Don Richardson, “Peace Child”

This book was highly recommended, and loaned to me, by a member of my small group at church, and I was not disappointed. The book is about the missionary work done by Canadian Don Richardson and his wife Carol among the Sawi people in the western half of New Guinea, now called West Irian or … [Read more…]

Some Thoughts on Forgiveness

Recently our pastor spoke on Matthew 18:23-36, and the next evening our small group discussed it. From this, a few thoughts. Forgiveness is important. Consider: It made the cut for inclusion in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus did not explicitly list everything we are supposed to do in His short prayer, and He chose to include … [Read more…]

From 600 to 60

My first post on this blogsite was, “Why I Am a Christian (and You Should Be, Too), in 600 Words.”  Here’s much the same argument, in one-tenth the words (i.e., 60): There is strong evidence that God exists; there is strong evidence that Jesus is Lord; and you are much better off believing in Him and … [Read more…]

Alister E. McGrath, “Intellectuals Don’t Need God & Other Modern Myths: Building Bridges to Faith through Apologetics”

The author of this book is both a scientist (with a Ph.D. in microbiology) and a theologian (with ties to Oxford and Regent College in Vancouver); he used to be an atheist and is now an Anglican priest. The central focus of the book is explaining how to evangelize to intellectuals, especially by familiarizing oneself … [Read more…]

Lee Strobel, “The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points toward God”

This blogsite is named for C.S. Lewis and Blaise Pascal but, besides them, if I had to recommend to a skeptic a set of apologetics, I would probably choose Lee Strobel’s trilogy: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and the book this post will discuss, The Case for a Creator. The latter book … [Read more…]

Peter J. Leithart, “Heroes of the City of Man”

I read this book because Louis Markos, in his book From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics (discussed in a separate post on this blogsite), writes: “I must acknowledge right off the bat that there is already an excellent book offering a Christian look at Homer, Virgil, and the Greek tragedians,” … [Read more…]

N.T. Wright, “The Lord and His Prayer”

I like N.T. Wright, and a good friend recommended this book, so I read it. It’s quite short — 89 pages with no index or notes or headings — divided into six chapters that, as their titles suggest, march us sequentially through the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in Heaven,” “Thy Kingdom Come,” “Give Us This … [Read more…]

Richard Bauckham, “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony” (second edition)

This is a prize-winning book, including an award from Christianity Today, and I read it because of endorsements by Lee Strobel (in The Case for the Real Jesus) and N.T. Wright (“a remarkable piece of detective work”).  The key theme — as the title suggests — is that the Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony. … [Read more…]