A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Table of Contents
Introduction – Steven Cowan
1 Classical Apologetics – William Lane Craig
Responses
2 Evidential Apologetics – Gary Habermas
Responses
3 Cumulative Case Apologetics – Paul Feinberg
Responses
4 Presuppositional Apologetics – John Frame
Responses
5 Reformed Epistemology Apologetics – Kelly James Clark
Responses
Closing Remarks – Craig, Habermas, Feinberg, Frame, Clark
Conclusion – Steven Cowan
Selected Quotes
- “When it comes to knowing one’s faith to be true, therefore, the Christian will not rely primarily on argument and evidence but on the gracious witness of God himself given to all his children by the indwelling Holy Spirit.” (William Lane Craig, p. 36)
- “Although we know our faith to be true primarily through the witness of the Spirit, we must show our faith to be true through rational argument and evidence.” (William Lane Craig, p. 43)
- “Instead of having to prove God’s existence before moving to specific evidences, (the “two-step” method), the evidentialist treats one or more historical arguments as being able both to indicate God’s existence and activity and to indicate which variety of theism is true.” (Gary Habermas, p. 92)
- “After all, we should never lose sight of our goal of not only ministering in various ways to believers, but, by the mercy and grace of the Holy Spirit, allowing ourselves to be used to present the gospel to unbelievers. Outlining apologetic methodology should never be an end in itself.” (Gary Habermas, p. 121)
- “This, then, is the case for Christianity. It is a broad-based argument with many subjective and objective elements. They require some explanation and in some cases can be seen as reinforcing one another to strengthen the case for Christian theism. The case is like a lawyer’s brief. The claim is that Christian theism gives the most plausible explanation of all the evidence.” (Paul Feinberg, p. 166)
- “The trust of his [God’s] words, then, must be our most fundamental conviction, our most basic and ultimate presupposition, for we bring that commitment into all our thought, seeking to bring all our ideas in conformity to it. That presupposition is therefore our ultimate criterion for truth.” (John Frame, p. 209)
- “…our argument should be transcendental. That is, it should present the biblical God, not merely as a conclusion to an argument, but as the one who makes argument possible. We should present him as the source of all meaningful communication, since he is the author of all order, truth, beauty, goodness, logical validity, and empirical fact.” (John Frame, p. 220)
- “The primary obstacle to belief in God seems to be more moral than intellectual.” (Kelly James Clark, 273)
- “One’s properly functioning cognitive faculties can produce belief in God in the appropriate circumstance with or without argument, evidence, or religious experience.” (Kelly James Clark, p. 284)