Abstract
Religious texts have been examined by scholars from different theoretical standpoints. However, a close survey of the literature reveals that little attention has been paid to Christian apologetics from a linguistic perspective. Also, an examination of studies along the lines of Generic Structure Potential (henceforth GSP) shows that the genre status of Christian apologetics has not been indicated. This gap provides the motivation for this paper, which investigates the GSP of Christian apologetics. Twenty texts written by various key contemporary apologetic writers were purposively selected for the study. The following generic structure potential catalogue was generated:
 
 The paper reveals that the elements of the GSP concertedly work to advance, argue for or defend the Christian belief system. The paper also suggests that the model could be applied to other forms of apologetic instances.
Highlights
Religious text is one of the most influential texts in contemporary society
A close survey of the literature, available to us, reveals that little attention has been paid to Christian apologetics from a discourse analytic point of view, using the Generic Structure Potential model developed by Halliday and Hasan (1985), which helps to establish the genre status of a discourse
Genre categorization is determined by the communicative purpose of the discourse, since Christian apologetics argues for the truth, validity and reliability of the Christian belief system, it belongs to the arguing genre
Summary
Religious text is one of the most influential texts in contemporary society. It manifests in scriptures, sermons, Bible study outlines and theological writings and apologetic treatises. Sermons, Bible study outlines and theological writings and apologetic treatises Scholars have investigated these manifestations of religious texts from different theoretical standpoints. A close survey of the literature, available to us, reveals that little attention has been paid to Christian apologetics from a discourse analytic point of view, using the Generic Structure Potential model developed by Halliday and Hasan (1985), which helps to establish the genre status of a discourse. This paper, aims to examine the Generic Structure Potential of Christian apologetics to establish its genre status
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