The development and pervasiveness of modern atheism as well as secularization poses an acute challenge to Christian theology. Theologians have either ignored this challenge or have sought to meet it in a variety of ways. Throughout his theological career, Walter Kasper (1933-) has maintained that theology has the mutual tasks of exposition of the Christian faith and of responding to contemporary challenges to this faith. In his seminal work The God of Jesus Christ (1982), he argues that the proper Christian response to modern atheism is the confession of the Trinity. In making this response, Kasper begins to chart a course for all future Christian apologetics, for all efforts to give an account of Christian hope (1 Peter 3:15).

The Author: Ralph N. McMichael, Jr. is Canon Theologian and Dean of the Episcopal School for Ministry in the (Episcopal) Diocese of Missouri. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. In addition to writing several articles and essays published in journals, magazines, and volumes of collected essays, he edited Creation and Liturgy (1993).