Customer Reviews

Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since its publication ten years ago, Kreeft and Tacelli's hefty Handbook of Christian Apologetics has been the last word for Catholics in dealing with the apathy, subjectivity, or occasionally outright hostility of the modern secular world. But it's very completeness (over 400 large pages) made it intimidating.

Now at last comes this pocket-sized abridgement, by the original authors.

Today all too many Catholic apologetics books assume you're discussing the faith with evangelicals who are well-versed in Scripture. But the reality is that the non-religious (ranging from vaguely spiritual new-agers to uninformed agnostics to functional atheists) are at least as common in our society as "Bible Christians".

This is a perfect intro for Christians that need to respond with logic to objections and concerns about fundamental beliefs (God, moral law, miracles, the problem of pain, Jesus Christ). It's also great for those who want to see how classic Catholic reasoning "stacks up" to the modern world.

This is an abridged version of Handbook for Christian Apologetics written by the same authors. This `scaled down' version is a great little reference book, and is easily digestible, and hopefully it will draw you in enough to read the larger more complete work. This book is also one in a series, either sold separately or in a boxed set, that includes the following titles: Pocket Dictionary of North American Denominations, Pocket Dictionary for the Biblical Study of Hebrew, Pocket History of Theology, Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements.

This volume has 15 short, concise chapters written to answer the following questions:

1. Apologetics

2. Faith & Reason

3. Arguments for the Existence of God

4. The Nature of God

5. Creation and Evolution

6. Miracles

7. The Problem of Evil

8. The Divinity of Christ

9. The Resurrection

10. The Bible: Myth or History?

11. Life After Death

12. Heaven and Hell

13. Salvation

14. Christianity and Other Religions

15. Objective Truth

And it has a concluding page called `The Bottom Line'. Each of these chapters is full of information to help you know your faith deeper if you are a Christian, or to help you understand the claims of Christianity if you are not.

This is a great resource, either for writing essays, for research, or for personal growth. It will give you all the basics of the Christian faith in one compact little book. Check it out. Like all of Kreeft's other works I have reviewed, I would have to highly recommend this book.

This is a great addition to the Christian Apologists arsenal. The basic arguments are laid out, shortly, sweetly, and comprehensibly. Covers the traditional areas of Christian Apologetics in a traditional way. Great read at a great price.

Kreeft and Tacelli have written a comprehensive yet brief defense of what Lewis called "Mere Christianity". And like Lewis' landmark work, you can't help but read this book and think Christ and His claims are something to take seriously.

Both Catholics, Kreeft and Tacelli recognize that the laity are just as likely to be challenged by the atheism of indifference as they are a finger-wagging fundamentalist or evangelical.

Somewhat sadly, Catholic readers also will find useful arguments for conversations with self-identified Catholic theologians and modernists who use highly-nuanced language to explain away binding truths of the Faith like the concrete, physical reality of the Resurrection.

"Optimized for Kindle" is an expression that should be clearly explained to anyone purchasing a Kindle or Kindle content.

I had already bought a Kindle and several books before I realized that if the content is not "optimized for Kindle" it is largely useless, if it is not fiction. It is useless because you cannot navigate the chapters and sections of the book; you can only "go to" the beginning or the end of the book, or "search" for an individual word. Non-fiction books really need a "live" Table of Contents.

If is is non-fiction, and not optimized for Kindle, I consider it useless and a waste of money.

After I bought the book, I realized it's an edited version of a larger volumed, titled "Handbook of Christian Apologetics". I don't know if it's worth spending the extra dollars buying that book instead, but this little volume contained most of the info I needed, when writing about the exisence or non-existence of God.

The book gives a pretty good overview of the standard arguments for the existence of God, for the divinity of Christ, for heaven and hell, the resurrection and a few other topics. I can only give the book three stars because all of the arguments can be easily refuted. Most of them are based on false reasoning or false assumptions. But it's the arguments that Christians most often use, so I guess they are the best ones.

If you want this book to use as a witnessing tool, it might work depending on who you're trying to convert. If you're just looking for an overview of the standard arguments for christianity, this book is worth buying.