Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 309 pages
- Published by: Zondervan September 10, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 031024210X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0310242109
-
Book Dimensions:
8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Atheist-turned-Christian Strobel, with four Gold Medallions and other awards, focuses on rediscovering the real Jesus, whose identity and message have come under attack in recent years. He addresses six major challenges and claims: that a different Jesus is seen in ancient documents that seem as credible as the four canonical gospels; that tampering by the church has damaged the Bible's portrayal of Jesus; that new explanations refute Jesus' resurrection; that Christianity copied pagan religions regarding Jesus; that Jesus didn't fulfill messianic prophecies; and that contemporary people should be able to choose what to believe about Jesus. As with his previous books, Strobel attacks the issues as an investigative journalist, though one with a clear agenda. He searches out experts (including Craig A. Evans and Michael Licona) to refute each objection, offering readers top evangelical scholarship revealed in everyday language while challenging the claims of liberal writers like John Shelby Spong, Bart Ehrman and others. In the end, he says, none of these seemingly daunting challenges turned out to be close calls they were systematically dismantled by scholars with facts, logic and evidence. Evangelical readers will come away with deeper understanding of the various arguments about Jesus.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Reader Reviews
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Christian apologist and writer (I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist)who is a friend of Lee Strobel. Yes, I have an agenda just like every author who claims to write non-fiction. Lee Strobel has an agenda, and so do the atheist critics who dismiss his work. But that doesn't mean that what Lee or a critic writes is false or biased. People can present evidence objectively even if they personally are not neutral (I've noticed that neutral people rarely have the interest or expertise to write books!). Unfortunately, many of Lee's critics claim that Lee's work cannot be trusted simply because he has some kind of Christian agenda. This is a fallacy that, if true, would swing a sword cutting both ways-- if you can't trust Lee because he has a Christian agenda, then you can't trust his critics because they have an atheist agenda. All authors have agendas, and all authors believe what they write! The issue is not the agenda, but the evidence! The survivors of the Holocaust certainly had an agenda when they wrote about its horrors. Does that necessarily mean that we cannot trust them? Of course not. In fact, their experiences may have caused them to be all the more accurate and meticulous so as not to risk the dismissal of the message they cared so passionately about. If you know Lee Strobel, he takes the accurate and meticulous route when writing a book. As in his previous "Case" books, Lee covers complicated topics honestly, and in a very readable and comprehensive way. When interviewing Christian scholars, Lee plays the part of a skeptic: he asks the kinds of questions and offers the kind of objections that real skeptics write about in their books-- people such as Bart Ehrman, Richard Carrier, and several "Jesus Seminar" proponents. Critics complain that Lee should really interview those people, but why? Their thoughts are already in their books. Lee's job is to see if their thoughts are credible by interviewing Christian scholars with an opposing view. As usual, Lee plays devil's advocate brilliantly. It's as if the skeptics are asking the questions themselves. So who cares who's asking the skeptic's questions? They are asked and answered, and you, dear reader, are left to judge whether or not those answers make sense. I think they make great sense. One of the best things about "The Case for the Real Jesus" is that Lee addresses the hottest alternative Jesus theories of the day. You'll read about the so-called Jesus tomb, the charge that the manuscripts can't be trusted, and the claim that Christianity was copied from pagan resurrection myths (among other topics). This is the one book that will give you the bottom line on all of those alternative theories-- a bottom line that once again reveals that the most reasonable conclusion is that Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead for your sins and mine. So let me reveal my agenda-- I can't recommend this book more highly. I think you ought to buy "The Case for The Real Jesus" and be enlightened by its outstanding evidence.
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