Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020) and His Legacy by ALISTER MCGRATH for The Gospel Coalition
Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020) will be remembered for his landmark contributions to Christian apologetics, especially his concern to connect the gospel with the life of the mind.
Zacharias died on May 19, 2020, from cancer.
Zacharias’s Life
Born in the Indian city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), Zacharias came to faith in Christ through the ministry of Youth for Christ, and quickly developed a passion for evangelism. Following the family’s relocation to Ontario, Canada, in the late 1960s, Zacharias studied at Ontario Bible College to develop his skills as an evangelist. After serving as a district evangelist for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada in southern Ontario, Zacharias studied for an MDiv under Norman Geisler and John Warwick Montgomery at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This experience proved significant in convincing him that American evangelicalism was losing its capacity to engage the intellectual issues that prevented reflective skeptics from coming to faith.
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Following his ordination in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Zacharias served as associate professor of evangelism and contemporary thought at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York, from 1980. It was an important appointment at the denomination’s national seminary, offering Zacharias the opportunity to influence a rising generation of pastors. It was, however, a demanding role, which left Zacharias little time for the practice of evangelism, or developing the apologetic strategies he increasingly believed were essential to engaging skeptical audiences.
