

The paper was inspired by the teaching of Pope Francis who wrote in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013) as follows: „Proclaiming the Gospel message to different cultures also involves proclaiming it to professional, scientific and academic circles. This means an encounter between faith, reason and the sciences with a view to developing new approaches and arguments on the issue of credibility, a creative apologetics which would encourage greater openness to the Gospel on the part of all. When certain categories of reason and the sciences are taken up into the proclamation of the message, these  categories then become tools of evangelization; water is changed into wine” (n. 132). The article develops a notion „a creative apologetics” as credible and ethical interaction between faith, reason and the sciences. The sciences teach us that the world is rational, although they remain  simultaneously on the level of ordinary human usefulness only. The philosophical reason in turn leads us to a new horizon which opens itself beyond the reality of our five senses. Theology, finally, lets us accept and understand God`s revelation in Jesus Christ.