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The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters

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The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters by Norman L. Geisler and Patrick Zukeran is likely to become a Christian classic. The picture of Jesus presented is that of someone highly skilled in rhetoric and able to outmaneuver opponents of all stripes. As such, the book is likely to attract attention from those interested both in Christology and apologetics.

The book is organized into twelve chapters, each devoted to a different aspect of discourse and persuasion, These are roughly paraphrased as: testimony, miracles, use of the resurrections, reason, parables, discourse generally, prophecy, arguments for God, counter arguments about apologetics, lifestyle apologetics, role of the Holy Spirit, and summary of Jesus' apologetic method. In view of the span of the topics covered, the book is a surprisingly short 207 pages. It is also surprisingly readable for such a formable topic.

As one burdened with a weak memory, I often rate books by how many times they come up in conversation after I have set them down. Several passages in Geisler and Zukeran's work rise to this threshold: 1. The discussion of rhetoric styles employed in Jesus' ministry (pp.65 -77); 2. The discussion of Jesus' character based on evidence from extra-biblical sources (pp. 152-56); and 3. The analysis of the Jesus' use of parabolic apologetics (pp. 187-89). Let me say a bit more about parabolic apologetics.

Geisler and Zukeran define parabolic apologetics as using a story to convey a truth (p. 197). Characteristics of this method include: 1. Use of the story form, 2. It teaches through an indirect approach--the audience affirms the point before realizing they themselves are in focus, 3. The logic is a fortiori--a truth from everyday life applies also to spiritual matters, 4. The parable uses self-discovery to give the audience a sense of ownership of the message, 5. The parable is sensitive to those caught in sin (pp. 188-89).

I would enjoy teaching this book to an adult group to develop a greater command of its contents. Having said this, I have a suggestion. Instead of focusing on the apologetic techniques, it might be more effective to start by classifying audiences (types of atheists or personalities or age or economic groups) and work back to the techniques that Jesus used to address them. I have not seen this done in my limited reading of the apologetics literature, but an audience-focused approach might prove easier to apply in evangelism.

I just got this book and I couldn't put it down. The writers do a excellent job in presenting there case. A must for a better understanding of the historical Christ

Some might say that all we need is faith, so just buckle up and believe. Others may try to explain that reason and reason alone is needed to understand the Christian message. Saying there is a middle ground, Geisler and Zukeran put together some reasons for apologetics and why it is needed today. Each chapter begins with "Jesus's..." and explains how miracles, the resurrection, and prophecy can be helpful in explaining Christianity to people today. Much of what is written here can easily be found in other Geisler works, especially his Encyclopedia of Apologetics, and if you're willing to go through this large volume, I might recommend it as it is much more complete. But many of the ideas and much of the philosophy is there, so again, consider this bigger and more complete volume if you want a mouthful. However, as far as an introduction, this book certainly fits the bill and is worthy to be placed on any Christian's bookshelf.

Geisler is one of my heroes, the one actually whom the Lord used to get me into apologetics.

This work then should be on the read list of all who are into apologetics. It is a well done work which seeks to examine what apologetics Jesus engaged in, and the lessons from them for our defense of the faith. So he plows through our Lord's usage of testimony, miracles, reason, resurrection, parables, discourse, prophecy, etc. What I found lacking for my needs at certain points in this dialogue was more thorough exegesis of the relevant passages. At times, the authors seem to find more support in various English translations, rather than the word study of the original languages. This might be just my slant as one who uses the Hebrew and Greek daily, and the work might rightly be focused on the layperson as the targeted reader. Footnotes on the more scholarly would then have been helpful.

Further, what was frustrating for me was the tendency to not be completely clear and consistent with the place for apologetics in Jesus' earthly ministry and in ours. Towards the middle to the end of the work, there begins an apologia for apologetics being made. My view is that apologetics is simply "intellectual slum clearance," so that the Gospel has a chance to take foundation. Geisler certainly hints at this, but sometimes his statements seem to cross this line. Further, although he makes it clear that no one is brought to faith by apologetics, he infers that it most certainly necessary. This is certainly borderline. I wished when he made this apologia for apologetics that he would have provided references that we could have checked out for these positions against apologetics. Furthermore, he does not clearly say that the Holy Spirit only utilizes the means of grace to bring such salvation about.

I will be interested to see what response he gets from other notable Christian apologists who are not of the classical approach of Geisler with his conclusion that "if Jesus had spelled out his apologetics systematically, he would have held to a classical apologetics system."

Good material and references, but the writing came off to me as someone attempting to impress by the use of vocabulary not common to the average Bible student.