The Top 5 Philosophy Books Christian Apologists Should Read

Discover the top 5 philosophy books to level up your apologetics.

#apologetics #philosophyofreligion #existenceofgod

[philtheo]

Great list! 🙂

Perhaps one or more of these works might be worthwhile additions to your list for Christian apologists:

* "Advice to Christian Philosophers" (Alvin Plantinga). A lecture, not a book. I have it in The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader. On philosophical method, among other things. Not only for Christian philosophers, but for any Christian with a scholastic bent in any field.

* Christian Apologetics (Doug Groothuis). Not sure if I should include this one. Groothuis is a philosopher (PhD, University of Oregon). But his tome is more centered on being a comprehensive apologetics resource for Christians than on bringing forth the most philosophically robust arguments. In this respect, it's more wide than deep, I think. To be fair, it's still deeper than most popular books of the same kind.

* Classical Logic and Its Rabbit Holes (Nelson Lande). We should all learn logic! This is a good place to start, I think. Of course, learning Bayes would be awesome, but that gets more technical.

* Informal Logic (Doug Walton). Similar to previous. Helps sharpen one's logic and reasoning, which are foundational in apologetics or any other intellectual endeavor.

* An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology (Stephen Davis & Eric Yang). Less focused on apologetics as such, and more focused on Christian philosophical theology. Nevertheless we should know what to defend (theology) before we attempt to defend it (apologetics). For a more straightforward theology (sans philosophy), I really liked the book Concise Theology by J.I. Packer, which is a super short read, but packs quite a punch despite its pint size. For a full systematic philosophical theology - alas! There isn't an ideal one today, as far as I know. William Lane Craig is working on his multi-volume systematic philosophical theology, but it's years away from completion. Otherwise I really like the work of John Frame including his systematic theology and his four volume Lordship series. Frame is still more focused on theology than philosophical theology but he does do more philosophical theology than any other contemporary theologian that I'm aware of. And at least Frame was a philosophy major (BA, Princeton University) as well as a PhD candidate though he didn't complete his PhD (ABD, Yale University).

* Is God the Best Explanation of Things? (Joshua Rasmussen & Felipe Leon). Similar to the Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Religion book in that this is a debate between two philosophers, a Christian (Rasmussen) and an atheist (Leon). Rasmussen is a rising star in philosophy. He's a Christian universalist and (if I'm not mistaken) an open theist, neither of which I am, (I'm a more vanilla or traditional conservative evangelical Christian), but this debate is focused on theism vs. atheism in general. Leon gives Rasmussen a lot of good pushback too. Anyway this is a great and respectful debate between two highly intelligent and philosophically astute minds.

* God, Freedom, and Evil (Alvin Plantinga). The Nature of Necessity might be too technical for some. God, Freedom, and Evil is for the most part a more simplified or popular level presentation of the same material. Maybe read this one first then try to tackle The Nature of Necessity.

[philtheo]

From the video:

0:23 Is There a God? (Richard Swinburne)

0:47 The Nature of Necessity (Alvin Plantinga)

1:45 Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Religion (Michael Peterson & Raymond VanArragon, eds.)

2:57 Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland)

3:35 The Norton Introduction to Philosophy (Gideon Rosen, Alex Byrne, & Joshua Cohen)

[czgibson]

In European academic philosophy departments, Christianity and belief in God seem to be pretty much finished.