Apologetics Resources

I try to keep this list up to date, and add/subtract resources as needed. Each resource includes a short description from me, to help you choose one to begin your study! Happy studying!

Where to Start

Dennis Moles & Ryan Whitson, Reasons to Believe: written by pastors & campus ministers, this book contains straightforward answers to tough questions. Includes chapters from Dr. Darrell Dooyema.

Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity Addresses difficult questions concerning the Bible and diversity, homosexuality, science, women’s rights, slavery, suffering and even Hell.  A worthwhile read.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: introduction to major themes and a great book to discuss with a friend.

Gavin Ortlund, Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t. Notes how beauty, meaning, philosophy and hope are all best explained by the Christian worldview. 

Tim Keller, Reason for God: good overview of many of the major questions and responses.

Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter: very short book worth discussing with a friend on identity of Jesus.

Lee Stroble, The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ: helpful interviews with current scholars and thinkers.  

Greg Koukl, Tactis: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions:  Good book on methods and learning to ask good questions in conversation with non-believing friend.

William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith Animated Videos are excellent short shareable resources on a variety of philosophical arguments and apologetic topics and are available here: Reasonable Faith Animated Videos

www.apologetics.org – Articles, Videos, and podcasts on important apologetic topics by good thinkers! 

“Closer to Truth,” Video interviews with famous philosophers, scientists, and theologians on questions of God, Consciousness, and Cosmos. www.closertotruth.com  100’s of interviews with atheists, Christians, and others.  Look for interviews by Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Richard Swinburne, and more.

Postmodernism, Truth, and The Bible

Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay: how should Christians respond to Postmodernism?

J.P. Moreland, Love God with All Your Mind:  you should read this book! Great intro to thinking and faith.

J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City:  excellent resource on truth, science, morality and Christian apologetics.

Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason and He is There and He is Not Silent

Craig Blomberg, Can We Still Believe the Bible?  Responds to contemporary questions.

Science & Faith

Nancy Pearcy, The Soul of Science:  Excellent book on the Christian origin of the Scientific Method.

William Dembski, Intelligent Design: a good introduction and argument for this theory.

Illustra Media, Unlocking the Mystery of Life, DVD: great movie on arguments of Intelligent Design. It is now fully online for free at youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWvS1UfXl8k

The Discovery Institute (Intelligent Design): www.discovery.org Excellent material on Intelligent Design.

Michael Behe:  Darwin’s Black Box

Francis Collins, The Language of God: head of the Human Genome Project argues for intelligent design in DNA.

Stephen Meyer, Signature in the Cell:  a comprehensive volume, centering on the presence of information in the cell (DNA) and the origins and evidence of information in the universe.

Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos, Why the Materialist, Neo-Darwinist Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False: a leading atheist philosopher argues against naturalistic evolution.

Philosophical Writings:

Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics:  An excellent and accessible volume (quite comprehensive).

Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief: for philosophy majors.  

J.P. Moreland & William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview: large and comprehensive!

Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels 

Thomas Morris, God and the Philosophers: famous philosophers give their stories on why they believe in God.

Douglas Groothuis, On Jesus: describes the worldview and philosophy of Jesus including his use of logic.

Anthony Flew, There is a God: leading atheist of this era changes his mind and argues for God’s existence.

World Religions

Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus:  a Muslim comes to Christ and shares his thoughtful journey.

Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: great resource to learn about other religions; has pictures.  

Dean Halverson, The Compact Guide to World Religions: includes ideas of outreach to friends from each religion.

Harold Netland, Encountering Religious Pluralism: more philosophical writing on question of pluralism.

Cultural Influence of Christianity

Jonathan Hill: What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? A humorous, well written and well documented history of Christianity’s contribution to the world…has pictures! 

Alvin J. Schmidt: How Christianity Changed the World:  The title says it all.  

D.A. Carson: Christ & Culture Revisited:  an academic and theological exploration of the intersection of culture and Christianity.

Morality

Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.  Great on modern idea of identity, gender & sexuality.

Frank Turek:  Stealing from God:  Why Atheists Need God To Make Their Case. How atheists steal from the Christian worldview especially on moral decisions. 

J. Budziszewski: Written on the Heart:  The Case for Natural Law

Archaeology

Joseph M. Holden & Norman Geisler: The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible:  

Discoveries That Confirm the Reliability of Scripture. A great resource on archaeological discoveries. 

Jesus

Michael J. Wilkins & JP Moreland:  Jesus Under Fire:  Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Defending the Biblical view of the historical Jesus and battling the liberal academic view that re-writes Jesus’ story without evidence.

JP Moreland: Kingdom Triangle:  Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power. Both philosophical and practical this book gives thought to the Christian life, mind, body and soul. 

Dallas Willard:  Knowing Christ Today: an excellent book giving philosophical defense of knowledge as well as spiritual guidance pointing out how we walk with Jesus and can know him daily. 

Please feel free to contact me with questions!  

Dr. Darrell Dooyema, darrell.dooyema@navigators.org 

(719) 360-6147