Handbook of Christian Apologetics

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1. sdegutisJan 2014
   For anyone interested in rational arguments for believing in Christianity, I recommend the Handbook of Christian Apologetics[1] by Kreeft and Tacelli.

   [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Christian-Apologetics-Peter-K...

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2. sdegutisJan 2014
   If it could be explained in a HN comment, I think there would be many more Christians in the world. That's why there are whole books written on the subject. The only one I still own is The Handbook of Christian Apologetics[1][2] so that's the only one I can recommend.

   But it does require some faith, just not blind or unreasoning faith, as most people seem to think.

   [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Christian-Apologetics-Peter-K...

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3. sdegutisJan 2014
   > I'm guessing you're going to give me some unverifiable testimony from people who died long ago and expect that to have a person question heaps of contrary empirical evidence.

   Read the related chapter in The Handbook of Christian Apologetics[1] for reasons why the Gospel stories are reliable eyewitness accounts.

   [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Christian-Apologetics-Peter-K...

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4. stephenhueyJan 2019
   I don't know much about Mac, but I'm sure he was inspired by others, as was Kreeft. There's a lot more besides the one you read, e.g.

   http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-exi...

   I've read the Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Kreeft and it tries to make these philosophical topics more accessible to the average reader. There are numerous speakers and writers out there, and you may prefer one of them. For example, Tim Keller is quite different and you can hear him here:

   https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/literalism-isn-t-the-bibl...

   I've enjoyed reading Dallas Willard:

   http://www.dwillard.org/articles/individual/language-being-g...

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5. combatentropySep 2017
   Arguments against the Swoon Theory:

   1. If a Roman soldier let a capital prisoner escape, including by bungling a crucifixion, that soldier would be killed.

   2. The Roman soldier didn't break Jesus's legs. So he was sure he was dead.

   3. The eyewitness account says that blood and water flowed from Jesus's pierced heart, which means collapse of the lungs and death by suffocation.

   4. The body was wound in sheets.

   5. The turnabout in behavior by his disciples. Before, they were in hiding. Afterward, they died for saying that Jesus rose from the dead.

   6. There were Roman guards at the tomb, again who would be put to death if they let the body be stolen.

   7. How would a half-dead person move the boulder of the tomb?

   --- The Handbook of Christian Apologetics, by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli

   The Swoon Theory eventually dovetails into a theory of conspiracy, by the disciples and authors of the texts in the Bible. This theory also is addressed by that book and others. For the sake of not getting too far off topic, I leave it to anyone to read in their own time. Besides, as others have pointed out, the resurrection that this article is about is the resurrection of all dead at the end of the age.

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6. sagoDec 2016
   > Christian Apologetics attempts to answer many of the questions that are raised

   With respect, either you misunderstand the point you are responding to, or you misunderstand apologetics, as actually practiced and taught in evangelical institutions.

   Apologetics, in the evangelical sense (like all terms, it has had varied practical forms), is the rational defence of pre-existing doctrine. It deals with epistemology, natural philosophy, hermeneutics, and other areas only when they can be used to support the doctrine. It is pretty much the opposite of rational inquiry, because it explicitly begins with the conclusion and seeks arguments to justify it. It is, in practice, an example of the parent comment: what falsification of the doctrine would an apologist accept? There would always be another argument, another apologia to bolster the claim.

   [Source: theological degrees and was an evangelical apologist for 20 years. Books such as Louis Markos, Apologetics for the Twenty-First Century, Crossway, 2010; Peter Kreeft, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, IVP, 1994; and much of the rest of IVP's output.]

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