There is an interesting essay here, written in 2004 from a Roman Catholic perspective, on the rebirth of apologetics. As the culture spirals into darkness, becoming hostile and pagan, we find ourselves in a situation similar to the early second century which gave birth to such apologists as Justin Martyr, Aristides, Athenagoras, Tertullian and others. There is indeed a burgeoning need for apologetics.

The author says much that evangelical Prostestants should agree with. He writes,

“From its beginnings Christianity has been propagated through the living testimony of believers. The apostles were conscious of imparting a message that came from God. The Book of Revelation records the testimony of John, “who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:2). Paul writes of himself and the other apostles, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” He congratulates the Thessalonians for receiving his teaching “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Believers today have to rely likewise on testimony. 

Personal testimony calls for an epistemology quite distinct from the scientific, as commonly understood. The scientist treats the datum to be investigated as a passive object to be mastered and brought within the investigator’s intellectual horizons. Interpretations proffered by others are not accepted on authority but are tested by critical probing. But when we proceed by testimony, the situation is very different. The event is an interpersonal encounter, in which the witness plays an active role, making an impact upon us. Without in any way compelling us to believe, the witness calls for a free assent that involves personal respect and trust. To reject the message is to withhold confidence in the witness. To accept it is a trusting submission to the witness’s authority. To the extent that we believe, we renounce our autonomy and willingly depend on the judgment of others.

. . . Since the passage from unbelief to Christian faith involves conversion to a radically new outlook, testimony plays an indispensable role. Through the words of His witnesses God can bring us to affirm what we could not have discovered for ourselves. To demonstrate that belief in religious testimony can be warranted, apologetics is required. It must present criteria for credibility. Some of the criteria have already been worked out in other disciplines. Historians, journalists, and juries regularly rely on witnesses. To avoid mistakes they have to devise tests of reliability. They look for witnesses who are in a position to know and who have no motive for deceiving others. They prefer early sources, as close as possible to the events, and those that rely on multiple independent witnesses.“

Some of the most powerful contemporary apologists are Catholics, like Peter Kreeft at Boston College. The Handbook of Christian Apologetics that he coauthored with Ronald Tacelli is must-reading.