Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Paperback)

by William Lane Craig (Author)
Key Phrases: hallucination hypothesis, oscillating model, fewer accepted beliefs, New York, New Testament, Holy Spirit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"It is hard to overstate the impact that William Lane Craig has had for the cause of Christ. He is simply the finest Christian apologist of the last half century and his academic work justifies ranking him among the top 1 percent of practicing philosophers in the Western world. Besides that, he is a winsome ambassador for Christ, an exceptional debater, and a man with the heart of an evangelist. I know him well and can say that he lives a life of integrity and lives out what he believes. I do not know of a single thinker who has done more to raise the bar of Christian scholarship in our generation than Craig. He is one of a kind and I thank God for his life and work."
J. P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology

"In admirably clear prose, Professor Craig presents important philosophical and historical issues relevant to Christian beliefs. With extraordinary erudition, he sketches the arguments of major thinkers of both past centuries and recent times, and he presents his own reasons for concluding that traditional Christian doctrines about God and Jesus are credible. His replies to those skeptical of the existence of God, of historical knowledge, of the occurrence of miracles, and in particular of the resurrection of Jesus, take debates over those difficult topics an important stage further. Here is an admirable defense of basic Christian faith."
C. Behan McCullagh, Philosophy Program, La Trobe University

"Although my philosophical predilections often differ from Dr. Craig's (as they do from those of everyone else I know), I have found that he is very knowledgeable about science and current cosmological ideas. He provides interesting insights into their implications for our shared Christian beliefs."
Don Nelson Page, Professor of Physics, University of Alberta

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Description

Perfect as a textbook yet excellent for lay readers, this updated edition builds a positive case for Christianity by applying the latest thought to core theological themes.

J. Gresham Machen once said, "False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel"-which makes apologetics that much more important. Wanting to engage not just academics and pastors but Christian laypeople and seekers, William Lane Craig has revised and updated key sections in this third edition of his classic text to reflect the latest work in astrophysics, philosophy, probability calculus, the arguments for the existence of God, and Reformed epistemology.

His approach-that of positive apologetics-gives careful attention to crucial questions and concerns, including: the relationship of faith and reason, the existence of God, the problems of historical knowledge and miracles, the personal claims of Christ, and the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. He shows that there is good reason to think Christianity is true. As Craig says, "If you have a sound and persuasive case for Christianity, you don't have to become an expert in comparative religions and Christian cults. A positive justification of the Christian faith automatically overwhelms all competing world views lacking an equally strong case."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books; 3 edition (June 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433501155
• ISBN-13: 978-1433501159
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,932 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mind Food, April 9, 2002

By	Kendal B. Hunter (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Paperback)

This book is good, solid mind food. People perceive, and it is sad to say that they perceive with good reason, that Christianity is mere mind-fluff, and that what is holding back Christianity is the Christians.

This book is a discussion of what is behind Christianity, and provides a philosophical framework in which to defend Christianity. It is written at the college level, since it is intended to be an apologetics resource for college students. I marvel at the way that Dr. Craig brought together so many ideas from so many resources in this book. It found that I used almost every facet of my undergraduate education in understanding the ideas and evidences he used. Most helpful was my survey of philosophy and my hard science classes.

This book is divided along six headings: Faith, Man, God, Creation, Sacred Scripture, and Christ. Each chapter is in turn divided along several sub-headings: the Historical Background of the question, an Assessment of the question as it currently stands, and a Practical Application, where Dr. Craig discusses how "the rubber meets the road" is discussing this issue with those curious about Christianity.

This is not a bash book, nor is it a survey on "how to hate," but rather it is geared to a thoughtful and ponderous evaluation of many evidences of the truthfulness of Christianity. For example, in Chapter 2, Craig discusses the existential absurdity of life without God. He raises the question of where we get absolute values, and how life becomes meaningful if we are merely a cosmic accident or a galactic hiccup. This is the one question that the atheist, or "atheist-arguing-agnosticism" cannot answer: if there are no moral absolutes, then why not torture babies for sheer pleasure. After all, it has been done before.

Then in Chapter 3, Dr. Craig discusses the existence of God as evidenced by the Big Bang. The chapter isn't physic-heavy (It doesn't even have one equation), but it does discuss the implications of having an absolute time for creation. Craig relies heavily on the "Kalam" argument by Al-Ghazali, which, simply put, is: "Everything that began had a cause. The Universe began. Therefore it had a cause." Then the question becomes a discussion of who or what is the causal agent in the universe.

The prose is quite clear, so there is no pedantry or confusion with what you read. I found that this book was quite a pleasure to read, and it made me take several longer looks at my faith. The concluding chapter is a gem. Dr. Craig states that the ultimate apologetic is Christian love. Against such love, there is no argument.

58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong, Methodical Apologetic, February 25, 2002

By	J. F Foster - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Paperback)

William Lane Craig is well known inside scholarly circles. Christian scholars regard him as one of the elite. And atheist scholars, along with prominent atheist websites, feel compelled to pay a great deal of attention to the writings and debates of Craig, in my view, because he has demonstrated himself to be one of the sharpest pins to regularly burst the atheism balloon. There is no serious debate about Craig's scholarly credentials and abilities, and Reasonable Faith makes that abundantly clear.

Reasonable Faith is a methodical, meticulous, sometimes impassioned defense of the existence of the Biblically based Christian God. In this book, Craig not only challenges the views of various atheist scholars (whether they reside in science, mathematical or history disciplines) but also challenges the views of deism and 'liberal Christianity'. I felt that the book represented a very logical and easy follow stairway from the issues of faith and reason, to the inescapable reasonableness of the resurrection of Jesus. In between, Craig conducts a quality appraisal of the Godless worldview and where it leads, and an outstanding analysis on the existence of God where he takes on the views of Hawking and others. Craig Blomberg contributes a very good chapter on the reliability of the New Testament, with Craig concluding with a good chapter on the self understanding of Christ and a masterful chapter on the resurrection. Each chapter provides a very compelling chronology of how the debates revolving around these topics have evolved over time, giving the reader a good sense of how thinkers on multiple sides of the issues have formed their various positions. Craig then does an assessment of this chronology in each chapter. I found this approach to be very strong and persuasive.

Craig also does a good job referencing his book, and offers a very good bibliography of other readings that go into further detail on the issues that Craig examines here. When reading this book, the reader may very well want to conduct further investigation and research into a number of areas that Craig touches on, and the bibliography in this book allows the interested reader to do so easily.

The problem of miracles was the one area where Craig could have been a little stronger, in my view. This area is not weak by any stretch, but could have stood for further exploration and examination, in my opinion.

Overall, this is an outstanding book. Craig wrote this book on a more popularized level to make it more amenable to laypeople, but potential readers should not be lead to believe that this is an easy or fluffy read. While written at a more popularized level than much of Craig's high scholarly material, this is still a book that deals with complex issues in a meaty way, and requires the reader to carefully think things through. After reading this book, I hope that even those who remain unconvinced about their need for the Christian God will at least acknowledge that Craig clearly demonstrates that the historical Christian religion can be effectively and articulately defended against the highest level of opposing arguments thrown against it. Christianity is a religion that more than stands on its own intellectually, and Craig shows, in my view, that its competitors in the world of scholarship have long since been lapped. An excellent resource!

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for arguments on resurrection and God's existence, June 5, 2000

By	Timotheus Josephus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Paperback)

Dr. Craig attempts to develop a cumulative case for the truth of Christianity. First, he attempts to demonstrate the probability of god's existence by utilizing a number of the common arguments. However, Craig's specialty is the cosmological argument which he develops very well in this book. While the cosmological argument does nothing to prove the truthfulness of Christianity, it definitely goes a long way towards demonstrating the high likelihood of the existence of some type of god.

After arguing that it is far more likely that god exists rather than god not existing, he then proceeds to argue for the possibility of miracles on the basis of god's ability to perform them. This sets the table for Craig's finest area of expertise - the resurrection of Jesus. He gives great arguments for the historicity of Jesus burial in a tomb, discovery of the tomb empty, and the post-mortem appearances of Jesus.

I believe Craig's sequence of argumentation is the most effective. He shows the existence of god to be highly probable before he attempts to convince readers of the reality of Jesus' resurrection. This is a far more convincing route than the one used by those who would try to argue for the existence of god on the basis of the resurrection. People won't believe in miracles unless they FIRST believe there is a god who can perform them. Fortunately, Craig is well aware of this and builds a very convincing case for the truthfulness of Christianity.

Craig's section on the "witness of the Holy Spirit" being the proof of Christianity is a very small section of this book (less than 10 pages) and does nothing to hinder his overall argument. The fact that a previous reviewer took a very minor subsection of the book and blew it into a full-blown review seems to me to demonstrate the reviewer's hesitancy to address some of Craig's more substantial arguments such as the cosmological argument for god's existence or his argument for the resurrection.