The Son Rises [Paperback]

William Lane Craig (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579104649
• ISBN-13: 978-1579104641
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am the Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. With my wife Jan, we have two grown children.

At the age of sixteen as a junior in high school, I first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded my life to Christ. I pursued undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) (D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 I taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity, during which time we started our family. In 1987 we moved to Brussels, Belgium, where I pursued research at the University of Louvain until assuming my position at Talbot in 1994.

I have authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including Philosophia Christi, The Journal of Philosophy, New Testament Studies, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy, and British Journal for Philosophy of Science.

My CV can be read here: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=curriculum_vitae

Publication list: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=publications_main

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Proving the Resurrection -- Craig Brings it All Together, September 6, 2004

By 

C. Price "Layman, Lawyer, Blogger" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Son Rises (Paperback)

William L. Craig is perhaps the best-known apologist for the resurrection of Jesus. He set out his argument in detail in a book that unfortunately now costs well over $100. He has contributed articles on the resurrection to books like In Defense of Miracles and Jesus Under Fire. One of his debates on the resurrection has been converted into a book, Jesus' Resurrection. What has been missing, and what this book provides, is a single volume treatment of Craig's argument for the historicity of Jesus. The book is written for the layperson and weighs in at about 150 pages with relatively few references. As a popularization of Craig's argument, it is success.

Craig begins with an introduction to the issues and a refutation of some popular counter theories, such as the apparent-death theory and the wrong-tomb theory. It seems odd placement given that he has not stated his case-in-chief, but Craig discusses them in terms of historical approaches to the resurrection. On one hand it adds some interesting historical context, but it still seems a little out of place.

The meat of the book is in the next two chapters, on the Empty Tomb and the Appearances of Jesus. Craig offers ten points supporting the historical fact of the empty tomb, beginning with "The historical reliability of the account of Jesus' burial supports the empty tomb" to "The fact that Jesus' tomb was not venerated as a shrine indicates that the tomb was empty." Most of the arguments are persuasively presented, though I wish all apologists would leave the Shroud aside. But in the end, Craig adequately explains the reasons that most scholars, from diverse backgrounds, accept the empty tomb as historical fact.

The section on the Appearances of Jesus begins by demonstrating their historicity and then examines their explanations. He first shows that Peter, the Twelve, the five hundred, James, the apostles, and Paul did indeed experience appearances by Jesus. Craig then moves through the potential explanations and concludes that the best explanation for these appearances is that they were indeed real events, interactions with a living and breathing restored Jesus.

Craig caps off his argument with a discussion about the resurrection's role as the best explanation for the Origin of the Christian Faith itself. He then concludes with a scholarly alter call, explaining the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus as the way to reconcile ourselves to God and gain forgiveness of our sins.

This book is typical of Craig. He moves through the material very methodically, laying out his arguments in an informed and convincing manner--step by step. He covers aspects of the argument in other publications in more depth or with more references, but The Son Rises is beneficial in that it brings the core of his argument, and the significance of his conclusion, together in one small book.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for every non-Christian theist, January 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Son Rises (Paperback)

In this book, Craig lays out a powerful case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Using evidence only agreed upon by the consensus of critical NT scholarship, Craig puts together a powerful factual case, using the evidence of the Empty Tomb, the appearances of Jesus, and the origin of the Christian faith. It is important to remember, as Craig emphasizes, that our faith is not based on empirical arguments, but on the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. However, it is important that Christians know these arguments so we can show to the outside world that Christianity is consistent with the evidence. Anyone who believes in God but not in Christ will be challenged by the evidence presented in this book to re-examine their thoughts on how God has revealed Himself in history. However, don't even waste your time reading this if you are already 100% closed to supernatural interventions of God. The evidence will not convince you, because your mind is already closed. However, I just want to note that Craig repudiated the Shroud of Turin later on in 1989, upon evidence being found that it was a forgery. I figured I'd mention that because Craig seems to accept the Shroud in this book. Also, I recommend the chapter on the Resurrection in Craig's book Reasonable Faith, because he takes the evidence for Jesus' Resurrection and applies to it 7 historical criteria used by real historians to see if if is better than other naturalistic hypotheses.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Son Rises, April 5, 2006

By 

Chad McIntosh (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Son Rises (Paperback)

This book is a brief and fair treatment of the resurrection argument. It provides a widely accessible yet solid defense of the historicity of the resurrection, a massively condensed and simplified preview of his comprehensive study weighing in at well over 400 pages (Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus), published eight years later. The book's strengths include establishing the historical credibility of Jesus' postmortem appearances and critically analyzing alternative historical hypotheses that attempt to explain the historical data.

A few critical notes. First, it is perhaps too brief on some points, especially on those which make a positive case for the resurrection as a strong historical hypothesis on its own. Second, the book doesn't include a topical or scriptural index. With a book this short, one can get over the absence of the topical index. But a book where the subject is the exposition of New Testament texts on the resurrection, the absence of a scriptural index is a very unfortunate omission. Finally, my third critical note isn't geared toward the book's content, but rather its appearance. The copy I received has a poor print job. On several pages it looks like the ink from the printing machine ran dry, giving the text a faded, erased-like appearance. I'm not sure if this is a mass-produced foible of the book in general, exclusive to my copy in particular, or typical of Wipf and Stock Publishers, but I was bummed.

Despite the aforementioned defects, this would be an excellent book to start with in studying the resurrection argument.

Table of Contents:

Preface--------------------------------------p. 7
1. Death and Resurrection--------------------p. 9
2. Some Blind Alleys--------------------------p. 23
3. The Empty Tomb---------------------------p. 45
4. The Appearances of Jesus------------------p. 91
5. The Origin of the Christian Faith------------p. 127
6. Finding Resurrection Life--------------------p. 135