New Atheism and ‘Evil’ of Religions: The Call of Pastoral Theology for Building New Apologetics

Abstract

In this paper, the author explores the New Atheism movement in the West and con-temporary Western apologetics. The goal of such research is to present the apologetics as a valid answer of the Church to modern science and atheistic conclusions based on it. Apologetics should be reestablished as a separate theological discipline that would help young theologians understand the issues in dialogue between New Atheism and Christianity, which are currently studied briefly in pastoral theology.

Keywords

• pastoral theology
• new atheism
• apologetics
• richard dawkins
• daniel dennett
• sam harris
• christopher hitchens
• william lane craig
• alister mcgrath
• religion
• moral evil