Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith
Reviewed by Steven Cowan
Christian Apologetics is the distillation of many years of study and teaching. As the subtitle indicates, it is a thorough defense of the Christian faith, though written to serve as a textbook appropriate for both undergraduate and seminary students.
The book is divided into three parts. Part One presents “Apologetic Preliminaries.” The introductory chapter raises the question of the meaning of life and the role of worldviews is shaping a person’s view of it. Chapter 2 discusses the nature of apologetics, its relation to philosophy and theology, and lays out its biblical basis. Especially helpful were Groothuis’s exposition of the nature of saving faith and the contextual nature of real-life apologetics dialogues.
Chapter 3 is dedicated to apologetic method. After defending the objective truth of the laws of logic, Groothuis argues that “the best method of apologetic reasoning is hypothesis evaluation and verification.” On this method, the “Christian worldview is taken as a large-scale hypothesis. . . that attempts to explain what matters most” (49). This appears to be identical to what is elsewhere called the “cumulative case” method (60). However, Groothuis does more than weigh the Christian worldview against its competitors via a set of epistemic and aesthetic criteria. He combines this with a rigorous presentation of theistic arguments in the fashion of classical apologetics. Indeed, it is evident that Groothuis sees the hypothesis testing method as a variation on classical apologetics (62).
In chapter 4, Groothuis defines and explains the Christian worldview. He discusses the Christian narrative (creation, fall, redemption), the doctrine of the trinity, and the human condition (we’re “question marks in search of an answer”). Chapter 5 responds to common misconceptions and distortions of Christian beliefs associated with topics such as the alleged war between Christianity and science, racism, homosexuality, and sexism. Chapters 6 and 7 defend the objectivity of truth and its importance against postmodern relativism and nihilism. Chapter 8 closes out Part One with a riveting discussion of the prudential incentives for faith, a topic rarely discussed in apologetics texts. Groothuis convincingly argues that prudential concerns, while not showing that Christianity is true, can help motivate unbelievers to be open to considering the evidence for Christianity.
Part Two presents the case for Christian theism. It begins in chapter 9 with an apologetic for the value of theistic arguments, responding to nine objections to natural theology. Chapters 10 through 17 then present all of the major theistic arguments: the ontological argument (chapter 10), Leibnizian and Kalam cosmological arguments (chapter 11), the fine-tuning design argument (chapter 12), the design argument from biology (chapters 13 & 14), the moral argument (chapter 15), the argument from religious experience (chapter 16), and the argument from consciousness (chapter 17). These chapters provide the most complete presentation of theistic arguments of any apologetics text I’m aware of. Though I’m glad to see such a rare compendium of natural theology, it contains significantly more material than would be covered in most introductory apologetics course.
In chapter 18, Groothuis begins the move—ala classical apologetics—from theism to Christianity. Here he outlines Pascal’s argument that human beings are “deposed royalty”—that is, the best explanation for the paradoxical truths that humans are both great and wretched is the biblical view of man as created in God’s image but fallen. This, of course, opens the door to the plausibility of the Christian revelation of Scripture with its view of God, man, Christ, and salvation. As Groothuis puts it, Pascal shows that “humans are (1) wretched because fallen, (2) great because of their unfallen origin, and (3) redeemable through the incarnation” (437).
Chapter 19 is actually written by Groothuis’s colleague, Craig Blomberg. He argues for the accuracy of the New Testament portrait of Jesus, defending the historical reliability of the New Testament documents against various challenges. He also defends the historical plausibility of miracles, especially Jesus’ resurrection. In chapters 20 and 21, Groothuis defends the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ both as a historical fact and a logical possibility. He shows how Jesus claimed to be God incarnate and lived a life consistent with that claim. He also discusses how Jesus’ divine authority supports the authority of Scripture. Moreover, he provides an updated treatment of C.S. Lewis’s famous “liar, lunatic, Lord” argument. Concerning the logical paradox of the incarnation, Groothuis rehearses, among other things, the well-known solution of Thomas Morris. I especially appreciated his rebuttal of those who would leave the matter of the incarnation as an irresolvable paradox (i.e., contradiction).
The resurrection of Jesus is defended in chapter 22. Groothuis rightly (in my opinion) places his defense of the resurrection within the context of a theistic worldview. He first responds to David Hume’s famous arguments against miracles. Then he argues, based upon key minimal facts accepted by most scholars, that Jesus’ resurrection is the best explanation for those facts. After supplying additional evidences for the resurrection in the spiritual experience of believers in history and today, Groothuis responds to naturalistic explanations for the key facts.
Part Three addresses objections to Christian theism. Chapter 23 responds to religious pluralism. The most significant contribution of this chapter is in its discussion of the differences between the world’s religions and the inadequacy of various thinkers to account for these differences on pluralist terms. Groothuis also gives a welcome defense of particularism against Christian inclusivism.
Chapter 24 is a brief but poignant critique of Islam. Groothuis responds to Muslim challenges to the integrity of the biblical text and the deity and crucifixion of Jesus. He also shows the inadequacy of their view of the human condition. In chapter 25, Groothuis tackles the problem of evil. I was particularly gratified to see that he defends a compatibilist view of freedom and thus does not rely heavily on free will as the primary answer to the problem of evil. His solution is the greater good defense—God permits evil in order to bring about greater goods than could be had if he had not allowed evil to exist.
The book includes two appendices. The first defends the traditional doctrine of hell against common objections. The second is a paper by Richard Hess who addresses apologetics issues related to the Old Testament, not least of which is the so-called Canaanite “genocide.”
Christian Apologetics is a truly masterful work. It covers almost all of the major apologetics issues that an apologetics instructor could want and does so in a readable way. My complaints are only two. First, after going to significant lengths to explain the “hypothesis testing model” and define the criteria for assessing worldviews more precisely than any other text does, Groothuis never explicitly applies those criteria to Christianity or any other worldview. The rest of the book proceeds along the standard lines of classical apologetics. Second, there are some topics that would have been welcome in a book that claims to provide a “comprehensive” case for Christianity. For example, chapters on the coherence of the divine attributes and a fuller treatment of the coherence of the trinity. Of course, the book would have to be even longer to accommodate these suggestions. However, perhaps abbreviated versions of chapters 6 and 7, and a discussion of fewer theistic arguments could have allowed these other topics.
These criticisms are trivial, though, when compared to the overall product. I highly recommend this book for use as a primary textbook in apologetics courses.
Steven B. Cowan, Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana College
This review was taken from the January issue of Credo Magazine, “In Christ Alone.” View other reviews like this one today!
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