Outline : What does it take to live a meaningful life? Why are so many people in affluent nations so anxious and unhappy? What difference does believing in God really make? Does belief in the God of the Bible truly make sense today? In The God Question, philosopher J. P. Moreland invites us on a journey to a flourishing life. He digs into the causes of our cultural crisis of unhappiness and co…
Outline : In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture. Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them. …
Outline : Christianity is a religion of persuasion. How can we defend the faith persuasively without reducing apologetics to a simplistic formula? As Christians, we're called to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ. But too often, this task can feel like we're doing PR work for God, limiting out apologetic efforts to a series of strategies and tactics. In The Faithful Apologist, Scott …
Outline: A Definitive Masterwork from the world's leading Christian Apologist. Throughout his career, Ravi Zacharias has faced some of the most difficult questions ever asked about the Christian faith. The most troublesome question of all, however, came from a Hindu friend. "If this conversion is truly supernatural," he asked, "why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians that …
Outline: This book by respected philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig has been thoroughly revised and updated to equip believers in the successful proclamation of biblical truth claims. The author gives careful attention to crucial questions and concerns, including: How Do I Know Christianity Is True?, The Absurdity of Life Without God, The Existence of God, The Problem of Miracles, and…
Outline : Can Christians still presume to speak the truth in a culture of relativism and religious pluralism? What is the Christian message to our postmodern age? In this influential, best-selling book Lesslie Newbigin draws from prominent thinkers across the disciplines to suggest that knowledge of the truth is always risky; it always requires personal commitment rather than dispassionate inqu…
This expanded anniversary edition includes updates and expansions of existing tactics, as well as the addition of an all-new tactic and a chapter on Mini Tactics filled with simple maneuvers to aid in discussions. In a world increasingly indifferent to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of aut…
Accommodation Theory. In apologetics, accommodation theory can refer to either of two views, one acceptable and one objectionable to evangelical Christians. It can refer to God’s accommodation of his revelation to our finite circumstances to communicate with us, as in Scripture or the incarnation of Christ ( see Bible, Evidence for ; Calvin, John ; Christ, Deity of ). Both of these are forms …
Craig's approach of positive apologetics gives careful attention to crucial questions and concerns, including: the relationship of faith and reason, the existence of God, the problems of historical knowledge and miracles, the personal claims of Christ, and the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. He shows that there is good reason to think Christianity is true.
Many people—even people who would call themselves Christians—have difficulties with the Bible. Some people are morally offended by parts of the Bible. Some parts of it do not fit modern ideas about good religion. What do we do with these parts? The Bible has exclusive claims about what is right and wrong in religion. It makes exclusive claims about God. It says that Jesus is the only way to…
Like any other discipline, apologetics lacks a uniform definition. The standard that’s largely been adopted is “the defense of the faith,” but overlapping definitions abound. Apologetics has been defined as “that branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification for the truth claims of the Christian faith,” “developing one’s authentic self so as to prese…
The Big Book of Christian Apologetics is a comprehensive resource designed to equip motivated believers with information to help defend and explain their faith. Examining nearly every key issue, person, and concept related to Christian apologetics, this book clarifies difficult biblical passages, clearly explains various philosophical systems and concepts, examines contemporary issues and chall…
Apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including that God is arrogant and jealous, punishes people too harshly, is guilty of ethnic cleansing, oppresses women, and endorses slavery. He also challenges the accusation that Christianity causes violence. Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully…
Finding the box top to the puzzle of life -- Can we handle the truth? -- Why should anyone believe anything at all? -- In the beginning there was a great surge -- Divine design -- The first life, natural law or divine awe? -- New life forms, from the goo to you via the zoo? -- Mother Teresa vs. Hitler -- Miracles, signs of God or gullibility? -- Do we have early testimony about Jesus? -- Do we …
Jesus came preaching, but the church wound up preaching Jesus. Why does the church insist upon making Jesus the object of its attention rather than heeding his message ? Esteemed Harvard minister Peter J. Gomes believes that excessive focus on the Bible and doctrines about Jesus have led the Christian church astray. "What did Jesus preach?" asks Gomes. To recover the transformative power of the…
Defending the faith can be daunting, and a well-reasoned and biblically grounded apologetic is essential for the challenge. Following in the footsteps of groundbreaking apologist Cornelius Van Til, Scott Oliphint presents us with an introduction to Reformed apologetics as he sets forth the principles behind a distinctly "covenantal" approach. This book clearly explains the theological foundatio…
The insights of Cornelius Van Til have generated intense discussion among friends and foes alike. Until now nearly everything written about Van Til has come from either uncritical followers or unsympathetic critics. This volume, marking the one hundredth anniversary of Van Til’s birth, combines deep appreciation with incisive critical analysis of the renowned Westminster apologist’s idea…
A multiple-view book on apologetic methods, this material deals with a very relevant topic in the midst of a changing culture. Its primary contributors are: William Lane Craig, Gary R. Habermas, Paul D. Feinberg, John M. Frame, and Kelly James Clark.
The plot outline of The Da Vinci Code is that a murder inside the Louvre leads to the discovery of clues found in the Da Vinci paintings, such as the Mona Lisa, which uncover information that has been protected by a secret society for 2,000 years. This information is so powerful that if brought out into the open, it could have major repercussions on Christianity. What this movie is really attem…
Western society is in crisis, the result of our culture's embrace of naturalism and postmodernism. At the same time, the biblical worldview has been pushed to the margins. Christians have been strongly influenced by these trends, with the result that the personal lives of Christians often reflect the surrounding culture more than the way of Christ, and the church's transforming influence on soc…
"For millennia the Christian worldview has offered answers to our most profound and challenging questions, What gives life meaning? Is there hope? In this systematic text, Douglas Groothuis skillfully employs a cumulative case for the Christian faith, allowing several lines of argumentation and evidence to converge. This work masterfully addresses what matters most"
"Is God a public figure? Does Christianity have a legitimate role to play in the public realm of politics, business, law, and education? Or are secularists right? When they relegate religion to the strictly private realm of faith and feelings? In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey offers a razor-sharp analysis of the split between public and private, fact and feelings. She reveals the strategies of sec…
In this volume, Bahnsen has gathered the primary passages on apologetics from the vast body of works by Cornelius Van Til, arranged them topically, and added incisive commentary and analysis. The result is a carefully organized digest of all that Van Til taught about apologetics with running exposition by Bahnsen.
This is the third volume in Alvin Plantinga's trilogy on the notion of warrant, which he defines as that which distinguishes knowledge from true belief. In this volume, Plantinga examines warrant's role in theistic belief, tackling the questions of whether it is rational, reasonable, justifiable, and warranted to accept Christian belief and whether there is something epistemically unacceptable …
Cafés are a natural place to engage in conversations about God. Many of us don’t just swing by for a quick caffeine fix and then dash out. We like to sit down, relax, and read a book or engage in conversation with a friend over a cup of coffee with espresso brownies or cranberry-orange muffins. I’ve enjoyed many hearty discussions at coffee shops—exchanging stories, problems, and questio…
Outline : "Men despite religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true," declared Pascal in his Pensees. "The cure for this," he explained, "is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is." Motivated by the seventeenth-century view of the supremacy of human rea…
Outline: Rarely does a book amass the accolades given this one: "excellent," "profound," "masterful," "first-rate," "down-to-earth," "solid," "incisive," "illuminating," "both scholarly and devotional," "remarkable," "warm," "unprecedented," "fascinating," "crisp," "pastoral, lucid and biblical," "well-written," "a vigorous book," "a landmark." That is how reviewers have described John M. Frame…
Outline: Was God telling the truth when he said, "you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart"? In his #1 bestseller The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel examined the claims for Christ, reaching the hard-won verdict that Jesus is God's unique son. In The Case for Faith, Strobel turns his skills to the most persistent emotional objections to belief - the eight "heart barriers" …
Outline: Theodicy attempts to resolve how a good God and an evil world can coexist. The neo-atheist side of this debate has dominated twenty-first-century bestseller lists with books like The God Delusion, God Is Not Great, and The End of Faith. Their popularity illuminates a changing mental environment in which people are asking harder questions about divine goodness. Suprisingly, these books …
Outline: Nearly sixteen centuries ago, the city of Rome was sacked by German barbarian Alaric and his Goths - a blow to the very heart of the glorious empire. Rome had dominated civilization for over a thousand years, yet now this symbol of culture, commerce, and order was brought to her knees, and her citizens stripped of their homes, their belongings, and often, their very lines. In the wake …
Outline: Christians today face growing challenges to show that their faith is both relevant and credible. Josh McDowell's New Evidence That Demands a Verdict combines the two original best-selling volumes into one, maintaining their classic defense of the faith, yet answering new questions posed by today's culture. Special features include: - New research and documentation of archaeologica…
Outline: What every Christian should know about Islam's sacred text? Who does the Qur'an teach Jesus is? What does the Qur'an say about salvation? How does the Qur'an describe Christians? A Christian Guide to the Qur'an will prepare Christians to understand the central messages of the Qur'an in simple terms, and illustrates how knowledge of Islam's sacred text can provide bridges to religious u…
Outline: In this extensively redeveloped and expanded version of Apologetics to the Glory of God (1994), renowned theologian John Frame sheds light on the message and method of genuinely Christian apologetics in terms of proof, defense, and offense.
Outline: This book makes available over fifty primary source selections that address various challenges to the Christian faith in the history of Christian apologetics. The compilation represents a broad Christian spectrum, ranging from early writers like Saint Paul and Saint Augustine, to Saint Teresa of Avila and Blaise Pascal, to more recent and present-day apologists such as C.S. Lewis, Al…
Outline: Muslims have often heard that Christians worship three gods, or that the Injil, the Christian Scripture, has been corrupted. How can Christians explain their faith in a way that Muslims can understand? In his work with Muslims in central London, the author discovered that many are quite open to talking about matters of faith. In this thoughtful and respectful book, the author explo…
Overview: Are there in fact some legitimate, even beneficial, uses for atheist critique of religion? The author claims yes, there are - if we take a closer look not an atheists' arguments against the existence of God but at their observations about the (often) self-serving functions of religious practice and belief. To make his case, the author examines the critique of Freud, Marx, and Nietzs…
Outline: In these pages, some of evangelicalism's most stimulating thinkers consider three possible apologetic responses to postmodernity. William Lane Craig argues that traditional evidentialist apologetics remains viable and preferable. Roger Lundin, Nicola Creegan and James Sire find the postmodern critique of Christianity and Western culture moder challenging, but reject central features …