No Doubt About It: The Case for Christianity (Paperback)

~ Winfred Corduan (Author) "My class in world religions was on its annual visit to a synagogue..." (more)
Key Phrases: New Testament, New York, Grand Rapids (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

No Doubt About It combines classical Christian apologetics and contemporary philosophy to frame an invitation to intellectual and spiritual growth. The author's thesis is that doubts and quandaries serve to strengthen faith, not weaken it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: B&H Academic (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805416471
• ISBN-13: 978-0805416473
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #232,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good and concrete introduction to apologetics, November 6, 1997

By A Customer

This book is very suited as an introduction to apologetics, and for group study. Each chapter is preceeded by some conversations (called "vignettes") the author had with different persons on the subject of the chapter. At the end of the chapter, one finds some answers/reflexions about the vignettes of the chapter, as well as some questions to master the content of the chapter and for further reflexions, and also a short bibliography for further exploration.

I find most of the chapters very good, except the presentation of the cosmological and teleological arguments.

Ccontents
1 Faith, reason and doubt
2 Truth, knowledge and relativism
3 Knowledge: some important components
4 Knowledge: testing worldviews
5 Wordlviews in trouble
6 The existence of God
7 God and evil
8 Miracles: liability and asset
9 Back to the past
10 The New Testament and history
11 Who is Jesus
12 From Christ to Christianity
13 Truth and our culture
Names Index
Scripture Index
Subject Index

A much more detailed (and somewhat less formally presented) introduction to Apologetics can be found in "When skeptics ask" by Norman Geisler. For a more philosophical introduction, see "Reason and Faith" by Ronald Nash. For those who want more, I can recommend all the books of Geisler, James Moreland, William Craig, Douglas Geivett, Gary Habermas.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Apologetics Text, January 6, 2001

By	T. B. Vick "Learn 2 Discern" (The Lone Star State) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is an excellent beginning work on apologetics. Corduan is a lucid communicator and author. This work is a prime example of how Corduan can take certain issues and bring them home for a broad audience. He covers all the essential elements of the Christian faith, and he also deals with the issue of truth; which is vital in this age of postmodernism. Moreover, Corduan covers the issues of worldviews, miracles, God and evil, the New Testament and History, the existence of God, and the importance of history, esp. as it pertains to Scripture. As you can see, Corduan is quite thorough in this work, and this makes for a great intro to apologetics text. Too bad this book has had such a short shelf life; but then again most good books do for some strange reason. Get Amazon to track this one down for you, it is worth the search.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sophomores only, September 4, 2007

By	Glen Stancik (NC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is useful only as an introduction. Corduan's claims and arguments will resonate with those who already share his assumptions, but they will never stand the light of day.

The author claims that evangelical Christianity is true and can be defended even by people who do not specialize in apologetics. The book is organized in chapters that begin with what are supposed to be engaging vignettes, which serve the purpose of introducing the subject matter of the particular chapter. After the content is presented, the vignettes are revisited with responses from the author based on the conclusions of the chapter. Each chapter ends with a list of goals that the reader should have accomplished, as well as a set of questions for further study, and a brief bibliography.

As is common in philosophical writing, the book begins with the defining of terms. Since this book is written for college students with limited experience in philosophy, quite a bit of space is dedicated to explaining terms and ideas such as faith, reason, doubt, truth, and knowledge. Realizing that although people are generally rational, people are not simply rational, but are subject to their individual worldviews, Corduan takes two chapters to establish the possibility of finding common ground with unbelievers with which to test worldviews, and then critiques several common worldviews including atheism, agnosticism, deism, pantheism, and panentheism.

Once the groundwork is laid, the author proceeds with an argument for the existence of God, a move typical of classical apologetics. Corduan chooses the cosmological argument for his proof. After accomplishing the task to his own satisfaction, he addresses the problem of evil. In a book full of weak moments, this is Corduan's weakest one. He dismisses with a weak argument the free will theodicy in favor of a greater-good theodicy and an unabashed admission of the necessity of evil.

In anticipation for addressing the resurrection, next the author gives a defense of miracles. At this point, Corduan considers himself to be on solid theistic ground, so that any claims or assumptions going forward are already admissible to his case for Christianity. In addition, a case is made for the possibility of reliable history. It is only at this point that Corduan gives any hint that he is at all aware of the encroachment of postmodernism.

After establishing the foundations of theism, the acceptance of miracles, and the reliability of historical documentation of real events, the author is ready to tackle the reliability of the New Testament documents and the historicity of the person of Jesus Christ. His defense of the New Testament is pretty standard with the exception of his citing Bertrand Russell as an example of someone who was repelled by the gospel accounts, ergo, the gospels cannot be altogether biased. His cites the usual external sources of Tacitus, Josephus, and the Talmud for the existence of the historical Jesus.

Even if the existence for a man named Jesus can be substantiated, was he the Messiah as is recorded in the New Testament? Corduan uses a version of C.S. Lewis' "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" account adding a forth "L" - Legend. Oddly, he does not credit Lewis. For a defense of the virgin birth, he references J. Gresham Machen's account and Frank Morison's (not credited) case for the resurrection.

Finally Corduan draws the conclusion that Christianity is just what Jesus has taught that we should trust and obey, so that there is no disconnect between Christ and Christianity. The last chapter is a claim that Christianity is what society needs since it best represents what is true, good, and beautiful. These of course will be recognized as Platonic transcendentals, not necessarily Biblical ones.