In his latest work, Covenantal Apologetics, K. Scott Oliphint seeks to recast Cornelius Van Til’s presuppositional apologetics as “covenantal apologetics” – a Reformed apologetic that is both broadly accessible and easily practiced. In this ambitious endeavor, Oliphint succeeds commendably.

One of the greatest strengths of Oliphint’s project is that, in a covenantal apologetic, there is no clear boundary between apologetics and evangelism. As Oliphint reiterates throughout his work, apologetics ought to be understood foremost as persuasion; persuading men and women of the truth of the Gospel.

In chapter 4, Oliphint describes his notion of “persuasion” through what he terms thetrivium of persuasion – a trivium (a set of three subjects), comprised of ethos, pathos, and logos, that encapsulates what “persuasion” is. Given persuasion’s centrality to a covenantal apologetic, this trivium of persuasion is practically a trivium of covenantal apologetics and therefore is a helpful way to compress the whole of Oliphint’s project.

Covenantal apologetics’s trivium begins with ethos, a subject focused upon the character of the apologist. If the covenantal apologist’s goal is to magnify Christ and His Gospel, the apologist simultaneously must be commending Christ and his Gospel with his life, or else all of the arguments and persuasions that he offers will be eviscerated. A holy God must be commended by a holy people, not a people exalting “relevance” over holiness or a people aggressive and combative in their commendation of the Prince of Peace. While Oliphint is very clear that the ultimate work of persuasion is accomplished by the Holy Spirit alone rather than by the apologist, the ethos of the apologist matters and Oliphint highlights that importance brilliantly.

The second component of covenantal apologetics’s trivium is pathos, which Oliphint understands as a proper and nuanced appreciation of those to whom the apologist speaks. Within a covenantal apologetic, where apologetics are seen as persuasion, this focus upon the idiosyncrasies of the “audience” is centrally important – “what will persuade this person?” In many ways, the whole of Oliphint’s work is an effort to help his readers answer this pathos-centered question in their everyday apologetic/evangelistic encounter.

The first necessary principle in answering the pathos question is rooted in the character of God Himself. In chapter 2, Oliphint explores the doctrine of God’s aseity (God’s quality of absolute independence, being dependent on nothing for His being or existence). If God alone is independent; if He is the One Who gives being to all other things (Acts 17:24-25); then God rightly can be understood as the Foundation of all Reality. But this “foundational God” does not stand at a distance from His creation; rather, He has condescended to reveal Himself to, and interact with, His creation in several ways. First, God has revealed Himself within man, having formed man in His own image. As God’s image bearer, each individual inescapably has a knowledge of God. As Oliphint very helpfully observes, this knowledge of God is “more psychological than epistemological” (p.103); the knowledge of God implanted in all men emanates not so much from their minds as from their souls. Woven into the very fabric of who they are, men have a knowledge of God. Yet even this internal knowledge of God is overwhelmed by God’s condescension to reveal Himself in His written Word and, most gloriously, in His incarnate Son. Particularly in this climactic incarnational condescension, which Oliphint discusses at length in chapter 2, God retains His full divinity, yet He is able to relate to His creation. In multi-faceted and intelligible ways, the God upon Whom all things depend has revealed Himself to, and relates to, His creation.