Contact: Anthony Horvath, Athanatos Christian Ministries, 202-697-4623, director@athanatosministries.org

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christians should intentionally and intelligently engage the culture through the arts, says Anthony Horvath, the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries, an apologetics ministry.

According to Horvath, Christians have vastly underestimated the importance that culture plays in worldview formation and worse, have no significant efforts underway to reverse that trend.

Horvath says, "If you want to understand the power of culture, look at how gay 'marriage' went from being unfathomable to unstoppable in less than ten years. That doesn't happen by accident. It certainly didn't happen through legislative efforts, which up until recently were all lined up against it. How then did it happen? Answer: intentional manipulation of the culture."

Horvath notes that in the same period of time, the Christian Church has become more aware of the need for Christian apologetics, and Christian apologists in turn have become more aware of the need for cultural engagement through the arts and literature.

Horvath argues that this is not enough. "The Church needs to get financially involved in supporting apologists and artists, because they will be the last remaining frontline representatives of the Gospel when the church buildings in America empty--as they have done in post-Christian Europe. And frankly, time is of the essence."

Athanatos Christian Ministries has long sought to defend the Christian faith through the arts, hosting annual Christian novel contests and writing conferences. Recently, however, it has doubled-down on this emphasis with the formation of an online Christian writer's community and its 'literary apologetics' certificate program, offered through its online apologetics academy.

"We want to help authors and artists understand how their work can address emotional and intellectual objections to the Christian faith and then help them do so, and similarly, goad apologists into considering how they can carry out their work through cultural engagement, rather than limiting themselves to argument," Horvath says.

ACM's 'literary apologetics' certificate has something for both sides, providing theological and apologetic instruction on the one hand, and writing workshops, critiques, and analysis of 'literary apologists' such as C.S. Lewis and others, on the other.

"We're doing our part. What is still needed is for the Church to become patrons of the arts the way they used to be. This is a terrible time to be producing starving artists--or apologists," Horvath says.

Anthony Horvath is available for comment at director@athanatosministries.org or 202-697-4623.