Reason for the Hope Within

Just the idea of this collection of essays is a wonderful one, and extremely valuable, for at least two reasons. 1) The motivating concept overarching these works is that of locating the proper role of apologetics. The value of this guiding principle could hardly be overstated, as seldom as it is broached among apologetic writers, who all too often leave tacit their background assumptions as to what, *precisely*, they take their arguments to be accomplishing. Michael Murray, in the opening essay, sets the tone at the outset with his eschewing of the "sledgehammer apologetics" of such as Schaeffer and Sproul. The alternative set out is an extremely wise and circumspect approach that knows the limits of reason and doesn't try to overextend it. Whatever that approach sacrifices in rhetorical effect, it more than makes up for in humility and authenticity. 2) The authors are professional philosophers with all the best thought and scholarship on their chosen topics at their fingertips, plus the discipline of clarity and precision that comes with contemporary analytic philosophy. But they're writing explicitly with the non-philosopher in mind, so are careful to apply the clarity and precision of their discipline without being at all technical or complex. The result is a serious no-BS zone, but a readily accessible one. I don't know where you'd find either one of the above elsewhere, so to have a compendium with BOTH the aforementioned is just priceless. The results are uniformly excellent and helpful, with the notable exception of John O'Leary-Hawthorn's "Arguments for Atheism," which I found almost useless. The whole thing amounted to "Well, that's just what would be expected from someone without the gift of faith." (That's almost verbatim.) It's almost as if an atheist went "undercover" to write a exceptionally weak contribution to an apologetics volume. That one only sticks out like a sore thumb because the rest of it is so good. Highlights for me included: Daniel Howard-Snyder - "God, Evil, and Suffering" (extremely helpful in understanding the issues; some angles on the Problem of Evil I hadn't heard before) Timothy O'Connor - "Religious Pluralism" (I said this book steers clear of "sledgehammer apologetics," but O'Connor really does give what I would regard as a flat-out refutation of they're-all-right Pluralism) Trenton Merricks - "The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting" (a Christian physicalist shows that accepting orthodox Christian truth in no way requires substance dualism, and in fact dualism may even be unBiblical, if anything) Frances Howard-Snyder - "Christianity and Ethics" (the Euthyphro dilemma examined and defused) Douglas Blount - "The Authority of Scripture" (from a theologian: how and why we get such an idea; as simple and robust as Plantinga's "properly basic" notion) I hope you find it as valuable and edifying as I did.

The author of every essay in this collection uses his/her mind to probe both deep aspects of God's being and controversial issues in Christianity. Each article is impressive in its breadth and depth, particularly given the brevity devoted to such issues as hell and God's sovereignty. Every article is comprised of a review of historical teachings on a topic, then presents the authors reasoned position. The author's arguments are all well-constructed. As such, they are food for thought to anyone interested in Christian doctrine, whether you agree with the author's position or not.Additionally, in a world that relegates faith and Christian doctrine to mystical lunacy, that holds religious belief as subordinate to the "facts" of science, it is refreshing to read logical arguments for Christian doctrine.

This book should be required reading for every thinking Christian. The articles are very engaging and informative. Each contributor deals with a certain philosophical and/or theological issue from the problem of evil to divine action and human freedom. It is a compilation of some of the choice young Christian philosophers and apologists currently writing and researching. This title is a fresh assessment of some fairly thorny issues that have been discussed for centuries. Michael J. Murray (co-editor with Eleonore Stump for the book titled "Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions) is the editor, while great thinkers such as Alvin Plantinga (who wrote the forward), J.P. Moreland ("Scaling the Secular City"), William J. Wainwright (editor of "Faith and Philosophy"), and Kelly James Clark ("Return to Reason") endorse the book. While the book anticipates that the reader already has a background knowledge in the areas covered, nonetheless, each article is so well articulated that the reader will either gain a better understanding or be able to develop a data base to launch them into further investigation. Thus, this work is a must for anyone interested in the areas of Philosophy of Religion and Christian Apologetics.

Thorough, excellent, and honest. For those who wish to strengthen their faith, dig deeper into important questions that postmodernism has imposed afresh upon Christianity, or want to know how to better defend their Christian beliefs, this book is for them. These fine contributors have done a masterful job of taking complex, powerful philosophical arguments that support the Christian faith and making them such that the lay-person can grasp and use them. Yet, at the same time, readers are not spoon-fed -- you are challenged to think! Great work.

This is a book I have been hoping to see for a long time. As an avid reader of philosophy and apologetics I have been aware of the growing number of Christian philosophers and the work they have been doing. The problem was always in getting their material. It is usually only found in hard to get journals or anthologies. This book takes the best they have to offer and compiles it into apologetic categories. The articles are well-written, challenging and thoughtful. I would recommend this to those who do apologetics at the intermediate to advanced levels. It is also a good book to give to a thinking unbeliever. CPT Curby W. Graham, 1-7 CAVALRY Intelligence Officer.