Reasonable Faith

Through his innumerable scholarly articles covering a broad spectrum of theological matters and his debates with prominent atheists, William Lane Craig can safely lay claim to the title of Christianity's Leading Apologist. This book, originally published in 1984, was revised in 1994 to accomodate subsequent developments relevant to cosmology (e.g., Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time"). The chapter on God's existence alone should cement Craig's already well-established reputation as Christianity's greatest living apologist in the minds of most non-believers who read it.Craig's presentation and defense of the kalam cosmological argument is characterized with the same analytical rigour that has embodied his other works. Craig summarizes the kalam cosmological argument thusly: whatever begins to exist has a cause to account for its existence; and the since the universe began to exist, it too was initiated by an independent cause. Atheists, such as the late J.L. Mackie, deny the universe had any origion at all, and postulate a beginningless series of events spanning infinitely backwards in time. Craig counters this objection with two philosophical arguments, one courtesy of German mathematician David Hilbert. Hilbert rejected the idea that an actual infinite amount of things can exist in reality on the basis of the absurd consequences that inevitably ensue if one accepts such a concept. To better illustrate his point, Hilbert devised an argument he called "Hilbert's Hotel," a hypothetical hotel containing an infinite number of guests. If the hotel contained a finite amount of guests and was full, a new guest would be told upon arriving that all of the rooms were full. If, however, the hotel was full, but contained an infinite amount of guests, the hotel's proprietor could shift the guests in room 1# to room 2#, the guests in room 3# to room 4#, and so forth to make room for the new guest. Yet, the number of guests would now be no greater than before the guest checked in. An even odder instance would involve an amount of guests numbering infinity attempting to squeeze into the already full hotel. In this case, the hotel's proprietor could simply create a vacancy in the odd numbered rooms by shifting guests in rooms twice their own, since they would always equal even numbers. But again, the formerly booked hotel would contain no more guests than it did before. Thus, Craig concludes from this argument that a beginningless series of events in time is impossible, since a beginningless series of events in time necessarily entails an actually infinite number of things.Moving on to scientific evidence that confirms that the universe had a beginning, Craig makes no bones about his preference for the Big Bang model, since it lends credence to that very conviction. Craig shoots down alternative cosmological models with relative ease, starting with the Steady State Theory. The Steady State Theory posits a beginningless universe, perpetually sustained by mat

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 clearl

The strengths of this book are: 1. its accessibility (it is easy to follow, and presented in a direct, style, Craig addresses the listener); 2. the historical approach for each topics (This is missing in most apologetics books. One can notice in particular how Craig masters the deist controversy , he did research on it); 3. its dealing with "existential" aspect of apologetics ("the human predicament").The shortcomings are: 1. the absence of a global framework, reasoning for integrating the diverse arguments: one still need to study Geisler's Christian Apologetics for such an integration; 2. Craig's view of Christianity as basically true, his circular reasoning (based on the Bible) about the Holy Spirit, and his uncritical endorsment of Plantinga's nonsensical epistemology (see James Sennett's book ("Modality..."): this is the major shortcoming of the book, a big mistake. 3. The book is definitely intended to Christians (Craig tells how to convert non-Christians...), I would not lend to a non-Christian. Strangely, Craig addresses at the end of the album non-Christian listeners, asking them to make a commitment for Christ. But this may be a good thing for nominal Christians. 4. Craig's concentration on the Kalam argument: fine, this argument is excellent for those of us with a background in natural sciences, yet it does not give the theistic God (e. g. it could give several gods), just as the design argument. One really need to use Aquinas' 3rd way to get the full-blown theistic God (the latest exposition of it is in Yandell's "Philosophy of Religion", 1999, but this is a difficult read. An easier one can be found in Geisler's Christian Apologetics). The third way is based on abstract concepts (necessity, etc.) and is probably not fitting in a popular books, so I will not blame Craig for not using it here.

A monumental work! This is the best book on the subject of Christian evidences that I have read. It reviews and assesses the major topics involved in Christian apologetics: faith and reason, the absurdity of life without God, the existence of God, the problem of miracles, the problem of historical knowledge, the historical reliability of the New Testament, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. What makes this work special is that Dr. Craig draws upon a wealth of knowledge from modern big bang cosmology and New Testament critical studies to bolster his claim that Christianity is reasonable. Reading this book will challenge the skeptic's atheism and edify the believer's faith. Destined to be a classic and rival to C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity."