Apologetics Books

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Timothy Keller

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Total reviews: 103 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The End of Faith. The God Delusion. God Is Not Great. Letter to a Christian Nation. Bestseller lists are filled with doubters. But what happens when you actually doubt your doubts?

Although a vocal minority continues to attack the Christian faith, for most Americans, faith is a large part of their lives: 86 percent of Americans refer to themselves as religious, and 75 percent of all Americans consider themselves Christians. So how should they respond to these passionate, learned, and persuasive books that promote science and secularism over religion and faith? For years, Tim Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts” skeptics bring to his Manhattan church. And in The Reason for God, he single-handedly dismantles each of them. Written with atheists, agnostics, and skeptics in mind, Keller also provides an intelligent platform on which true believers can stand their ground when bombarded by the backlash. The Reason for God challenges such ideology at its core and points to the true path and purpose of Christianity.

Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right” and the rest “wrong”? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

Mere Christianity

C. S. Lewis

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Total reviews: 439 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Nothing "Mere" About It! 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Mere Chistianity is divided into 4 books: 1. Right & Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, 2. What Christians Believe, 3. Christian Behavior, and 4. Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

In Book 1, Lewis strikes an early, direct blow against relativistic thinking: "If anyone will take the time to compare the moral teaching of, say the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinesese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own" (p. 6). There are basic, universal moral standards: "men find themselves under a moral law, which they did not make, and cannot quite forget even when they try, and which they know they ought to obey" (p.23). "I am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way" (p. 25). Who but God wrote this law on my heart?

Personally, I've never met anyone who denied that Jesus was a great moral teacher. Yet, in one way or another, plenty of people try to deny His Divinity. In Book 2, Lewis tries "to prevent the really foolish thing that people often say about Him. `I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God'....A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic [sic]...or else he would be the Devil of Hell" (p. 52). Along these very same lines, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli present the options as "Lord, Lunatic, or Liar." "Now the Christian belief is that if we somehow share the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy creatures. This means something much more than our trying to follow His teaching" (p. 60).

In contrast to any notion that God's law is intrusive, oppressive, or stifling, Lewis starts 1943's Book 3 with the reminder that "moral rules are directions for running the human machine" (p. 69). Explaining the "cardinal virtues" (i.e., prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance), he notes that "a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a `virtue'" (p. 80). Book 3 closes with chapters devoted to forgiveness and pride, as well as the "theological virtues" of faith, hope, and charity.

Considering that Lewis was a member of the Church of England, which had approved limited contraceptive use in 1930, much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic: "Contraceptives have made sexual indulgence far less costly in marriage and far safer outside it than ever before, and public opinion is less hostile to illicit unions and even to perversion than it has been since Pagan times....Christianity is almost [sic] the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body - which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven....Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once" (pp. 97, 98). "We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity - like perfect charity - will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help....those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else....Virtue - even attempted virtue - brings light; indulgence brings fog" (pp. 101, 102).

I say that "much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic," because Lewis also offered some well-intentioned, yet poorly thought out, comments on marriage and sexuality:
* "If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than they should make vows that they do not mean to keep" (p. 106).
* "There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members" (p. 112).
I am among those who believe that, had Lewis lived longer, he would have embraced the fullness of the Truth which resides in Catholicism. How much his works would have been enhanced, were they informed by our generation's Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Compendium of the Catechism!

In book 4, Lewis acknowledges the attraction of "a vague religion - all about feeling God in nature, and so on" (p. 155). He warns that such touchy-feely, pseudo-religion cannot lead to "eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music....a great many of the ideas about God which are trotted out as novelties today are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected" (p. 155). "If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact." "The more we get what we now call `ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become....It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own....How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints....submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life" (pp. 225 - 227).

Editorial Review:

A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.

The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics

C. S. Lewis

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Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Must Read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

To have in one place the works of one of the greatest minds of the Twentieth Century is to have a treasure in ones hands. The logic of Mere Christianity is so close that it leave little wiggle room for the deepest of intellects. The satire of Screwtape Letters is hilarious but pointed and so true to life. Miracles is another apologetic as well as the Great Divorce. One needs this volume at hand and needs to read its content from cover to cover to even start to say that they are an educated person. For me Lewis is one of the greatest writers of all time, and a theologian without all the trappings of obscurantism. Enjoy the exercise of mind and heart in reading these classics.

Editorial Review:

Seven Spiritual Masterworks by C. S. Lewis

This classic collection includes C. S. Lewis's most important spiritual works:

Mere Christianity
The Screwtape Letters
The Great Divorce
The Problem of Pain
Miracles
A Grief Observed
The Abolition of Man

The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis

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Total reviews: 366 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.

Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit.

The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings. --Patricia Klein

Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith

Scott Hahn

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book unravels mysteries, corrects misunderstandings, and offers thoughtful, straightforward responses to common objections about the Catholic faith.

Bestselling author Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, has experienced the doubts that so often drive discussions about God and the Church. In the years before his conversion, he was first a nonbeliever and then an anti-Catholic clergyman.

In REASONS TO BELIEVE, he explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith—drawing from Scripture, his own struggles and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather they offer complementary evidence that God exists. But He doesn't merely exist. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernible and knowable. Hahn leads readers to see that God created the universe with a purpose and a form—a form that can be found in the Book of Genesis and that is there when we view the natural world through a microscope, through a telescope, or through our contact lenses.

At the heart of the book is Hahn's examination of the ten "keys to the kingdom"—the characteristics of the Church clearly evident in the Scriptures. As the story of creation discloses, the world is a house that has a Father, a palace where the king is really present. God created the cosmos to be a kingdom, and that kingdom is the universal Church, fully revealed by Jesus Christ.

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Lee Strobel

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Total reviews: 629 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Case for seriers is great. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

1 July 2008 - Great Book...a friend gave me this book years ago but after reading The Case for a Creator I read it and thought it was amazing. It was the abridged version.

if I could give this book less than one star, I would 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is presented in the guise of addressed serious questions of the Christian faith in an objective, thorough manner; as a lawyer would defend a case. Listen, if Lee Strobel was defending Christ in a court of law, Christ would be in trouble. No offense. This book may work well for the naive, but is doesn't answer any serious questions regarding the validity of Christianity. Also, notice how everyone he interviews is a "Dr." Something. That's to help him prop up his side of the argument. He's hoping that the reader will see the "Dr." and not question the evidence. It's downright insulting. If he had good evidence to answer the questions posed, he would need someone with a "Dr." in front of their name. He could just use the evidence.

Editorial Review:

The Case for Christ records Lee Strobel's attempt to "determine if there's credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God." The book consists primarily of interviews between Strobel (a former legal editor at the Chicago Tribune) and biblical scholars such as Bruce Metzger. Each interview is based on a simple question, concerning historical evidence (for example, "Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?"), scientific evidence, ("Does Archaeology Confirm or Contradict Jesus' Biographies?"), and "psychiatric evidence" ("Was Jesus Crazy When He Claimed to Be the Son of God?"). Together, these interviews compose a case brief defending Jesus' divinity, and urging readers to reach a verdict of their own.

The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters

Charles W. Colson, Harold Fickett

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Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Clarity 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Colson takes the psycho-babble of the so called fair minded critics of religion and shreds it. The Faith: Given Once, For All, is a clear statement of Christianity and how it is attacked.

Very Helpful for our congregation 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Our church has chosen this book for our summer Bible study. I preach from the main chapter topics and then we use the study guide for our Adult Bible Classes. In some ways the Study Guide has been more helpful than the book as it takes a more detailed approach for questioning subject matter. For me personally the vignettes were not very helpful and I think the book is exaggerated in its advertizing. All in all, the main subjects (i.e. God, The Word, The Truth, etc) are very timely topics and our congregations seems to have profited by the study. Terry Bell (author of "The Love Ethic)The Love Ethic

Editorial Review:

Where do you turn when the critics and cynics question the very existence of God and the Christian faith? Charles Colson explains the foundations of faith, bridging the gap between belief, understanding and life. Be inspired and enlightened as you engage in powerful accounts of personal transformation that passionate, intelligent believers have made for centuries, and still make every day. Believe more strongly. Love more deeply. Serve more passionately. Read The Faith. Live The Faith.

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Francis S. Collins

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Some Comments on Thiestic Evolution 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The glaring gap in Dr. Collins's intellectual development from atheist to theist is his lack of knowledge of metaphysics. He falls for Stephen Jay Gould's idea that science and religion are two different "magisteriums" (Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life). To understand evolution a scientist needs to know that there are three methods of inquiry: science, metaphysics, and theology. The existence of God and the concept of the human soul are formal results in metaphysics arising, respectively, from the two existential propositions that human being are different from one another and yet equal to one another. For this branch of knowledge I recommend The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics by Norris Clarke, S. J. Metaphysics helps us to understand evolution in two ways: 1) Evolution only applies to the bodies of human beings, not their souls. 2) Intelligent design (ID) is bad science, not because of its critique of natural selection, but because ID is metaphysics, not science.

Editorial Review:

Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists. He works at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. Yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God and scripture.

Dr. Collins believes that faith in God and faith in science can coexist within a person and be harmonious. In The Language of God he makes his case for God and for science. He has heard every argument against faith from scientists, and he can refute them. He has also heard the needless rejection of scientific truths by some people of faith, and he can counter that, too. He explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes readers for a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry, and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible. The Language of God is essential reading for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of faith: Why are we here? How did we get here? What does life mean?

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

N.T. Wright

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Total reviews: 73 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why do we expect justice? Why do we crave spirituality? Why are we attracted to beauty? Why are relationships often so painful? And how will the world be made right? These are not simply perennial questions all generations must struggle with, but, according to N. T. Wright, are the very echoes of a voice we dimly perceive but deeply long to hear. In fact, these questions take us to the heart of who God is and what He wants from us.

For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to solve these mysteries, and this renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop shows that it still can today. Not since C. S. Lewis's classic summary of the faith, Mere Christianity, has such a wise and thorough scholar taken the time to explain to anyone who wants to know what Christianity really is and how it is practiced. Wright makes the case for Christian faith from the ground up, assuming that the reader has no knowledge of (and perhaps even some aversion to) religion in general and Christianity in particular.

Simply Christian walks the reader through the Christian faith step by step and question by question. With simple yet exciting and accessible prose, Wright challenges skeptics by offering explanations for even the toughest doubt-filled dilemmas, leaving believers with a reason for renewed faith. For anyone who wants to travel beyond the controversies that can obscure what the Christian faith really stands for, this simple book is the perfect vehicle for that journey.

A Grief Observed

C. S. Lewis

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Total reviews: 132 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

C.S. Lewis joined the human race when his wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer. Lewis, the Oxford don whose Christian apologetics make it seem like he's got an answer for everything, experienced crushing doubt for the first time after his wife's tragic death. A Grief Observed contains his epigrammatic reflections on that period: "Your bid--for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity--will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high," Lewis writes. "Nothing will shake a man--or at any rate a man like me--out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is the book that inspired the film Shadowlands, but it is more wrenching, more revelatory, and more real than the movie. It is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings. --Michael Joseph Gross