An interview with Dr. Edgar on World Magazine. “Culture, like facts, isn’t neutral says apologist William Edgar, and a place at the table isn’t everything.”

World: How did you come to faith?

Edgar: In my sophomore year at Harvard I had a professor who was a Christian. He strongly suggested that I connect with a friend of his, Francis Schaeffer, on a trip I was taking to Switzerland. So in 1964 [in Europe] I pulled this little slip of paper out of my pocket that said, “Francis A. Schaeffer,” with a name and address, and I called him up. The Schaeffers urged me to stay for several days, and I thought, “This is really amazing hospitality.” When I got there I realized that it was a Christian community with a very strong emphasis on cultural apologetics. I ended up staying the rest of the summer.

World: At Westminster Theological Seminary you studied with Cornelius Van Til. Why is he so important to Christian apologetics?

Edgar: Van Til is considered to be the leading exponent of “presuppositionalism,” an apologetic that looks at issues of the heart and worldview, rather than simply amassing great doses of evidence that are presented as though facts were neutral. Van Til was very favorable to evidence but it had to be in a framework. I took that ball and ran with it into the area of culture studies, and now I teach cultural apologetics.

World: You say that “culture” is never neutral, but always driven by religious commitments.

Edgar: What we call the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:21 and following says that as image-bearers of God we are to populate, replenish, and subdue the earth. In the subduing of the world we’re doing culture. We are cultural beings because of that first mandate. Despite the Fall it has not been abrogated; it’s been redefined in…

… continue reading on World Magazine.

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