# Introductory Apologetics Book



## Backwoods Presbyterian (Oct 22, 2008)

My dad would like to read an introductory apologetic book and want some PB advice as to where to point him to and when I say "introductory" I mean introductory.


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## KenPierce (Oct 22, 2008)

A book on apologetics? Every Thought Captive by RIchard Pratt
A book that is itself an apologetic: The Reason for God by Tim Keller


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## Christusregnat (Oct 22, 2008)

Backwoods Presbyterian said:


> My dad would like to read an introductory apologetic book and want some PB advice as to where to point him to and when I say "introductory" I mean introductory.



Every thought captive.

I'm with Ken on that one.

Cheers,


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## jawyman (Oct 22, 2008)

I would recommend, Michael J. Murray, ed. 1999. Reason for the Hope Within. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. xvi+429 pp.


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## Pilgrim (Oct 22, 2008)

I believe Pratt's _Every Thought Captive_ was written with high school students as the primary target audience, so it's going to be fairly basic.


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## davidsuggs (Oct 22, 2008)

Greg L. Bahnsen's Always Ready (Presuppositional)
Gary DeMar's Thinking Straight in a Crooked World (Presuppositional)
Norman Geisler's When Skeptics Ask (Traditional)
Norman Geisler's When Critics Ask (Traditional)
Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator (Evidential)
Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ (Evidential)
Lee Strobel's The Case for Faith (Slightly more philosophical so I guess Traditional)


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## JohnGill (Oct 22, 2008)

Bahnsen's Always Ready and Pushing the Antithesis.


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## greenbaggins (Oct 22, 2008)

I'd recommend Pratt also, but I also like Scott Oliphint's book The Battle Belongs to the Lord, a very easy read, and not too long.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 22, 2008)

jawyman said:


> I would recommend, Michael J. Murray, ed. 1999. Reason for the Hope Within. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. xvi+429 pp.



I would not recommend that book as an introductory book on apologetics. It's more of a philosophical approach and I'm not sure how accessible it is for someone entering the apologetics debate on an introductory level. Also, the essay on determinism and free will promotes a Molinism viewpoint.

Pratt's _Every Thought Captive_ is very good. A book that is free (available online as a PDF) is _Faith with Reason_ by Joseph Farinaccio. I also like Ken Sample's _Without a Doubt_.


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## jawyman (Oct 22, 2008)

Marrow Man said:


> jawyman said:
> 
> 
> > I would recommend, Michael J. Murray, ed. 1999. Reason for the Hope Within. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. xvi+429 pp.
> ...



As an introduction to Apologetics this book is one of the books that is required of us to read for Introduction to Apologetics at PRTS. Dr. James M. Grier. our Apologetics professor studied under Dr. Van Til at Westminster.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 22, 2008)

jawyman said:


> As an introduction to Apologetics this book is one of the books that is required of us to read for Introduction to Apologetics at PRTS. Dr. James M. Grier. our Apologetics professor studied under Dr. Van Til at Westminster.



And it is required reading for the M.Th. course in Christian Philosophy I am currently taking. But Benjamin wrote, "_When I say 'introductory' I mean introductory_." What one might recommend for theology students may not be the same as what one might recommend for a layman who has probably never read a book in apologetics or Christian philosophy.

I actually started a thread on this book a couple of weeks ago (but no one responded!). Since you recommend it, I'd be interested in seeing your insights on that thread.


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## panta dokimazete (Oct 22, 2008)

greenbaggins said:


> I'd recommend Pratt also, but I also like Scott Oliphint's book The Battle Belongs to the Lord, a very easy read, and not too long.



ordered!


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## N. Eshelman (Oct 22, 2008)

I would also like to recommend Always Ready! Way back when I had Apologetics at Puritan Seminary we read VanTil and Bahnsen... none of this fancy new stuff!


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## Casey (Oct 22, 2008)

davidsuggs said:


> Greg L. Bahnsen's Always Ready (Presuppositional)


Ditto on _Always Ready_.


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## MW (Oct 22, 2008)

I would recommend the presuppositional books only after the person has been introduced to classical apologetics; the reason being that you can't understand the former without the latter. Hence, as unconventional as it may seem, I would suggest "Reasons for Faith" by John Gerstner. He provides the classical, evidential basis of apologetics, and further reading in the presuppositional tradition will provide the philosophic framework for how to use this evidence.


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## jawyman (Oct 23, 2008)

nleshelman said:


> I would also like to recommend Always Ready! Way back when I had Apologetics at Puritan Seminary we read VanTil and Bahnsen... none of this fancy new stuff!



We have an online forum now and they are making dvds of all the classes nowadays. It has gotten real fancy since you left.


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## puritan lad (Oct 23, 2008)

How avid of a reader is your dad? When you say "introductory", do you mean introductory reading level, or introductory as far as starting from scratch in the area of apologetics (or both)?

The best I've read so far is John Frame's "The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God". It's a great, thorough book on apologetics, but it is not easy reading.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 23, 2008)

puritan lad said:


> The best I've read so far is John Frame's "The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God". It's a great, thorough book on apologetics, but it is not easy reading.



I don't think Frame's _Apologetics to the Glory of God_ has been mentioned either. It might not quite be "introductory" per se, but it's actually quite readable and only a couple hundred pages in length.


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## cih1355 (Oct 23, 2008)

I would recommend the book, _Ask Them Why_, by Jay Lucas. It is written from a presuppositionalist perspective and I have been reading it. Lucas describes the "Ask Them Why" method where the Christian asks the non-Christian questions in order to expose his presuppositions and to show him that his worldview leads to folly. The book has many fictional encounters between a Christian and various unbelievers such as an evolutionist, a gay rights activist, a liberal Christian, a secular humanist, a postmodernist, a pluralist, and so on. The Christian in these encounters argues that one cannot make sense out of reason, logic, human rights, etc. without the Christian worldview.


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## PresReformed (Oct 23, 2008)

Gordon Clark's _Religion, Reason and Revelation_, _Introduction to Christian Philosophy_, and _Three Types of Religious Philosophy_ all available at The Trinity Foundation.


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## PresReformed (Oct 23, 2008)

Also Gordon Clark's _In Defense of Theology_.


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## Myshkin (Oct 23, 2008)

"Defending the Faith" - R.C. Sproul


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## Heldveld (Oct 23, 2008)

Marrow Man said:


> I don't think Frame's _Apologetics to the Glory of God_ has been mentioned either. It might not quite be "introductory" per se, but it's actually quite readable and only a couple hundred pages in length.



I agree it might get a bit philosophical at times, but in my opinion it would be a good introduction. It even has 'An Introduction' on the cover.


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## Robbie Schmidtberger (Oct 26, 2008)

Depends on what he is looking for. If he wants to know how science and reason are both useful in apologetics, then Sproul's Defending the Faith is the place to begin. If you want to know how the Bible is sufficient for apologetics, Pratt's Every Thought Captive. If your father is an unbeliever then I cannot emphasize Keller's The Reason for God enough. Another book that I find helpful, and complementing Pratt's, is Edgar's Reasons of the Heart. 

I use Pratt as my apologetics text for my students, complemented by primary sources (i.e. the Wilson-Hitchen's debate on Christianity Today; Ehrman and Wright on Belief Net). I might at Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion for next year. 

Esther Meek at Geneva College has a wonderful book out, Longing to Know. It is about epistemic certainty and how we can know things to be true. 

Do not use Van Til, Clark, or Frame... excellent stuff but heady and by no means introduction. (Unless you are in Seminary).


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## Presbyterian Deacon (Oct 26, 2008)

Gordon R. Lewis, Testing Christianity's Truth Claims, (Moody Press, 1976) is an evaluation of the major apologetic systems (Buswell, Hackett, Clark, Van Til, Carnell, Geisler, Ramm, and others). 

There is a fine glossary of philosophical terms at the end the of the book which is helpful to the layman.


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