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No Doubt About It: The Case for Christianity

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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.

This is a great beginning apologetics work! Through the use of solid logic skills, basic facts and modern day vignettes, Courduan offers practical and helpful arguments for the Christian faith. Unlike many apologetics book, NO DOUBT ABOUT It is written in a very understandable fashion. Corduan does not talk over the head of his readers but still is true to the academic difficulty of answering a skeptics questions. Written at a level that even late high school aged students can understand, this book is a great gift for students at graduation. In a remarkable way, Corduan blends academia with interesting practicality to produce a wonderful work of apologetics.

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.

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One of the best parts about Corduan's book, is that he starts out each chapter with commonly stated arguments against the topic he is about to discuss. He does this in "vignettes" (read - experiences) he has had meeting both believers and non-believers in his life and travels. The beginning vignettes set the stage for the rest of the chapter with cliff-hanger questions pertaining to the material about to be discussed. This helps one see how the presented material fits in to both the problem of apologetics while remaining utterly practical. He finishes each chapter by stating how he thinks one should best answer the question arising in the vignettes. This approach both aids in practical application and stimulates thought regarding more scholarly treatments of the topics.

As others have stated here, this is a good introductory text. Corduan does not go into great detail or explanation on foundational ideologies of apologetics such as defining truth and differeing philosophies such as relativism. He does treat them well enough for an introduction, though.

Personally, I find concrete evidences most convincing. I was expecting to find in chapters dealing directly with apologetics topics like the existence of God, or miracles, that there would be concrete evidences, such as the fine-tuned nature of the world, or the utter complexity of the world pointing to a Creator. After all, to me, 'No Doubt' normally results from concrete evidence. Instead, Corduan uses the Cosmological Argument, which to me, is foreign since I am not a philosopher (I was previously very familiar with the argument, but logic-based philosophical arguments do less for me than concrete evidence). What I am trying to convey is less than a critique and more of a notification that evidences in this book are more thought provoking than 'ammunition' to be used in debate with non-philosophers. He does a good job presenting the argument fairly succinctly.

Overall, this is a good thought-provoking book for apologetics introduction. It's writing brings up significant topics to mull over that apply practically and lay the foundation for apologetics education growth. I hope you enjoy!

If you have never read any books on apologetics, this would be a good book to start with. If you are already familiar with, or enjoy the depth to books, such as those by Dallas Willard, Gregory Boyd, or CS Lewis, you may find find this book a bit dissapointing with it's covering-a-lot-of-ground, but only scratching-the-surface style.