Should We Ditch Apologetics?

Dr. Karlo Broussard argues that apologetics should not be abandoned, because reasoned arguments—alongside love and prayer—remain essential for defending the faith, leading people to truth, and helping others share fully in the spiritual goods of the Catholic Church.

TRANSCRIPT: Should We Ditch Apologetics?

Are we wasting our time with apologetics? Is it time to give it up? I don’t think so. And I’d like to share a few reasons why.

Hey guys, Welcome back to the channel! So glad to have you with me. If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to subscribe…and also , I’d like to invite you to consider helping keep this podcast going by financially supporting us over at patreon at doctorkarlo.com with “doctor” spelled out.

So, ever since I started doing apologetics and sharing my love for it with others, I’ve had plenty of people try to stifle that passion. Some have even gone so far as to say we really shouldn’t be doing apologetics at all.

One common objection is that proofs don’t always work—so, why even bother with apologetics?

Another reason is that we should just focus on love, not arguments.

Yet another: why bother in persuading others when the Church teaches it’s possible for someone who’s outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church to be saved?

Do these sound familiar? Maybe you’ve run into these ideas as well—or maybe even wrestled with them yourself.

In this video, I want to offer a few thoughts in response.

And in doing so, I hope to also share a vision of how I view apologetics.

Let’s start with that first objection: “Proofs don’t always work, so what’s the point?”

Well, first off, let’s be honest—lots of things don’t always work when it comes to evangelization.

Take love, for example. Just loving someone doesn’t guarantee they’ll come to faith.
But does that mean we should give up on love? Of course not.

Same thing with prayer. Some folks say, “We don’t need apologetics—we should just pray for people.”

Well, while prayer is powerful and important, guess what? Sometimes it doesn’t bring about the desired result, at least not right away.

But do we give up on prayer? Absolutely not.

So here’s how we can frame it logically:

• Premise 1: If we give up on apologetics because it doesn’t always work, then we’d have to give up on love and prayer, too.
• Premise 2: But we shouldn’t give up on love and prayer.
• Conclusion: Therefore, we shouldn’t give up on apologetics either.

Here’s another response to this objection: sometimes arguments do work.

Speaking from personal experience as an apologist with Catholic Answers, I can’t tell you how many people have told me that something I said or wrote helped them come to the Catholic faith—or strengthened their belief in it, for those who are already Catholic.

And I’m not the only one. My colleagues—many of whom themselves converted through apologetics—have shared similar stories. They too experience firsthand how reasoned arguments lead people into the Church.

So, if apologetical arguments sometimes work, that alone is reason enough to use them.

And that leads right into my next response:

If we toss out apologetics just because some people aren’t convinced by the arguments, then we’re ignoring the people who would be convinced.

And that’s a big deal.

We don’t want to miss the chance to reach hearts and minds that are genuinely open to the truth. That wouldn’t just be a strategic failure—it would be a failure of charity.

So let’s not throw apologetics out just because not everyone finds the arguments persuasive.

Now, there’s something underneath this objection that we need to address:

The idea that arguments have to work every time in order to be worth using.

But that’s just not a fair or realistic expectation.

Many arguments in apologetics don’t lead to ironclad, undeniable conclusions. Now, here me: I’m not saying there are no arguments that lead to undeniable conclusions. I do think the conclusions of some philosophical arguments, like Aquinas’s Five Ways for proving God’s existence, can’t be denied without the pain of contradiction.

What I am saying is that many (or perhaps most) arguments don’t lead to the ironclad undeniable conclusions. Instead, they usually give us probable knowledge, which means the person still has to choose to believe.

And when belief involves the will, that means the thing being proposed for belief can also be rejected.

Why? Well, lots of reasons.

• Maybe the person doesn’t like the conclusion and rejects it out of pride or emotional resistance.
• Maybe they just don’t have the intellectual background to really follow the argument.
• Maybe past sin has clouded their intellect and made it harder for them to see the truth.

Or maybe the problem is on our end.
Perhaps the person presenting the argument didn’t explain it clearly—even if the argument itself was sound.

So when someone says, “Apologetics doesn’t always work,” we can say, “Of course not. We don’t expect it to always work.”

The ineffectiveness of apologetics for this or that person isn’t a reason to give up on it entirely.

Here’s something else to keep in mind: just because someone doesn’t accept an argument now doesn’t mean they never will.

Coming to the truth is a journey. Some people aren’t ready today—but they might be ready a week, a year, or even a decade from now.

That’s why it’s still worth offering the arguments. You never know when someone will be in the right place to hear them.

Here’s a final point in response to that first objection:

Even if the arguments don’t convince the person we’re speaking to, they still have value.

• They can strengthen the faith of the person offering them—or the faith of those hearing the arguments.
• They help satisfy our rational nature. Our minds are wired to ask “why?” and seek reasons behind what we believe. Apologetical arguments give such reasons.
• And that makes apologetics a matter of justice. People have a right to know the reasons behind the faith they’re being invited to embrace.

So even when apologetics doesn’t “work” in the obvious way of bringing about a conversion—it’s still doing important work.

Now, what about that second objection—“Forget apologetics, just focus on love”?

Well, as Christians, we absolutely agree that love is the most important thing.

In fact, Scripture tells us love—supernatural love—is the greatest among the supernatural gifts, even above faith and hope. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 13. Also, love is the condition for entrance to heaven, as Jesus teaches with the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46.

But just because love is most important doesn’t mean apologetics isn’t important at all.

Another thing to remember: apologetics is about reason—and reason isn’t the enemy of love. It’s actually its friend.

When we lead someone to the truth, we’re enabling them to love God more deeply. Truth and love go hand in hand.

And let’s not forget: love defends what it loves.

If you love something—or someone—and you see it being attacked, you step in to protect and defend it.

We love Jesus. We love the truth He revealed. And both are under attack in today’s world.

That’s why we do apologetics: to defend what we love.

Alright, so much for the love objection. Let’s now tackle the objection that might go like this: Why bother with apologetics? I mean, the Church says people outside the visible boundaries of Catholicism can still be saved, right?

Well . . . the short answer is: yes, the Church does teach that. You can see it in paragraphs 846 to 848 of the Catechism. Let me read you part of paragraph 847—it’s quoting Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, section 16:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation (LG, 16).

Okay—so if that’s the case, why keep doing apologetics? I can think of five reasons.

Reason #1: As the 2007 Doctrinal Note on Evangelization points out (which was published by then the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, now called the Dicastery for the Faith), people outside the visible Church are missing out on a tremendous benefit in this life. Or actually, benefits, plural.

The fullness of revelation about God, His son Jesus Christ, and the Church that he established.

The fullness of revelation about life’s biggest questions.

The fullness of revelation about the “inestimable benefit to live within the universal embrace of the friends of God—the communion of saints.”

The certainty of forgiveness of sins through Baptism and Confession.

The fullness of revelation concerning the means of attaining and preserving friendship with Christ, which is what Jesus reveals to be “eternal life.”

In light of this, the Doctrinal Note concludes,

The Church wants everyone to share in these goods so that they may possess the fullness of truth and the fullness of the means of salvation, in order “to enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).

So, we continue to bother with apologetics because we want others to experience all the goods/gifts that Christ entrusted to His Church.

This is the same idea you see in the 2000 declaration Dominus Iesus. It stated,

If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation.

Notice it says those outside the Church are in a gravely deficient situation? I think that’s a pretty good motivator for apologetics.

Reason #2: It’s a matter of justice. I mentioned this briefly earlier. But I think it’s worth mentioning again. That same Doctrinal Note on Evangelization quotes Pope St. John Paul II’s 1990 Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, stating,

“[E]very person has the right to hear the ‘Good News’ of the god who reveals and gives himself in Christ . . . It is a right which the Lord himself confers on every person . . . This right implies the corresponding duty to evangelize.”

If we opt out of giving persuasive reasons to embrace the truth of Christ in his Church, then we’re selling people short of what’s due to them. That’s definitely not an option!

Reason #3: Non-Catholics can miss out on growing their soul’s capacity for happiness in heaven. Frank Sheed nails this point in his book Theology and Sanity. Sorry for the long quote, but it’s worth it:

A man who does not accept the Catholic Church may be saved; that is, he may enter heaven. But not having all the truths or all the means of grace, he will not have grown to the soul-capacity that the totality of Christ’s gifts would have meant to him. A given non-Catholic may indeed have made better use of his smaller share of gifts than a given Catholic has made of the totality. Yet his capacity, though it may be greater than this or that Catholic actually has, is not as great as he himself as a Catholic would have had. And the difference matters far beyond our power to conceive (pg. 344).

Friends, I can’t improve on that. Sheed had a way with words.

Fourth reason to keep doing apologetics even though someone possibly can be saved outside the visible boundaries of the Church: Truth is a good—especially the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church. And love means wanting the good for others. So if we love our neighbor, we’ll want them to know and live that truth. And what better way to help them know that truth than through apologetics.

Finally, reason #5: The Church only says it’s possible for someone outside the visible Church to be saved. We don’t know exactly who that includes. So to be safe—and loving—we still need to share the truth as persuasively as we can. And that can happen through apologetics.

So, should we ditch apologetics just because arguments don’t always “work,” or because love is more important, or because it’s possible for a non-Catholic to be saved Absolutely not.

Ditching apologetics definitely wasn’t the way for St. Peter. Remember what he said in 1 Peter 3:15: “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”

My friends, we need all the tools in the tool kit for evangelization—love, prayer, and reasoned argumentation. All of these work together to lead people to the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church.

Well, my friends, that’s it for today! If you found this video helpful, make sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who might need to hear this. And for more resources, check out my website at karlobroussard.com.

If you want me to come and speak at your event, visit catholicanswersspeakers.com.

Lastly, I’d love for you to consider supporting me over on Patreon. I can’t continue doing this podcast without your financial support. You can find me over at doctorkarlo.com with doctor spelled out.

Thanks for hanging out, and I’ll see you next time!