Women in apologetics: From doubter to proclaimer

DoubtLess Faith Ministries is a Christian apologetics organisation that showcases renowned authors, speakers and resources made available to Christians to provide sound, reasonable evidence for the truth of the Christian worldview. It heavily emphasises biblical archaeology and comparative religions, hosting educational trips to the Holy Land and supporting archaeological digs and international events touring various religious faiths worldwide.

Unearthing Christian truth

The founder and leader of DoubLess Faith is Dr Kristen Davis, who was able to initiate and realise her ambitious goal of sustaining this important organisation.

Kristen’s pedigree is impressive, to say the least. She has her BS in religion with a focus in biblical studies—graduating summa cum laude—and her MA in Christian apologetics, graduating with the highest honours. She also has a PhD in philosophy of religion from Southern Evangelical Semianry.

In addition to leading DoubtLess Faith Ministries, Kristen has put her academic achievement to work as an adjunct professor of ethics for Southeastern University and by teaching at multiple churches around Jacksonville.

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Early insecurities

Kristen was not always the confident and energetic apologist that she is today. Despite growing up in a Christian home and being heavily involved in her local church her entire life, Kristen was stymied by insecurities and doubts for much of her youth. To her, it seemed that the evidence against the Christian worldview was so intense that her beliefs were motivated mainly by guilt rather than confidence. She says:

“I was the girl that the church kids called a goody two shoes, but deep inside I was afraid none of it was true. I wondered how science could prove we were descendants of monkeys yet Genesis teaches us that we are special creations made in the image of God. I wondered how we could know that Christianity was the right path when there are so many religious options. I closed my thoughts on my doubts because I was afraid it made me a bad Christian and so I ignored them and trudged on for many years. My doubts and the lack of answers eroded my faith. I graduated from high school knowing I was called to ministry but turned my back on the calling, because my doubts kept God from being real to me.”

Reasons to believe

Events sparked during her college years eventually led Kristen to the doorstep of Liberty University, a Christian school in Virginia. There she finally discovered that—although not widely known—there were, in fact, strong reasons to believe Christianity was true:

“During that time I took a creation science class and a biblical archaeology class, both of which blew my mind by showing me that the Bible is not only reliable but is supported by an incredible amount of science and history. I was exhilarated and my faith exploded and expanded into every part of my life. These discoveries made me so hungry for God and all he could do and show me. Apologetics removed the stumbling blocks, allowing my faith to go from nominal, at best, to a passionate love affair with my creator. I now seek to share what I have learned with others so that they too can fall madly in love with their creator and saviour.”

Strengthened by her newfound–and well-founded–confidence in her Christian beliefs, Kristen put all her energies into apologetic pursuits. Kristen describes the reasons that have buoyed her beliefs:

“…believe it or not, apologetics has helped me get through the days when I have felt hopeless more than anything else, because in my studies of the reliability of the Bible I’ve found that the Bible is the single most reliable document in the entire world, throughout all of history. No other book has not only always matched the archaeological data to a ‘T’, but also corrected secular history. Knowing the Bible is trustworthy in the historical details allows me to believe that when God says ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ he means it. That when he says he loves us more than his own life, he means it. I can trust the parts of scripture that are hard for me to wrap my head around because the things that can be historically verified have shown the Bible to be trustworthy.”

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Digging up the past

Kristen’s particular interest in biblical archaeology has driven her to exciting pursuits that have contributed significant advancements to the field.

She began by researching and writing her master’s thesis on the religious artefacts of Tel Dan, showing they support the biblical conquest narrative. And she is now an associate of a biblical archaeology group called Associates for Biblical Research.

Kristen has been to Israel twice, once on a holy land trip and the second time on an archaeological dig–the western wall plaza excavation. In addition to this, Kristen has been to India to study religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Islam firsthand.

Kristen summarises her passion for biblical archaeology this way:

“…my personal area of interest is in biblical archeology, especially as it pertains to the Old Testament and the pre-monarchical times (before kings Saul and David). These areas (creation, the patriarchs, the Egyptian sojourn and exodus, and the conquest periods) are often dismissed as non-historical narratives, created for the purpose of giving Israel a right to Canaan after the Babylonian exile. The problem is if these narratives aren’t true then there is no sense in reading on to the Gospels. If you can’t trust the beginning of the Bible, where the whole purpose and need for Christ’s death is introduced and explained, then the rest can’t be trusted either; nor does the rest make sense if the beginning is all fiction created to tell a good background story. Through biblical archaeology, I seek to show people that the Bible is historically true from the get-go so that when the miraculous, hard to believe parts are encountered, there is already a framework of trust in the reliability of the document of scripture itself to support the credibility of the more difficult parts to comprehend.”

Women in apologetics

Kristen is on the speaking team of the International Society of Women in Apologetics. She has not found the world of Christian apologetics to be particularly unfriendly to women: 

“I suppose some would say women face a unique challenge in the world of Christian apologetics because of the ratio of men to women in ministry being so unbalanced, however I’ve never personally encountered issues. Female apologists are a unique breed right now so I think we’re actually a novelty of sorts to many churches and universities. The only challenge I’ve faced as a woman, that probably isn’t the case for most men in ministry, is finding someone willing to mentor and walk me through growing into a strong ministry leader. Because so many misunderstandings take place between men and women that lead to ruined ministry careers, I’ve found most male leaders are willing to give feedback and advice from a distance, preferring to mentor those of the same gender. I can understand this and - though a challenge - it has probably been a very beneficial thing because it has resulted in me seeking feedback from a plethora of leaders rather than only a single mentor, as well as requiring me to lean on God for direction and guidance where I might otherwise have esteemed the words of a human too much.”

Kristen Davis has shown herself to be an exemplary advocate for the Christian worldview, and her ministry has shown continued growth and expansion across the years. 

Joel Furches is an apologist, journalist and researcher on conversion and deconversion, based in the USA.