Contending with Christianity's Critics: Answering New Atheists and Other Objectors [Paperback]

Paul Copan (Editor), William Lane Craig (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Contending with Christianity’s Critics is book two in a series on modern Christian apologetics that began with the popular Passionate Conviction. This second installment, featuring writings from eighteen respected apologists such as Gary Habermas and Ben Witherington, addresses challenges from noted New Atheists like Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and other contemporary critics of Christianity concerning belief in God, the historical Jesus, and Christianity’s doctrinal coherence. Contending with Christianity's Critics and Passionate Conviction are the result of national apologetics conferences sponsored by the Evangelical Philosophical Society (www.epsociety.org).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Copan is a professor and the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Marquette University.

William Lane Craig is research professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. His Ph.D. in Philosophy is from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: B&H Academic (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805449361
• ISBN-13: 978-0805449365
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Copan (Ph.D., philosophy, Marquette University) is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is author of "True for You, But Not for Me" (Bethany House), "That's Just Your Interpretation,""How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?", When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics (all with Baker), and Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion (Chalice Press). These are all books that seek to make available accessible answers to the toughest questions asked of Christians.

He has co-authored (with William Lane Craig) Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration (Baker Academic). He is co-editor of three books on the historical Jesus and of three other books in the philosophy of religion, The Rationality of Theism (Routledge), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Routledge), and Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues (Blackwell).

He has co-edited (with William Craig) Passionate Conviction and Contending with Christianity's Critics. He has contributed articles and book reviews to various professional journals as well: Philosophia Christi, Faith and Philosophy, Trinity Journal, Southern Journal of Theology, the Journal for the Evangelical Theological Society, and The Review of Metaphysics.

He is presently writing a book on Old Testament ethics and co-authoring a book on the moral argument.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Homerun --- Excellent Essays that deal with Important Issues June 30, 2009

By Lemaro Thompson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This collection is wonderful, especially in combination with the previous collection Passionate Conviction. It really does provide excellent essays to rationally and reasonably defend the truth of Christianity.

The best thing about this book is that it deals with numerous contemporary issues and concerns. It is hard since the popularization of Dawkins and Erhman for one to simply jump to the gospel, without first having to sort out "delusional" issues or "mistranslations" or "corruptions."

This book provides some of the necessary tools. Now looking at the essays covered, one will realize that other issues that are important are missing, namely that of relativism or comparative religions. So it is not a complete guide, but if one picks up passionate conviction those issues are addressed.

Therefore one might want to see which issues are of most concern to you and thus pick volumes accordingly.

The minor let down, was getting the book and starting to read Craig's critique of dawkins only to find that it was about 3 pages (other authors give a more substantive analysis). Although it did address some issues, I wanted a lot more. Additionally, if one owns a huge collection of apologetics textbooks, one may ask is it worth it? For example Craig Evans has a chapter on Fabricating Jesus, but he has written a whole book on the issue. There are other instances of this (mostly with the Jesus of History section), in which I owned the book, in which the expert has written and from which the article may have been derived or adapted.

Moments like those made me wonder if I was getting my full money's worth (or if i own too many books !) , but in the end I was pleased as it was a great recap and so there is so much good material in a portable compact volume.

It is an excellent volume, especially recommended for those new to the issues and challenges of the New Athiests.

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OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

Table of Contents:
Preface vii

PART 1 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Chapter 1 Dawkins's Delusion
William Lane Craig
2
Chapter 2 At Home in the Multiverse?
James Daniel Sinclair
6
Chapter 3 Confronting Naturalism: The Argument from Reason
Victor Reppert
26
Chapter 4 Belief in God: A Trick of Our Brain?
Michael J. Murray
47
Chapter 5 The Moral Poverty of Evolutionary Naturalism
Mark D. Linville
58
Chapter 6 Dawkins's Best Argument Against God's Existence
Gregory E. Ganssle
74

PART 2 THE JESUS OF HISTORY
Chapter 7 Criteria for the Gospels' Authenticity
Robert H. Stein
88
Chapter 8 Jesus the Seer
Ben Witherington III
104
Chapter 9 The Resurrection of Jesus Time Line
Gary R. Habermas
113
Chapter 10 How Scholars Fabricate Jesus
Craig A. Evans
126
Chapter 11 How Badly Did the Early Scribes Corrupt the New Testament? An Examination of Bart Ehrman's Claims
Daniel B. Wallace
148
Chapter 12 Who Did Jesus Think He Was?
Michael J. Wilkins
167

PART 3 THE COHERENCE OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
Chapter 13 The Coherence of Theism
Charles Taliaferro and Elsa J. Marty
184
Chapter 14 Is the Trinity a Logical Blunder? God as Three and One
Paul Copan
205
Chapter 15 Did God Become a Jew? A Defense of the Incarnation
Paul Copan
218
Chapter 16 Dostoyevsky, Woody Allen, and the Doctrine of Penal Substitution
Steve L. Porter
233
Chapter 17 Hell: Getting What's Good My Own Way
Stewart Goetz
249
Chapter 18 What Does God Know? The Problems of Open Theism
David P. Hunt
265

Contributors
283
Author Index 287
Scripture Index 290

33 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection July 13, 2009

By Michael R. Baldwin

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This is an excellent collection of essays defending the Christian faith and doctrines. Starting from William Lane Craig's knockout to Richard Dawkins (no wonder Dawkins is to afraid to debate Craig) and continuing with victory blows from an all-star cast of Christian thinkers. This isn't an end all debates collection but it's powerful nontheless. Some surprises here too, like Chapter 16 on the doctrine of Penal Substatution and Chapter 12 "Who did Jesus think he was?", which took an approach I didn't expect (defending Mark 8:29-30). Chapter 9, "The Resurrection of Jesus Time Line" by Gary Habermas is a very important essay for every Christian to read and ought to be taught in every church. Chapter 10 by Craig A. Evans covers some of the information he gives in his "Fabricating Jesus" book, which is worth reading on it's own.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Answering the New Atheists April 26, 2011

By E. Johnson

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This collection of essays is not for the weak of mind, as there are plenty of places to go deep in the thinking realm of Christianity and a response to the New Atheists. As with any compilation of essays, there were good ones in this volume and others I just skimmed through--probably at least 4 or 5 did not grab my attention at all, and thus the 4-star rating. But the good ones make the book worthwhile reading. My favorites were ch. 1 (Dawkins' Delusion, Craig), ch. 10 (How Scholars Fabricate Jesus, Evans), and ch. 15 (Did God become a Jew? A Defense of the Incarnation). What I enjoy about compilation books like these is that the reader can pick up at any chapter and get something out of it. Again, it's a worthwhile pick, but not if you are opposed to books making you think deeply.