Book Question

[ChristianJMU]

I am an evangelical Christian who recently took interest in apologetics. I have been debating a good friend of mine who used to be an evangelical Christian but over the course of the past 10 years has become an atheist. He has come to this conclusion through personal influences as well as atheist literature.

He recently had me read the book, The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. He gets most of his thinking from there. He believes, “The Old Testament is a mix of a variety of ancient cannonite and tribal Jewish gods. Most of it written by men who were consistently conquered without fail.” He doubts that Jesus has ever existed and if he did, he believes he was just another human being trying to be the coming messiah. The only reason he succeeded is because Paul was such a great “CEO” of Christianity.

He will now appease me and read one book suggestion I give him. My question to you is what book would you suggest I give him if this will be the only “Christian” book he will ever read in his life? Thank you for your time.

[Jac3510]

There is no one book that will do it. If he was seriously swayed by the garbage you mention, then that suggests that 1) he isn't a very critical thinker (something suggests to me that he's probably very young--a teenager, perhaps, or very early 20s?), and 2) he probably has an emotional investment in non-belief. Seriously, people who buy into conspiracy theories have much deeper problems than believing the conspiracy theory.

Still, so as not to completely ignore your question, point him to any solid scholarship on the historicity of Jesus. The ones that immediately come to my mind are The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach by Mike Licona, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus by William Lane Craig, Jesus Under Fire by Michael Wilkins, The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas, and so on. To go a very different direction, Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte by Richard Whately is available online and shows the stupidity of the conspiracy theory approach to historiography that the people he is reading are using (it's also free since it's rather old!). Or another approach might be to have him read The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History by Baruch Halpern, which is not a Christian text, but is an excellent discussion of how real historians approach the Old Testament (and note, he's a very liberal historian; I disagree with a lot of his positions, but he would mock incessantly the idiocy your friend has let himself be duped by).

Yes, yes, I know, you said one book. Actually, I'm not recommending these books to him. I'm recommending them to you. Use this as a chance to understand better your own faith, and you'll be able to reach him far better than by handing him a book.

[Kurieuo]

I am an evangelical Christian who recently took interest in apologetics. I have been debating a good friend of mine who used to be an evangelical Christian but over the course of the past 10 years has become an atheist. He has come to this conclusion through personal influences as well as atheist literature.

He recently had me read the book, The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. He gets most of his thinking from there. He believes, “The Old Testament is a mix of a variety of ancient cannonite and tribal Jewish gods. Most of it written by men who were consistently conquered without fail.” He doubts that Jesus has ever existed and if he did, he believes he was just another human being trying to be the coming messiah. The only reason he succeeded is because Paul was such a great “CEO” of Christianity.

He will now appease me and read one book suggestion I give him. My question to you is what book would you suggest I give him if this will be the only “Christian” book he will ever read in his life? Thank you for your time.

Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

[ChristianJMU]

There is no one book that will do it. If he was seriously swayed by the garbage you mention, then that suggests that 1) he isn't a very critical thinker (something suggests to me that he's probably very young--a teenager, perhaps, or very early 20s?), and 2) he probably has an emotional investment in non-belief. Seriously, people who buy into conspiracy theories have much deeper problems than believing the conspiracy theory.

Still, so as not to completely ignore your question, point him to any solid scholarship on the historicity of Jesus. The ones that immediately come to my mind are The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach by Mike Licona, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus by William Lane Craig, Jesus Under Fire by Michael Wilkins, The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas, and so on. To go a very different direction, Historic Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte by Richard Whately is available online and shows the stupidity of the conspiracy theory approach to historiography that the people he is reading are using (it's also free since it's rather old!). Or another approach might be to have him read The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History by Baruch Halpern, which is not a Christian text, but is an excellent discussion of how real historians approach the Old Testament (and note, he's a very liberal historian; I disagree with a lot of his positions, but he would mock incessantly the idiocy your friend has let himself be duped by).

Yes, yes, I know, you said one book. Actually, I'm not recommending these books to him. I'm recommending them to you. Use this as a chance to understand better your own faith, and you'll be able to reach him far better than by handing him a book.

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback.