Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological seminary, has an interesting three part series on apologetics. Part one is called Strange Things to Our Ears: Apologetics in a Postmodern Age ... here are parts 2 and 3.

Here is the problem for the apologist. How do you present evidence in support of truth claims when the person you are engaging rejects the notion that truth exists?

Mohler's outline:

First, a Christian apologetic begins in a provoked spirit.
Second, a Christian apologetic is focused on Gospel proclamation.
Third, a Christian apologetic assumes a context of spiritual confusion. Fourth, a Christian apologetic is directed to a spiritual hunger.
Fifth, a Christian apologetic begins with the fundamental issue of God's nature, character, power, and authority.
Sixth, a Christian apologetic confronts error.

Notice that Mohler never really addresses the problem of relativism head-on, in my opinion. I find that interesting. His approach to post-moderns looks ... well, it looks like his approach to moderns. Maybe that is the whole point he is trying to get across. Don't change your approach.

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The Lure and the Lie: Lessons in the Anatomy of Postmodern Deception

Many volumes have been penned of late detailing postmodern man’s bloody siege against absolute truth and offering intellectual strategies to defend the ramparts of faith and religious freedom against this formidable usurper. As a Christian, I applaud these efforts insofar as they have dressed the voice of faith in the armor of reason and schooled Christians in the secular dialect necessary to engage a culture hopelessly mired in a swamp of relativism, hedonism and humanism. Nevertheless, I have often wondered whether our crusade to recapture the Holy Citadel of Truth has been hampered by our subtle yet cloying disinterest in meeting the person behind the invader’s mask, understanding his heart, and discerning his motivations for taking up the sword against us.

Since ancient times warriors have understood that the key to victory is adherence to the injunction: “Know thine enemy.” As Christians, however, we are called to submit to an even greater command: “Love thine enemy.” It is axiomatic that if we are to love our enemies, we must first come to know them by name. Though in timidity we may prefer to caricature them as devils, those who declaim the “unenlightened” foundations of our civilization, mock our “repressive” morality, and sue to expurgate from our public square all evidence of our Founder’s faith are men and women of flesh and bone, with thoughts, feelings, families, histories, and beliefs of their own. As a Church called to embody the example of Christ, we must extend to our secular neighbors the dignity they deserve as individuals bearing the imago Dei, not curse and slander them from across the fenced divide. We must temper our zeal with knowledge and charity so that when we set about to expose the lies our culture has embraced our words will also season the souls of our hearers with everlasting grace.

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