‘Defending a Thesis’: Pragmatic Acts in Contemporary Christian Apologetics

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the pragmeme ‘defending a thesis’ characterises Christian apologetics and that the various pragmatic acts performed are instantiations of this generalised situation type. Linguistic efforts have not really dealt with Christian apologetics generally, and specifically from a pragmatic perspective. This is the gap this paper hopes to fill. Furthermore, in the literature on pragmeme there is no study that focuses on the issue of ‘defending a thesis’. For data, ten purposively selected texts from five prominent and contemporary Christian apologists were studied and representative excerpts were analysed using insights from the theory of pragmeme/pragmatic acts. The study concludes that the various individual practs- arguing, substantiating, disclaiming, authenticating, challenging, defending- in Christian apologetics are instantiations of the pragmeme ‘defending a thesis’.