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Item Description...
Book Description
Be prepared "in season and out" with this handy reference book of faith. Timely and biblically based, Josh McDowell's work offers defenses in 60 of the most-challenged areas of faith. All in one easy-to-reference volume, this book will strengthen your commitment and help you stand firm against challenges to the truth.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 504
Dimensions: Length: 9" Width: 5.9" Height: 1.3"
Weight: 1.2 lbs.
Release Date Sep 1, 1992
Publisher THOMAS NELSON REFERENCE & ELEC
ISBN 0840744196
EAN 9780840744197
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Availability 148 units.
Availability accurate as of Sep 02, 2010 02:19.
Usually ships within one to two business days from New Kensington, PA.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay. |
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | A Ready Defense: The Best of Josh Mcdowell Mar 8, 2007 |
| This book packs a great amount of detail in one volume. Josh Mcdowell is a super writer and presents his material exceptionaly well. I am dean of a small Christian college and this book is a required text for one of our foundational courses. | | | | Evidence that demands your attention Mar 8, 2007 |
| McDowell's evidence is completely compelling. Verifiable sources of the written record can be seen, touched, and studied today. Can ALL of these written records be fake? No way you can escape this. Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus is presented in a very detailed and resonable format. The evidence speaks for itself. It's like the phrase "he cast out demons with the Devil's Power". They didn't say he DIDN'T cast out demons, they just attributed Jesus' power to the dark side. They had the evidence right in front of them. Lazarus was alive and could be questioned. Who covered up for the Roman Guards? How was Saul changed into Paul, the completely transformed former killer of christians? What changed his mind? People do not die for a lie or the perception of a lie. The disciples that saw Jesus Resurrected had no mass hallucination, delusion or craziness. Jesus did die and came back to life. Powerful evidence stated in very no nonsense, verifiable words. You really have to ask yourself, "Is Jesus really alive?" Yep. | | |  | Great! Confirms all my doubts are true! Oct 27, 2005 |
It is rare for a Christian to dare ask the questions that every thinking, compassionate person must have, such as "If God is All-knowing, then free will is impossible, right?" or "Why are all the little Hindu children doomed to eternal torture because they had the bad luck to be born in the wrong culture and religion?" or Why would an all powerful God choose such a limited way to reach us? An all powerful God would never have allowed "Satan" to exist unless he was toying with us, right?
Why did God create day and night on the first day, but the sun on the fourth day? Why was God continously causing or advocating genocide and killing of innocent men, women and children in the Old Testament, but requiring of us to not kill but love our neighbors? My morals cannot accept the killing of ANY person.
This book completely sidesteps serious questions or gives the standard circular answers that I've always heard.
I can sum up what you have to believe for this book to be "A Ready Defense": The Bible is true because it says it is. Without that leap of faith (blind belief), it all falls apart.
This book has helped me a lot by confirming my doubts, and has pushed me further on my way to complete disbelief.
| | | | Great book Oct 20, 2005 |
| This is a great tool in helping us to understand and defend the Bible and our faith against our adversaries. | | | | Very thorough and intriguing work of apologetics Jun 24, 2005 |
Before I begin my assessment, just let me quote a previous critic:
"Being a student of religion, I can honestly say that I have never read a more sophomoric attempt at apologetics than McDowell's "A Ready Defense" and his "Evidence..." It is indisputable that the Mr. McDowell has targeted the ignorant and superstitious masses as his prime victims for an audience."
I get the impression he/she? doesn't like it, so let me offer a different perspective. This critic reminds me of another unbeliever of whom I have recently read: Sigmund Freud. The attempt of some to categorize every explanation of faith as "delusion" or "ignorance" is an ad hominem sidestep to the real question: Does God exist? If so, what is God like?
More particularly, is Christianity a religion revealed by God? This is the main issue that McDowell addresses.
McDowell attempts to argue that the Old and New Testaments do have a foundation in divine inspiration. He himself admits that part of the conclusion of the matter must ultimately be one of faith.
Furthermore, McDowell addresses some of the most pertinent questions as to the historical Jesus. He does a better job (in my estimation) than Crossan, Schweitzer, and Bultmann; he admits up front the bias of Christian apologist where the latter cannot straightforwardly admit a presupposition of skepticism (hence a "hermeneutic of suspicion").
And perhaps McDowell again shows us that humility is a necessary ingredient for this faith, Christianity. We do not elevate ourselves above the "ignorant masses" but sympathize with them in their pain and console them with what we believe to be truth. We confess our own ignorance and attempt to gain wisdom from the beginning point of humility. For we are all one in the common struggle of humanity, if nothing else.
Another critic confesses being turned off, but is at least honest enough to admit that he skipped to random pages and did not read the work as a whole. Reading only parts of the book one critiques seems illogical.
Logical thinking requires some sort of proposition that affirms or denies some truth and then proceeds to prove that course of thought. McDowell discusses in this order: Gospel authenticity, the historical Jesus, how Christianity is different from other religions in a comparative review, and questions about faith in general. This is how the argument progresses.
Beginning with the authenticity of the Gospels is a shrewd move for McDowell because this is where many skeptics turned believers (CS Lewis, for example, and McDowell himself) became increasingly uncomfortable before their ultimate assent to faith.
Additionally, in reiterating the classic Lunatic, Liar, or Lord argument, McDowell insists that if the Gospels do not intercede with historical fact in some way, then the Christian faith is meaningless. McDowell is willing to admit that he could be wrong; ironically his critics don't share the same proclivity.
Candidly, I am a former religion student, like the first critic, and a graduate of a divinity school, and also a student of philosophy, and Josh engages me quite seriously not despite my learning, but rather because of it. Bacon once said (I'm paraphrasing) that belief was directly proportional to the amount of study one put forth (the very antithesis of the Freudian worldview). So are ignorance and belief necessarily connected at the hip?
McDowell's thorough attempt to refute the popular forms of Bultmannian Christology would suggest that one does not have to divorce oneself from belief before he or she engages in academic study and serious thought. In short, McDowell disengages from the "hermeneutic of suspiction" so prevalent in religious scholarship today. For this reason alone, I applaud the very thorough and well documented effort that McDowell has put on the table.
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