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At the request of Fred Anson on another forum, I checked out The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel some time back from my local public library, and yesterday I finally finished reading it. My copy has the copyright as 1998, and it's printed by Zondervan. The book has the subtitle "A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus." Fred thought it was a convincing argument for the veracity of Biblical Christianity.

Has anybody on this forum read this book? I'd be interested in hearing some of your opinions about the arguments it makes. While reading the book I had some thoughts of my own, that I'll publish if you'd like, but for right now I'm just interested in what some of you have to say about Strobel's book.

It always seemed to be a bit "pop-Christianity" for my liking so I have never read it. I checked the table of contents to see what was in it and was surprised to see reputable scholars contributing. I have read books by Witherington and Metzger, both of whom contributed to the volume. So while I can't speak to the book specifically, I might be able to speak to some of the specific arguments in the book.

the uniqueness of strobel's book is that he went in to as an atheist or at least an agnostic and came out a believer, serious enough to get in the game and continue to defend Christ and Christianity with even more research and more books for lo these many years- and he is somewhat a celebrity in evangelical circles as a conference spkr and radio interviewee.

in the same genre is '"more than a carpenter" by josh mcdowell , the book a campus crusade for Christ evangelical aid for seekers.

just sayin!

k

It's not a bad book for an introduction on the topic from a Christian perspective.

MrStakhanovite wrote:It's not a bad book for an introduction on the topic from a Christian perspective.

This is my perspective as well. for what it's worth.

I have read it. This was back in my pop-Christian days.

KevinSim,

I read it a number of years back at the request of an online friend while I was more NOM-ish in my relationship to the LDS faith. At the time, my partisipation in the LDS faith was hanging by the thread of my belief in Christ. Back then I was engaging in dialog with mostly former LDS-now-christians or never-mo christians online and he recommended it as I tended to find myself arguing against certain pro-Christian views on the grounds they seemed as equally irrational as the equivilent Mormon view.

I credit the exercise for two important things: First, it moved me to look for and read better information regarding the defense of Christianity as my opinion of Strobel ended up being so poor because of this book. I think it is a weak book written for the choir and not the truly curious. Second, I suspect the book ultimately biased me against the pro-Christian position due to it's obvious bias in writing style. The way Strobel would fold over like a lawn chair as the strawman atheist in the face of every argument became too much. I would have not finished it had I not made a promise.

I had documented my reading on that message board at the time, but it's no longer available or I'd go back and review in order to refresh my memory of the particulars.

ETA - I had written this here on this board about the book not quite two years ago. Maybe a better assessment:

"I honestly wouldn't read Strobel again. I read it as part of an agreement with a former Mormon born again christian and would have tossed it after a couple of chapters if it wasn't for the agreement. Just my opinion, but it was poorly written, the arguments are entirely one-sided, and the conclusions are ill-formed. Keep reading it, but I think anything you read afterwards, either pro-religious or pro-secular will show you how much time you could have spent on better material on the same subjects. I broke down my review of it on a website, now lost (www.grokutah.com) for the board owner as part of the agreement. I haven't figured out how to retrieve anything off of that old place since it is gone. But if anyone knows how, I may try and fish that thread back up."

Strobel's arguments or regurgitated arguments felt like child's play. If you are looking for a mainstream/reader's digest argument for Christianity lacking any academic credibility then read anything by Strobel.

for what it's worth, it has been quite some time since I read the book but I do remember a little attack on Mormonism. Something about Mormon history and the brass plates. I cannot really recall.

I've read it.

To characterize this clearly apologetic work as anything resembling investigative journalism is an insult to journalism.

Rather than a work of investigative journalism, this is much more like the work of an attorney compiling a case that only presents one side, while studiously ignoring any contrary evidence.

Here is a pretty good critique of the book: http://www.bidstrup.com/apologetics.htm

I have read it. I remember, at the time, thinking: if this is one of the best Christian apologists [I've read better since], there isn't anything here. The arguments of Bertrand Russell are much more persuasive.

For me, my loss of faith in Mormonism and Christianity can largely be laid at the feet of the apologists who so utterly failed to demonstrate the truth of their beliefs by logical argument.