I’ve been away at a writers conference teaching a class on writing apologetics like C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Dorothy Sayers, and the other Christian rock stars of the last century. Some students have asked for recommendations, and I have many, but readers of “First Thoughts” will have more.
I’d be grateful for your recommendations of apologetic works in three categories:
Classic: from the Fathers through the 18th Century;
Modern: the 19th and early 20th century; and
Contemporary: After, say, 1960.
The break between the first and the second is somewhat arbitrary, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and I had dimly in mind the difference in obvious or immediate usefulness between works written in the 18th century and those written afterwards. Assume a serious reader, who will read with an overliner and dictionary if he has to, though you might flag in some way the more difficult works.
June 24th, 2010 | 7:06 pm
One neglected author who fits under your “contemporary” rubric is the Oxford theologian Austin Farrer, a friend of C. S. Lewis’s to whom the latter dedicated his _Reflection on the Psalms_. Farrer’s books _Saving Belief_ (1964), _Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited_ (1961), and _A Science of God_ (1966; American title _God Is Not Dead_) constitute a fine apologetic trilogy.
June 24th, 2010 | 8:06 pm
I suggest: Mortimer Jerome Adler (1902 – 2001)
and his “How to Think About God” published in 1991.
Though I think of myself as a neo-Platonist, I enjoyed Adler’s Aristotelian thoroughness. A good trait in such a polemic field as Apologetics.
June 24th, 2010 | 8:29 pm
For the “Modern” period, what about Lewis’s own book The Pilgrim’s Regress? It details in very picturesque, allegorical form “John’s” journey, his search for the ultimate object of desire–from shallow religion through early sensuality through every variety of “cool” philosophical options up to Lewis’s own time. What is quite stunning is his ability to depict the heart of these movements in a way that goes to the heart of the matter, as well as displaying their insufficiency/wrong headedness etc. Just as remarkable is that, even though the book was written 70/80 years ago is how up to date it still feels: and even if our own postmodern trends may not be included, you can see their roots in Lewis’s descriptions of the movements of his own time.
Anybody else agree on this one?
bz
June 24th, 2010 | 8:49 pm
Frank Sheed’s Theology and Sanity.
June 24th, 2010 | 9:09 pm
How about City of God from Augustine, Against Heresies from Iranaeus, and First Apology from Justin Martyr. For starters.
June 24th, 2010 | 9:31 pm
A good apologist for your Classical era who is often overlooked is Minucius Felix, whose Octavius is a genuinely charming dialogue defending Christianity against the paganism of the Roman empire. Also, in many parts it has endured the shifts of time surprisingly well.
June 24th, 2010 | 10:23 pm
St. Francis de Sales wrote a series of tracts that, as I understand it, were especially well-regarded (and supposedly won an entire Swiss city back to the Catholic faith). TAN books used to publish it as “The Catholic Controversy”. Some of it really was good, but I was dismayed when I read his take on a comet.
June 25th, 2010 | 12:08 am
May I also offer Wolfhart Pannenberg. Though not an apologist in the strict sense; his work on the Philosophy of Science is a great aid to anyone addressing a modernist sensitivity.
June 25th, 2010 | 8:35 am
Catholic: There is probably no better short, accessible modern apologetics work than Frank Sheed’s “A Map of Life.” Close second: Fr. Ronald Knox’s “The Hidden Stream.” (Also heartily concur regarding De Sales’ “Catholic Controversy” — as well as Mohler’s “Symbolism” (although this requires some background in the Reformation controversy and a rather developed theological vocabulary — so may be best for those Christians looking to move from one confession/denomination to another).
Protestant: John Stott’s “Basic Christianity,” Donald Bloesch’s “The Christian Life and Salvation,” and Bo Giertz’s “The Hammer of God” captures Lutheran/Christian theology and worldview most profoundly in fictional form.
June 25th, 2010 | 8:45 am
Also: Augustine’s “Enchiridion” is a nice snapshot of apologetics/fundamental theology at a certain point in the church’s history.
June 25th, 2010 | 9:46 am
While not apologetics in the strict sense, I’ve found Rene Girard’s work to be a convincing affirmation of the truth and uniqueness of Christianity in light of modern historical and anthropological methods. Girard trained as an anthropologist and his comparisons of Christianity with other belief systems (mostly those contemporary to Jesus, but he also takes on Nietzsche) are fascinating. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning is a good ~200 pp. introduction.
June 25th, 2010 | 10:05 am
I would concur with Ronald Knox. An interesting book for those, like me, who have had a life long love of Lewis and are new to Knox (or vice versa) is Second Friends (http://www.amazon.com/Second-Friends-Lewis-Ronald-Conversation/dp/1586172409/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277474518&sr=8-1)
In the modern era- John Polkinghorne, or FT’s own Stephen Barr, for their works on the intersection of faith and science.
June 25th, 2010 | 10:19 am
I’d like to cast a vote for CS Lewis’ The Problem of Pain. Lewis poses the classic problem at the outset, then goes to the “First Things” of faith to meticulously develop a thorough and satisfying answer, which, in its development, covers the whole essence of Christian understanding of things.
June 25th, 2010 | 12:20 pm
Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo, which defends the necessity of the Incarnation against Jewish and (possibly) Muslim criticisms. There is also a whole series of Syrian Christian apologetics against Muslim criticisms from around the 8th century that remain relevant today, but I’d have to ask my friend who is an expert in that field what they are.
June 25th, 2010 | 1:15 pm
This is a wonderful list of historical apologetic classics from the 18th and 19th centuries:
http://www.lydiamcgrew.com/Historicalapologeticsreadinglist.htm
I would particularly recommend Chalmers.
June 25th, 2010 | 4:02 pm
Would any of John Polkinghorne’s books suit? His writings make the Christian faith [trust in Resurrection, Incarnation] plausible to skeptics who take pop understandings of science
as a basis for atheism. A former Cambridge prof of mathematical physics, he has great
credibility. If C.S. Lewis had been a physicist . . . . . .
Three Polkinghorne recommendations:
“Quarks, Chaos & Christianity”
“Beyond Science”
“The Faith of a Physicist”
Gerald Schoeder, MIT-trained scientist living in Jerusalem, does not come under the umbrella
of Christian apologetics. But his “The Hidden Face of God” is an accessible testament of faith
by a believing Jew who finds strength for his belief in God in science.
Frank Sheed’s “Theology and Sanity” is a particularly useful discussion of what a Christian life must be. And of the dangers of disdaining theology.
[Personally, I find Sayers---and to a certain degree, C.S. Lewis---a bit precious at times. More attractive in quotation than in full court prose.]
June 25th, 2010 | 4:54 pm
Let me add 3 more Sheed titles:
“Man the Forgotten”
“Are We Really Teaching Religion?”
“Ground Plan for Catholic Reading”
That last serves all confessions.
June 25th, 2010 | 6:35 pm
Not an apologetic work per se, The Habit of Being, collection of letters by Flannery O’Connor, readable, quotable but not precious; also Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., an astrophysicist, has a book coming out soon, titled New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy.
June 25th, 2010 | 6:43 pm
Maureen Mullarkey: Yes, sometimes I find Sayers, Lewis, Chesterton a bit too precious; Chesterton at times almost impossible. I have not seen Peter Kreeft mentioned. If a novel can be considered apologetic, how about “Father Elijah” by Michael O’Brien?
June 25th, 2010 | 8:57 pm
Who can recommend something on the problem of evil?
June 25th, 2010 | 9:09 pm
On apologetics insofar as it involves science and faith, almost anything by Fr. Stanley Jaki: The Savior of Science; The Purpose of It All; Brain, Mind and Computers.
June 26th, 2010 | 8:06 am
Minucius Felix’s “Octavius”, and Justin Martyr’s “Dialogue with Trypho”, for a few early works. One argues for Christianity against a pagan opponent, the other–Justin Martyr’s–talks about Christianity being the complete revelation of God coming out of Judaism. (Martyr’s, read today, may strike some as overly aggressive against Judaism, but that may say more about Jewish/Christian relations in the second century than anything else.)
June 26th, 2010 | 8:09 am
And while not purely apologetics, but more a personal story of conversion from atheism, with a few strong arguments for Christianity against atheism, look at Peter Hitchen’s “The Rage Against God.”
It’s not a perfect work, but it gives a very important personal touch to apologetics, and it does rather well to dispense with the tired atheist’s argument that Communism was not–and is not–an atheistic construct.
June 26th, 2010 | 12:10 pm
Karl Keating’s “The Usual Suspects” is a good one for answering a lot of common arguments from fundamentalists. He has several good books that address this subject — not particularly good for apologetics to secular folks, though. Steve Ray’s “Crossing the Tiber” is sort of a long, stream of consciousness essay on the same themes. Both are very good for understanding fundamentalists, as well as for explaining things to them.
Keating also edited one called “Controversies: High Level Catholic Apologetics,” which includes excerpts from five classic apologetics writers (category 2 above). I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which introduced me to both Ronald Knox and Arnold Lunn. Lunn is not remembered as he should be, his books are wonderful. Like Knox, he wrote apologetics for typical Protestant arguments of the time, I suppose what we would think of today as mainline Protestant arguments. Both are fabulous.
I like Sheed but find him slow going. I much prefer Chesterton, particularly “Orthodoxy,” “Heretics,” and “The Everlasting Man.”
June 26th, 2010 | 3:50 pm
Peter Kreeft in Kreeft and Tacelli’s Handbook of Apologetics where they nare answering the problems raised by college students not answered elsewhere
June 26th, 2010 | 6:33 pm
Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno’s “God’s Mechanics” is delightfully readable and remarkably insightful. It’s addressed to “techies.” Though I’m not in that category, I found it provocative and clear.
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Mechanics-Scientists-Engineers-Religion/dp/0787994669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277591408&sr=8-1
June 27th, 2010 | 7:14 pm
To echo Steve: Peter Hitchen’s “The Rage Against God.” Better than his brother’s memoir….
June 27th, 2010 | 7:52 pm
Peter Kreeft has written a large number of excellent books; many of which address apologetic subject matter. His Catholic Christianity is a very readable overview of the Catholic faith, based on the Catechism. He has a great number of other excellent books on subjects like abortion, relativism and other topics of interest to contemporary Christians.
June 27th, 2010 | 11:30 pm
I teach a seminary elective on apologetics which I unofficially call “greatest hits in apologetics from Justin Martyr to Scott Hahn” I tried to choose one work from each period — others could be chosen but this is what we read last time I taught it:
Patristic
Justine Martyr. First and Second Apologies. ACW v. 56. Paulist Press, 1997.
Reformation
Frances de Sales. The Catholic Controversy. Tan, 1989.
Enlightenment
Peter Kreeft. Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees. Ignatius, 1993.
Modern Historical Consciousness
John Henry Cardinal Newman. An Essay of the Development of Christian Doctrine. U. of Notre Dame, 1989.
Twentieth Century
C. S. Lewis. Miracles. HarperOne, 1996.
Contemporary
Scott Hahn. Reasons to Believe. Doubelday, 2007.
June 28th, 2010 | 1:49 am
The Brothers Karamazov
June 28th, 2010 | 9:03 am
Arnold Lunn’s “Now I See” and “There Is a City” have some very good passages Sheed is terrific but takes persistence. His much ballyhooed ‘Theology for Beginners’ isn’t one of his better works. “Christ is Eclipse’ is. ‘Theology and Sanity’ is tops on both ends, slow-going in the middle.
June 29th, 2010 | 1:13 pm
Protestant pastor Douglas Wilson engaged Christopher Hitchens in the book “Is Christianity Good for the World?”, and the subsequent book tour was set up as a series of debates, documented in amusingly dramatic fashion by music video director Darren Doane in “Collision”. Wilson also wrote “Letter from a Christian Citizen” in response to Sam Harris’ “Letter to a Christian Nation”, and “God Is: How Christianity Explains Everything” in response to Christopher Hitchens’ “God is Not Great”.
Wilson’s work is worth reading as much for his argumentative style as the arguments themselves: Many contemporary apologists could stand to learn from his hard-hitting yet humorous approach that gives no quarter while refusing to be shrill.
June 29th, 2010 | 7:03 pm
What list could be complete without a mention of Dr. Cornelius Van Til? His two classic apologetical works – “The Defense of the Faith” (1955) and “Christian Apologetics” (1976) – firmly established the term “presuppositionalism” into the Christian lexicon.
An excellent apologetics teaching tool is the recorded 1987 debate between Greg Bahnsen (one of Van Til’s pupils and friends) and the atheist Gordon Stein. (Available here: http://www.cmfnow.com/thegreatdebatedoesgodexist.aspx). Bahnsen expertly utilizes the presuppositional approach thereby leaving his opponent nearly speechless.
Bahnsen also has several written works based on this topic including, “Defending the Faith”.
Another of Van Til’s students, John Frame has published extensively on this topic and can be recommended. “Apologetics to the Glory of God” is probably his best known work on this subject.
Happy listening and reading!
Peace.
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