Terminology Tuesday: Polemics

Polemics: The art of disputation or controversy (the defense of a thesis by formal logic). A polemic can also be the aggressive refutation of another position or principle. In theology polemics often refers to the attempt to show the superiority of Christian teaching over its rivals by means of a systematic, ordered delineation of the Christian belief system (systematic theology) that shows the internal consistency of Christian doctrine as well as its congruence with human knowledge as a whole.1

1. Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 92.