Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #430534 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

Customer Reviews

Proving the Resurrection -- Craig Brings it All Together
William L. Craig is perhaps the best-known apologist for the resurrection of Jesus. He set out his argument in detail in a book that unfortunately now costs well over $100. He has contributed articles on the resurrection to books like In Defense of Miracles and Jesus Under Fire. One of his debates on the resurrection has been converted into a book, Jesus' Resurrection. What has been missing, and what this book provides, is a single volume treatment of Craig's argument for the historicity of Jesus. The book is written for the layperson and weighs in at about 150 pages with relatively few references. As a popularization of Craig's argument, it is success.

Craig begins with an introduction to the issues and a refutation of some popular counter theories, such as the apparent-death theory and the wrong-tomb theory. It seems odd placement given that he has not stated his case-in-chief, but Craig discusses them in terms of historical approaches to the resurrection. On one hand it adds some interesting historical context, but it still seems a little out of place.

The meat of the book is in the next two chapters, on the Empty Tomb and the Appearances of Jesus. Craig offers ten points supporting the historical fact of the empty tomb, beginning with "The historical reliability of the account of Jesus' burial supports the empty tomb" to "The fact that Jesus' tomb was not venerated as a shrine indicates that the tomb was empty." Most of the arguments are persuasively presented, though I wish all apologists would leave the Shroud aside. But in the end, Craig adequately explains the reasons that most scholars, from diverse backgrounds, accept the empty tomb as historical fact.

The section on the Appearances of Jesus begins by demonstrating their historicity and then examines their explanations. He first shows that Peter, the Twelve, the five hundred, James, the apostles, and Paul did indeed experience appearances by Jesus. Craig then moves through the potential explanations and concludes that the best explanation for these appearances is that they were indeed real events, interactions with a living and breathing restored Jesus.

Craig caps off his argument with a discussion about the resurrection's role as the best explanation for the Origin of the Christian Faith itself. He then concludes with a scholarly alter call, explaining the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus as the way to reconcile ourselves to God and gain forgiveness of our sins.

This book is typical of Craig. He moves through the material very methodically, laying out his arguments in an informed and convincing manner--step by step. He covers aspects of the argument in other publications in more depth or with more references, but The Son Rises is beneficial in that it brings the core of his argument, and the significance of his conclusion, together in one small book.

A must read for every non-Christian theist
In this book, Craig lays out a powerful case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Using evidence only agreed upon by the consensus of critical NT scholarship, Craig puts together a powerful factual case, using the evidence of the Empty Tomb, the appearances of Jesus, and the origin of the Christian faith. It is important to remember, as Craig emphasizes, that our faith is not based on empirical arguments, but on the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. However, it is important that Christians know these arguments so we can show to the outside world that Christianity is consistent with the evidence. Anyone who believes in God but not in Christ will be challenged by the evidence presented in this book to re-examine their thoughts on how God has revealed Himself in history. However, don't even waste your time reading this if you are already 100% closed to supernatural interventions of God. The evidence will not convince you, because your mind is already closed. However, I just want to note that Craig repudiated the Shroud of Turin later on in 1989, upon evidence being found that it was a forgery. I figured I'd mention that because Craig seems to accept the Shroud in this book. Also, I recommend the chapter on the Resurrection in Craig's book Reasonable Faith, because he takes the evidence for Jesus' Resurrection and applies to it 7 historical criteria used by real historians to see if if is better than other naturalistic hypotheses.

The Son Rises
Prima Facie, I was a bit disappointed with this book. Three things in particular: 1) It was much shorter than I had expected (only 156 pages), considering some of Craig's other works. 2) The book doesn't include a topical or scriptural index. Though it'll be hard, I'll eventually get over the absence of the topical index. The scriptural index, however, is another story. A book of this type wherein the main subject is the exposition of an historical event necessitates exegetical work of the documents used. As the New Testament being the book's primary focus, you can begin to see how a scriptural index would be most beneficial. Hence, the absence of a scriptural index a very unfortunate omission. 3) My third criticism isn't geared toward the book's information, but rather its appearance. The copy I received has a poor print job. On several pages it looks like the ink from the printing machine ran dry, giving the text a faded, erased-like appearance. I'm not sure if this is a mass-produced foible of the book in general, exclusive to my copy in particular, or typical of Wipf and Stock Publishers, but I was bummed. Ye are forewarned, but don't let that alone preclude your purchase of the book if interested.

On the other hand, this book is, nonetheless, a great and fair treatment of the resurrection argument. To Craig's credit in light of the above criticisms, however, the information in a project published eight years before his more comprehensive study weighing in at well over 400 pages (Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus) is bound to have its perils. The book's strengths include establishing the historical credibility of the postmortem appearances of Christ and demolishing rivaling hypotheses that attempt to explain away the resurrection events.

Apart from being a solid text with quick and hard-hitting points on the resurrection, I would suggest this book to anyone looking for good introductory work on applied historical argumentation and criticism as well. Overall, despite the aforementioned regrettable aspects, this would be an excellent addition to your apologetics library.

Table of Contents:

Preface--------------------------------------p. 7
1. Death and Resurrection--------------------p. 9
2. Some Blind Alleys--------------------------p. 23
3. The Empty Tomb---------------------------p. 45
4. The Appearances of Jesus------------------p. 91
5. The Origin of the Christian Faith------------p. 127
6. Finding Resurrection Life--------------------p. 135