Product Description

The New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics is a must-have resource for professors and students, pastors and laypersons--in short, for any Christian who wishes to understand or develop a rational explanation of the Christian faith in the context of today's complex and ever-changing world. Packed with hundreds of articles that cover the key topics, historic figures and contemporary global issues relating to the study and practice of Christian apologetics, this handy one-volume resource will make an invaluable addition to any Christian library.Editors Gavin McGrath and W. C. Campbell-Jack, with consulting editor C. Stephen Evans, have divided the dictionary into two parts: Part one offers a series of introductory essays that set the framework for the dictionary. These essays examine the practice and importance of Christian apologetics in light of theological, historical and cultural concerns. Part two builds on these essays to present numerous alphabetized articles on individuals, ideas, movements and disciplines that are vital to a rational explanation of the Christian faith. Both essays and articles are written by leading Christian philosophers and theologians. Together, they form an indispensable resource for Christians living in today's pluralistic age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #758744 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 779 pages

Customer Reviews

A five-star resource
Apologetics seeks to do several things: present the attractiveness of the Christian faith; demonstrate the reasonableness of Christianity; and clear up misconceptions and faulty understandings about Christianity. This task has been going on now for two millennia. As a result there have been a lot of apologists and apologetic methods over the centuries.

Thus the need for a dictionary such as this. It covers in one volume almost all of the main Christian thinkers, philosophers, apologists and writers who have sought to defend the Christian faith. These range from Irenaeus, Augustine and Aquinas, to Lewis, Schaeffer and Guinness.

It also features most of the objections, rivals and criticisms of the faith, be it the problem of evil, Marxism, Islam, the New Age, philosophical naturalism, scientism, nihilism, and much more.

The various schools and methods of apologetics are addressed here (evidentialism, presuppositionalism, etc.), as are the major contemporary issues impacting on the faith, such as postmodernism, information theory and globalization.

All the major apologetics topics are featured here, such as, miracles, the resurrection of Jesus, the arguments for God's existence, science and faith, the problem of suffering, scepticism, competing truth claims, and religious pluralism.

All together there are some 400 short articles covering a wide range of material, from Abelard to Zoroastrianism. Around 200 international experts have penned these articles, most averaging around a page and a half in length. In addition there are five longer introductory articles dealing with issues such as the role of apologetics, types of apologetic systems, and the relationship between apologetics and theology.

In nearly 800 pages most important aspects of apologetics are covered. And each article has a helpful bibliography to take the reader into further study. The only thing comparable to this is the Baker Encyclopedia on Christian Apologetics which appeared in 1999. Interestingly, unlike other volumes in the Baker Encyclopedia series, that volume was penned by just one author, Norman Geisler. While Gesiler has been a leading Christian apologist and author for many decades now, some might argue that a number of experts can more properly do justice to such a wide field of thought than just a single author.

I happen to have a very high regard for the work of Geisler, and if anyone can pull off a single-author dictionary on apologetics, it would be him. But it is good to see Geisler's work supplemented by this important reference work.

If forced to choose between the two, I would just slightly recommend the IVP Dictionary as your first option, but if your book space and budget allows, get both. The job of defending the faith is an on-going task, and the articles in this dictionary make for an excellent starting point for every believer who wants to sharpen his or her own thinking, and more effectively stand up for the faith.

Not as useful as Baker's Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
Two of the three previous reviewers included comparisons with Norman Geisler's Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, a volume of similar size and scope. I would like to offer my own comparison of the two, focusing on topics that come up most frequently in Christian apologetics, namely the existence of God, the problem of evil, biblical contradictions, miracles, the resurrection, creation, etc. Coverage by page count for the two are as follows:

Evidence/Arguments for God: Baker 32-1/2 pages, IVP 11 pages
Problem of Evil: Baker 5-1/2 pages, IVP 3-1/2 pages
The Resurrection: Baker 23-1/2 pages, IVP 5 pages
Bible Criticism: Baker 5-1/2 pages, IVP 2 pages
Bible Difficulties/Errors: Baker 6-1/2 pages, IVP 5-1/2 pages
Miracles: Baker 38 pages, IVP 5-1/2 pages
The Trinity: Baker 7-1/2 pages, IVP 3-1/2 pages
Views of Creation/Origins: Baker 15-1/2 pages, IVP 4-1/2 pages
Science & the Bible: Baker 9 pages, IVP 2 pages
Evolution: Baker 9-1/2 pages, IVP 2-1/2 pages
Big Bang Theory: Baker 4 pages, IVP 1/2 page
C. S. Lewis: Baker 5 pages, IVP 1 page
Salvation of Infants: Baker 5-1/2 pages, IVP 0 pages

In addition, the articles in the Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics tend to be more structured, with sub-headings, text tables and numbered lists, which make them easier to follow and to browse. The articles in IVP's New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics are almost exclusively undifferentiated paragraphs of text.

Furthermore, in the area that I am personally most familiar with (science & the Bible), the articles in the Baker Encyclopedia are much more informative, presenting arguments on all sides of an issue.

As for the argument that multiple contributors are better than one, remember that systematic theologies tend to have single authors.

Therefore, between the two, I recommend Norman Geisler's Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics over IVP's New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics.

An Amazing Resource!
This is, to put it quite simply, an amazing resource. This is one of the few books that I simply have to recommend to anyone who is even slightly interested in the topic. In my opinion really all Christians should have this book, if not just to have a resource to keep themselves moderately informed of the changing apologetics landscape, and its historical backgrounds. Filled with hundreds of articles on topics ranging from the Kalaam cosmological argument, to Leibniz, Hegel, Logical Positivism, Naturalism, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Apologetic Methodology, etc... and essentially any topic one could think of in relation to the subject of apologetics, this is an absolute must-buy for anyone interested in apologetics and meta-apologetics (that is, how to do apologetics itself). Whether you are the jaded veteran or the bright eyed beginner, this book really does a fantastic job of outlining the basic components of any given topic, while not getting bogged down in the particulars, and hence does a startlingly good job of balancing between accessibility and depth of information.

What sets this book apart from, say, Norman Geisler's similar offering, is the fact that it benefits strongly from a multiple contributor standpoint. Where Norman Geisler's apologetics encycopedia was (despite being a solid effort by one man) obviously over-reliant on one man's point of view (which happens to be decidedly neo-thomistic in its framework, which makes Geisler's critique heavily steeped in "classical" apologetic method) this book has a number of different contributors who represent numerous different backgrounds (e.g. not just theology and philosophy, but biology, chemistry, physics, and all of their sub-disciplines, along with a host of different ideas on apologetic methodology itself) which gives the book a very welcome inter-disciplinary approach. Among some of the notable contributors are of course, W.L. Craig, W. Dembski, Del Ratszch, Alister McGrath, Veli-Matti Karkainnen, J.P. Moreland, John Frame, and a host of others. If you are considering buying this book, but are still undecided, I can tell you that overall this book is well worth the somewhat steep price. It is a welcome contribution to the field of apologetics, and will, undoubtedly, be used for years to come.