Apologetics is about positively presenting and defending the Christian worldview, with respect to its truth and relevance (1 Peter 3:15). It really is an essential part of the Churches ministry today. I often get asked are there any women apologists or is this simply a male centred ministry.
The exciting fact is that more and more women are entering this ministry and with my colleague Philip Johnson, we have set out some names that are worth exploring, together with the appropriate references. More support please for woman in apologetic Ministry!
· Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was a graduate of Oxford. She offered a literary apologetic for faith in her detective novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey (e.g. Murder Must Advertise). Her play The Man Born to be King was an important dramatic theatrical presentation of Jesus Christ. She also wrote some theological essays which were collected in Creed or Chaos and her essay in that book “The Dogma is the Drama” has an apologetic thread. She was known to C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams ( see her contribution to the memorial book Essays Presented to Charles Williams).
· Helen R. Edson (1844-1912) wrote an apologetics novel, A Lawyer’s Religion (New York: American Tract Society, 1889) which featured the adult conversion of Judge Baldwin. Baldwin in turn becomes an apologist for faith answering questions about Jesus and the evidence for the gospels. Edson was married to a Presbyterian minister and was a descendant of a Congregational Church minister.
· Sarah Burdett was aniece ofAngela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906) England’s wealthiest philanthropic woman in the 19th century (had more wealth than Queen Victoria). Sarah Burdett wrote in the area of ethical apologetics concerning human relationships with sentient creatures: The Rights of Animals, or the Responsibility and Obligation of Man in the treatment he is bound to observe towards the Animal Creation (London: John Mortimer, 1839).
· Pamela Binnings Ewen is a novelist and a retired lawyer in Texas. Her apologetic text is Faith on Trial (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999; reissued in 2013). See her website: https://www.pamelaewen.com/. Her testimony of conversion see https://www.allmomdoes.com/2020/04/04/really-getting-easter/
Article profiling some women currently involved in apologetics – Andrea Palpant Dilley, “Meet the Women Apologists,” Christianity Today, April 7, 2015, pp 35-41, available at:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/april/unexpected-defenders-meet-women-apologists.html
Three key names:
Some faculty members at Houston Baptist University write/teach in apologetics:
· Mary Jo Sharp – graduated with an MA in apologetics at Biola University; teaches apologetics at Houston Baptist University; directs an apologetics ministry known as Confident Christianity. Author: Defending the Faith: Apologetics in Women’s Ministry, (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2012).
· Kristen Davis – teaches at Houston Baptist University and runs DoubtLess Faith Ministry.
· Amy Orr-Ewing – President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Also been associated with Ravi Zacharias Ministries. Author of several books including Why Trust the Bible? (Nottingham: IVP, 2005; revised edition: IVP, 2020); Where is God in all the Suffering? (Good Book Company, 2020); Is Believing in God Irrational? (IVP 2008). See
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/april/oxfords-unapologetic-female-apologist.html
On apologetics for children see Daniel Koncur’s paper available at:
Rev Dr Ross Clifford AM is the Principal of Morling College (NSW Baptist) and author of numerous books many of which focus on Christian Apologetics. He is a Vice President of the Baptist World Alliance, President of the Asian Baptist Association, an acclaimed international preacher and speaker, a columnist in many Christian publications, winner of many national and international awards and for many years the Sunday evening Sydney Radio 2CH host. Ross is married to Bev, father and grand father.