Passionate Conviction: Contemporary Discourses on Christian Apologetics

250 Pages·2007·1.612 MB·English

by  Paul Copan ,  William Lane Craig

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