Table Of Content

CONTENTS Preface PART 1 WHY APOLOGETICS? Chapter 1 In Intellectual Neutral William Lane Craig Chapter 2 Living Smart J. P. Moreland PART 2 GOD Chapter 3 Why Doesn't God Make His Existence More Obvious to Us? Michael J. Murray Chapter 4 Two Versions of the Cosmological Argument R. Douglas Geivett Chapter 5 The Contemporary Argument for Design: An Overview Jay W. Richards Chapter 6 A Moral Argument Paul Copan PART 3 JESUS Chapter 7 Revisionist Views about Jesus Charles L. Quarles Chapter 8 What Do We Know for Sure about Jesus' Death? Craig A. Evans Chapter 9 Jesus' Resurrection and Christian Origins N. T. Wright PART 4 COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS Chapter 10 Christianity in a World of Religions Craig J. Hazen Chapter 11 The East Comes West (or Why Jesus instead of the Buddha?) Harold Netland Chapter 12 Christ in the New Age L. Russ Bush Chapter 13 Islam and Christianity Emir Fethi Caner PART 5 POSTMODERNISM AND RELATIVISM Chapter 14 The Challenges of Postmodernism J. P. Moreland Chapter 15 Is Morality Relative? Francis J. Beckwith Chapter 16 Reflections on McLaren and the Emerging Church R. Scott Smith PART 6 PRACTICAL APPLICATION Chapter 17 Dealing with Emotional Doubt Gary R. Habermas Chapter 18 Apologetics for an Emerging Generation Sean McDowell Contributors PREFACE O ver the last forty years there has been an ongoing revolution in Anglo-American philosophy. As the old, antimetaphysical prejudices have waned, there has been a renaissance of Christian philosophy. One of the fruits of this renaissance is the Evangelical Philosophical Society, the largest society of Christian philosophers in the world and publisher of Philosophia Christi, the only professional journal devoted to philosophical inquiry from an evangelical perspective. The EPS has as its mission influencing both the academy and the church. In an effort to bring the fruits of evangelical scholarship out of the ivory tower to the layman in the pew, the EPS began four years ago to hold apologetics conferences in local churches in conjunction with the EPS annual convention each November. Each conference features a stellar array of more than twenty evangelical scholars from different disciplines who, as their gift to the church, provide pro bono training in the defense of the Christian faith. For those fortunate enough to live near the city where the annual convention is being held, such an opportunity is truly unprecedented and unlikely to come again for many years. The first such conference, entitled “Set Forth Your Case,” was held at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta. The following year the conference was held at Parkhills Baptist Church in San Antonio and called “To Everyone an Answer.” The third conference, “Reason for the Hope within,” was hosted by Branch Creek Community Church in Valley Forge. The conference in 2006, held at McLean Bible Church just outside Washington, D.C., “Loving God with All Your Mind,” drew the largest attendance yet with more than fifteen hundred participants. The testimony of people at these remarkable conferences is that they have been truly life changing for many participants, who for the first time in their lives have come to discover a part of the body of Christ—namely Christian scholars—that they did not even know existed. These gatherings uniquely feature scholars from different fields—history, philosophy, biblical studies, science, religious studies, theology, archaeology, ethics—who capably defend the Christian faith. This volume is, we hope, the first of an ongoing series of cuttingedge, accessible essays in Christian apologetics taken from these conferences. May God use this book to encourage your faith, strengthen your mind, and embolden your witness! Paul Copan William Lane Craig Part 1