Propositional Apologetics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Belief, (Paperback)

<b>Why do arguments fail to settle disagreement-even when they are sound?</b><br><b>Why does modern discourse feel angry, coercive, and unstable, even when it claims to value reason and evidence?</b> <p><b>And by what authority does anyone judge belief at all?</b> </p><p>In <i><b>Propositional Apologetics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Belief</b></i>, philosopher-theologian <b>S. C. Sayles</b> argues that the central failure of modern apologetics is not intellectual weakness, lack of evidence, or poor reasoning-but a deeper confusion about <b>authority</b>. </p><p>Apologetics, Sayles contends, has asked arguments to do work they cannot do. Classical proofs, evidential reasoning, and presuppositional analysis can explain, persuade, and expose inconsistency-but they cannot, by themselves, <b>judge</b>. Judgment requires jurisdiction. And jurisdiction, in modern discourse, is almost always assumed, concealed, or denied. </p><p>This book does not offer another apologetic system. It does not attempt to "win debates," accumulate proofs, or force assent. Instead, it asks a prior and more fundamental question: </p><p><b>By what right does any claim bind under disagreement?</b> </p><p>Through careful philosophical analysis and disciplined restraint, Sayles re-examines classical apologetics, evidentialism, transcendental reasoning, and presuppositionalism-not as courts, but as <b>witnesses</b>. He shows why disagreement persists even when arguments succeed, why neutrality functions as concealed authority, and why judgment without a named court inevitably collapses into coercion. </p><p>At the centre of the work is a rigorous account of <b>jurisdiction</b>: the legitimate right to judge. Sayles distinguishes authority from power, procedure, consensus, expertise, and persuasion, exposing how modern philosophy evacuated authority while retaining judgment-producing a culture saturated with condemnation but starved of legitimacy. </p><p>Written with clarity, precision, and theological seriousness, <i>Propositional Apologetics</i> is not a manual for argumentation, but an architectural work that clarifies the conditions under which argument, evidence, and belief can meaningfully function at all. </p><p>This book is for readers who sense that something is deeply wrong with contemporary apologetics and public reasoning-but who also refuse shallow solutions. It is for those willing to confront the uncomfortable truth that <b>judgment cannot exist without authority</b>, and that authority must be named before it can be answered. </p><p>Apologetics does not fail because it argues too boldly. </p><p>It fails because it begins too late.<br></p>

• Propositional Apologetics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Belief, (Paperback)
• Author: Independently Published
• ISBN: 9798243506571
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-01-11
• Page Count: 170