Friday, April 3, 2009

Apologetics reading list

A few years ago I taught an apologetics class at a friend's church, and I compiled the following list of books for the students. Most of them are popular level, but not all. It's obviously incomplete; these are books that I own or encountered at the book store where I worked. Also, as you can tell, under the science section, I put books that argue against biological evolution. Since then, I have become much more open to evolution, and would include books by Christians who argue for it, like Denis Alexander. If the title has a hyperlink, it will send you to a website containing part or all of the book.

General Apologetics
Gregory Boyd, Edward Boyd, Letters from a Skeptic
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith
Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics
_____, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
_____, Paul Hoffman, Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe
Peter Kreeft, Socrates Meets Jesus
_____, Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Paul Little, Know Why You Believe
Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense
J. P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City
Ralph Muncaster, “Examine the Evidence” series

Jesus
Gregory Boyd, Jesus Under Siege
Paul Copan, Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? A Debate between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan
_____, Ronald Tacelli, Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate between William Lane Craig and Gerd Lüdemann
William Lane Craig, The Son Rises
R. Douglas Geivett, Gary Habermas, In Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God’s Action in History
Gary Habermas, Antony Flew, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate
Harold Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus
Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell
Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter
_____, Bill Wilson, He Walked Among Us
J. P. Moreland, Michael Wilkins, Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus
Ronald Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow From Pagan Thought?
Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ
N. T. Wright, Who Was Jesus?
_____, The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary

The Bible
Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
_____, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel: Issues and Commentary
F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
Walter Kaiser, The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable and Relevant?
Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (2 vols.; republished as a single volume: The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict)
_____, Daniel in the Critics’ Den
Randall Price, The Stones Cry Out: What Archaeology Reveals About the Truth of the Bible

Science
Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box
William Dembski, Mere Creation: Science, Faith, and Intelligent Design
_____, Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology
Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
Fred Heeren, Show Me God
Phillip Johnson, Darwin on Trial
Fazale Rana, Hugh Ross, Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off
Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos
_____, The Genesis Question: Scientific Advances and the Accuracy of Genesis
_____, The Fingerprint of God
Robert Shapiro, Origins: A Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth
Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator
Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, Roger Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin

Dealing with Problems and Objections
Gleason Archer, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
F. F. Bruce, Walter Kaiser, Peter Davids, Manfred Brauch, Hard Sayings of the Bible (originally published separately as Hard Sayings of the Old Testament; of Jesus; of Paul; etc.)
Paul Copan, “True for You, But Not for Me”: Deflating the Slogans That Leave Christians Speechless
_____, “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?” Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless
_____, “That’s Just Your Interpretation”: Responding to Skeptics Who Challenge Your Faith
William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers
James Dobson, When God Doesn’t Make Sense
Norman Geisler, Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties
John Haley, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible
J. Carl Laney, Answers to Tough Questions
Josh McDowell, Don Stewart, Answers to Tough Questions Skeptics Ask About the Christian Faith
Kenneth Richard Samples, Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith
Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler, Who Made God? and Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions

Specific Issues and World Views
William Campbell, The Qur’an and the Bible in the Light of History and Science
Norman Geisler, William Watkins, Worlds Apart: A Handbook on World Views
Gary Habermas, J. P. Moreland, Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality
André Kole, Jerry MacGregor, Mind Games (a Christian perspective on psychic and paranormal phenomena)
Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults
Hugh Ross, Kenneth Richard Samples, Mark Clark, Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and Extra-terrestrials
James Sire, The Universe Next Door
Tom Snyder, Myth Conceptions: Joseph Campbell and the New Age
Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God?
_____, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism
_____, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
_____, The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks With Buddha

Authors not yet mentioned whom you should read
C. S. Lewis
Francis Schaeffer
Dallas Willard

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