Indeed, if apologetics is a component of the pastoral function of theology—as we would argue—then it is precisely by engaging such contemporary questions that Christian theology can have a powerful existential and pastoral traction in the lives of believers. There is no one chapter in this volume that can stand alone like Hercules and single-handedly rescue Adam from his rapidly diminishing theological, cultural, and scientific plausibility. However, when all the chapters are taken together as a
Page xii