The strength of this book is simultaneously its greatest drawback: it is too short – just 25,000 words. Its very brevity is, of course, central to its dynamism. It seeks to hook in the curious and the unconvinced, to hold them in its grip for a short time and send them way buzzing with thoughts and questions, perhaps with a mind to undertake further investigation, evaluation and reflection. In all of this is it so successful that, paradoxically, you finish it wishing it could be longer.

 The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth is, in its way, an introduction to the greatest topic in the world, a topic that might obviously have merited a 15 volume theophilosophical  encyclopaedia. This slim volume has a better chance of reaching those most in need of being reached, and that is no small thing.  By virtue of being 25,000 words rather than, for example, 2.5 million words, it leaves the topic unexhausted; but it will also leave, I suspect, the even slightly open-minded reader with enough new thoughts and previously unencountered propositions to leave him restless in a way that resonates with the underlying restlessness of being human.  And that resonance of ‘restlessnesses’ will not easily be unseated.

Dave Sterrett is the founder of Disruptive Truth, a non-profit organization that is disrupting culture with the truth of the Gospel. When his book Aborting Aristotle arrived in the mail this reader was very grateful. It could not have come at a more appropriate time. Like many, I have been deeply troubled by the contents of the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that reveal Planned Parenthood has not only been aborting babies, but selling their body parts. One evening, after viewing some of the videos, I found myself unable to sleep and lying on the floor in my daughter's room, trying to comprehend what I had just seen. I have always known that abortion is a brutal process, but these videos graphically demonstrate just how gruesome the business (and make no mistake, that is what it is) of abortion has become.

As I recall my own reaction to the videos I am further reminded of how emotionally charged the topic of abortion can be. This is one of the primary reasons this author believes Dave Sterrett’s book is an important contribution to the ongoing abortion debate. The author not only persuasively makes the pro-life case using logical arguments and sound philosophical principles, but he also takes a unique approach to the discussion.

God's Crime Scene (Book, Promo Video) is the highly anticipated "sequel" to J. Warner Wallace's Cold Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. In his first investigation Wallace looks at the evidence for the claim that the Gospels were eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus. In his latest book, he investigates the existence of God. He takes his experience and skill-set as a homicide detective to bring together the evidences and present them in a coherent and convincing manner for the jurors (readers) to decide. God's Crime Scene is 204 pages divided into eight chapters. He has also included nearly 80 additional pages of case files for digging deeper into the cases he investigates in the book. This review will provide a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book but it cannot be substituted for reading the full text. I've included short interviews with J. Warner Wallace and Bobby Conway from The One Minute Apologist at the end of chapter summaries so you can hear a synopsis of the chapter directly from the author.

“History,” writes Eric Metaxas in the introduction to his book entitled Miracles, “comprises subjective accounts of human beings, and from those subjective accounts we arrive at an ‘objective’ truth” (xii).  He asserts that we need to ask ourselves whether those subjective accounts are reliable by sifting through the information and considering the witnesses as one would do in a court of law.

This, he says, is what we must do when we hear accounts of miracles.  We must “examine (them) with the greatest rigor possible” to determine whether something is truly a miracle.  Otherwise, we could deserve the label of “gullible” that those who reject the very idea of supernatural events sometimes use to describe us.

More and more it seems that society and culture are attempting to jettison objective morality in favor of their own moral autonomy. It is a challenge that takes place at both an individual level and a political level. The Christian worldview holds that certain actions and behaviors are right or wrong regardless of who believes or does not believe that they are. Christians need to be able to defend this position in their everyday discussions with friends, family, and coworkers; otherwise, they may cave to the "wisdom of the world." Greg Koukl and Francis Beckwith wrote Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air precisely with these everyday Christians in mind.

Rock Solid (paperback and GoodReads) is Tom Gender's latest addition to the library of books available to those who wish to defend the truth of Christianity. It takes a very straightforward and organized approach of defending six crucial doctrines of Christianity. He has divided the 178 pages accordingly into six chapters and includes an outline of the challenges address in the appendix.

Book Introduction
Tom Gender introduces his latest work by explaining the important both both theology and apologetics to the Christian. In doing so, he establishes a necessary connection between the two: if a Christian is defending a false theology, then they are not defending a true worldview, and if a skeptic knows how to demonstrate that theology false, then they have logical reason for rejecting the worldview of the Christian. This can provide no end of doubts and stumbling blocks for unbelievers to come to Christ and Christians to consider rejecting their worldview. Gender emphasizes that apologetics should not be done in the absence of theology. To be effective, both must be practiced together.

Using that as a springboard, Gender's purpose behind this book is to focus on the proper understanding of several of Christianity's most challenged and challenging core doctrines and how to defend their truth biblically, historically, scientifically and philosophically. Each doctrine will contain four parts: an explanation of the doctrine, an expansion upon its details, an engagement with common challenges to the doctrine and its details, and the practical implications of embracing the doctrine.

The problem of suffering and evil is one of the most persuasive challenges against the Christian worldview. As defenders of the true worldview, Christians need to be prepared to address this challenge. Interestingly enough, this challenge does not only come from unbelievers but also from those within the Church. The idea that animals died before humans arrived on the scene (and fell into sin) is a stumbling block for many to coming to Christ, yet the natural world tells of a history of animal suffering and death prior to humanity. It seems as though the scientific evidence and the claims of Christianity are at odds with one another. In his book Peril In Paradise (paperback and Kindle), Mark S. Whorton addresses this supposed incompatibility directly. His confrontation of the issue is in the context of a long discussion with Christians who support such an incompatibility (which appears to give the unbelievers' concern credibility). The book is 233 pages divided into four parts and sixteen chapters. This review will provide a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book's content, but it is not meant to replace reading the book to dig more deeply into the details of the arguments presented by the author for his conclusions. The review will conclude with this reviewer's thoughts and recommendations.

It was with great anticipation that I began reading Frank Turek’s latest book, Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case. It was just this past October I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Turek speak in Mt. Airy, MD on the topic of “Is Jesus Intolerant?” I walked away from that talk impressed with Turek’s ability to address culturally “hot button” issues with razor sharp logic coupled with winsome grace. I hoped that Turek’s book would offer more of the same and I wasn’t disappointed.

Introduction
From the very onset of the book, it is clear that Turek has the so-called “new atheists” in his crosshairs and his main contention is that “atheists are using aspects of reality to argue against God that wouldn’t exist if atheism were true. In other words, when atheists give arguments for their atheistic worldview, they are stealing from a theistic worldview to make their case. In effect, they are stealing from God in order to argue against Him.” [p. xviii]

“History,” writes Eric Metaxas in the introduction to his book entitled Miracles, “comprises subjective accounts of human beings, and from those subjective accounts we arrive at an ‘objective’ truth” (xii).  He asserts that we need to ask ourselves whether those subjective accounts are reliable by sifting through the information and considering the witnesses as one would do in a court of law.

This, he says, is what we must do when we hear accounts of miracles.  We must “examine (them) with the greatest rigor possible” to determine whether something is truly a miracle.  Otherwise, we could deserve the label of “gullible” that those who reject the very idea of supernatural events sometimes use to describe us.

As a Christian who is deeply interested in the sciences and what they bring to the table for defending the existence of God (and the truth of the Christian worldview, specifically), I have often encountered the idea that multiple worlds may exist, which seems to explain away the beginning of the universe and its designed features. When I heard that astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink (Apologetics 315 Interview) wrote an introduction booklet addressing that very challenge, it caught my attention. Who's Afraid of the Multiverse? (Video) provides an introduction to the concept of the multiverse and what its implication is for arguments for God's existence. It is a short read at only 53 pages.

The Multiverse Landscape
Zweerink spends the first half of the book setting stage for why discussions of a "multiverse" is even necessary and explaining what scientists mean by the term. Various observations of the universe have led scientists to believe that the universe experienced a period of expansion speeds exceeding the speed of light. Though the evidence is strong that this took place, exactly how and what caused it to begin and end are currently under investigation. One of the types of multiverse is a necessary implications of the fact of inflation, and one of the others types is a necessary implication of a particular model for the possible mechanism of inflation. Each progressive type becomes more speculative and enjoys less scientific evidence than the previous one.

How did life begin? This question has perplexed humanity for centuries. Some people believe that it came along by natural processes. Others believe that a divine Designer is behind it all. These two options go head-to-head, tested against the latest scientific research in the book Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off (hardcover, Kindle, Supplemental Site) by astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross and biochemist Dr. Fazale Rana. The book is divided into three sections, seventeen chapters, and 298 pages (including notes and appendices). This review provides a chapter-by-chapter summary of the contents of the book, but it must not be accepted as a replacement for reading the book, itself. The review will conclude with my thoughts and recommendation.

Drs. Ross and Rana take the position that the origin of life is by divine design. To scientifically test their hypothesis, they present their model, competing models, and the latest research; they then compare the predictions of the models to the research to build their case. Before examining the current state of origins research, it is a good idea to take a quick look at the events that led to the current state.

In The Concept of Miracle, Richard Swinburne (RS) examines Humean arguments against miracles[i] and finds them wanting. His modest goal in this book is not to argue for the truth of miracles, but rather to defend the possibility of justified belief in the miraculous. He approaches this goal by rebutting anti-miraculous Humean arguments and discussing criteria which, if met, would ground justified belief in the occurrence of a miracle.

As with any work of Swinburne’s, even a short book like this one (a mere 71 pages) has plenty of ‘meat’ to be slowly digested, and plenty of links between earlier and later material. This presents a reviewer with a decision—to follow RS closely, or to restructure to make what seem to be the central points clearer. I’ve chosen the latter approach.

I had lunch today with two friends, both of whom are involved in apologetics ministries. We discussed the biggest weakness among evangelical apologetics—theology—particularly biblical theology. Apologists are too typically ignorant of the Bible and the theology grounded in it. We can discuss the latest articles in philosophy and science, but become very shaky discussing the Bible. The reasons are many, but this general ignorance compounds when the focus shifts to the Old Testament in particular.

Consider how many apologetic conversations you’ve had recently about the Old Testament. They probably focused on Creation or the conquest narratives in Joshua. Now consider how much of those discussions actually considered the Old Testament passages. If the conversations were like most, then they quickly framed the discussions in terms of science, philosophy and ethics—all fields where modern apologists are more comfortable. Here’s the problem…our apologetics should be be saturated with Scripture, at least in how it frames our discussions.[1] We are not generic theists, but Christians.[2] I believe that a general ignorance of the Bible, and especially the Old Testament only hurts apologists.

David Bentley Hart’s essay The Doors of the Sea: Where was God in the Tsunami? is a delightful little book in many ways. It is very well-written, and it has some provocative and often helpful things to say about theodicy. One of the things that is most interesting about this book is that Hart spends at least as much time (maybe even more time) speaking of what we might call “meta-theodicy” as he does in developing a theodicy proper. That is, he has as much to say about when, where, and in what circumstances theodicy is appropriate, and about what general approach the Christian should take to theodicy, as he does about the particular theodicy that he wishes to defend. This reviewer actually found these portions of the essay more engaging than much of Hart’s own theodicizing!

Apologetics Beyond Reason ventures into nontraditional territory when it comes to classic apologetics. Although I’m familiar with Sire’s other work and have valued greatly from his other writings, the title grabbed my attention. Coming from the analytic tradition, I was intrigued how one might get “beyond reason” when defending the Christian faith without also utilizing reason. What I found was a robust apologetic method and one that will likely resonate more with a [post] post-modern/existential culture than more traditional approaches. While apologetic models typically fall within rational or evidential spaces, Sire’s presuppositional touch (see the post Apologetic Taxonomy) coupled with his push toward the “intuitive” will add valuable insights in  the toolbox of Christian apologists. This book deserves a wide and careful read.

The Bible's authority is constantly under attack in today's culture. It is important that Christians prepare themselves to address the challenges for their own faith and for overcoming intellectual challenges in their evangelistic efforts. Jonathan Morrow's new book Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible's Authority (Kindle and Paperback) aims to be an introductory resource for the Christian to rise to these challenges at an intellectual level.

The book's 234 pages are divided by the eleven challenges and appendices. Morrow also includes, at the end of each chapter, a three-point summary, questions to spur discussion, and a short list of resources for more in-depth research into the challenges and their resolutions. This review will provide a chapter-by-chapter summary and conclude with the reviewer's overall impression and recommendation.

It is quite common to hear or see people include the Bible as just another piece of ancient near east mythology that may be rejected as having no applicability to reality. John Oswalt decided to investigate this claim and address it directly in his book The Bible Among The Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? (promo video). This book comes to me by recommendation of several people, and the introduction alone sparked great excitement to dig in quickly and deeply. This review will be a chapter-by-chapter summary and will include some of my concluding thoughts.

Part 1: The Bible and Myth
Chapter 1: The Bible In Its World
Oswalt begins by providing the historical context. He takes the reader quickly through Greek philosophy, which was based on the idea that something cannot be and not be at the same time (the law of non-contradiction). The Greek philosophers struggled (and lost) for acceptance of this radical idea in their culture. At roughly the same time the Hebrew idea of a single God, who created the universe, (an idea also unique among cultures of the time) was under attack in the mind of the very people who carried the tradition because of the rising military powers, which affirmed contradicting theologies, that eventually overtook the nature of Israel. However, this "set the stage" for Jesus Christ to come on the scene and bring these two culturally independent yet correct understandings of reality together into one consistent worldview that is now known as "Christianity." A single God, who created the universe, is the metaphysical foundation for the law of non-contradiction that his creation (and the rest of reality, for that matter) adheres to. The Christian worldview was necessary for logic and science to fully develop and fully function (seemingly) independently.

Peter Enns is an apologist. His apologetics program went public in 2005 with the publication of Inspiration & Incarnation. In it he sought to defend against what he saw as an inadequate doctrine of inspiration in evangelicalism. At first, it was largely well received. Then it wasn’t well received. Then Enns lost his job.[1] This inspired Enns to further his apologetic pursuits more openly. In 2012 he published The Evolution of Adam, where he sought to remove evolution as an obstacle for Christian belief. I disagreed more with his method than his conclusions, but appreciated his honesty in addressing the topic.[2] Outside of these two books, the project has continued at various conferences and counterpoint exchanges.[3]

The Bible Tells Me So continues the apologetic subset of his writings. Whereas other works have been aimed at academics or at least a well-read laity, TBTMS is aimed at the mass public.[4] From the start, Enns paints his position as a via media between two extremes.

On the one hand are those who read the Bible as an “unerring rulebook,” a “heavenly instruction manual,” or “Truth downloaded from Heaven.”[5] For Enns, this position is untenable. He suggests that if Christians read early biblical stories as they do non-biblical literature, they would seem like folktales or something from the “Syfy channel.” Furthermore, he asks how someone, in our day, can condone Old Testament ritual laws of sacrifice? He even says that some laws are “just plain weird.”[6] He states that some biblical stories are “barbaric” and “hard to defend as the Word of God in civil adult conversation.”[7]

Natural Signs and Knowledge of God is a little book by C. Stephen Evans that deserves more attention than it has received. A contribution to contemporary debates in religious epistemology, this volume begins by considering a certain historical puzzle surrounding the traditional theistic proofs of natural theology: On the one hand, they have continued to capture the imagination of thinkers throughout the ages, having some intuitive pull even for their most insightful critics. On the other hand, they have failed to be widely convincing even for many of those who consider them carefully and honestly. Taking this curiosity as a launching point for his own model, Evans sets off in a new direction—a sort of via media between reformed epistemology and evidentialism—by introducing the concept of a “natural sign” to religious epistemology.

Before presenting his model, Evans lays out some desiderata for a plausible epistemology of religious belief. “When a hypothesis is posed,” he explains, “one must begin by thinking about what one would expect to find if that hypothesis were true.”[1] What might we expect with regard to knowledge of God if in fact God exists? Though I lack the space to reproduce his case here, Evans argues that two principles would likely hold: the Wide Accessibility Principle, according to which knowledge of God is widely accessible to people around the world and throughout time, and the Easy Resistibility Principle, which states that knowledge of God, whether widely accessible or not, is easily resistible. Those who wish not to believe are not coerced. But besides meeting these conditions, we noted above that Evans also wants his epistemology to shed light on what he calls the problem of natural theology: that the arguments of natural theology have persistently held wide appeal, yet nevertheless fail to convince many careful thinkers. This is where natural signs enter the picture.

Programming of Life by Donald E. Johnson (paperback or video) came to my attention fairly recently. The prospect of a case for God's existence being made from my area of training (computer science) especially caught my attention. The fact that the author is formally trained in both information science and biochemistry seemed to give him a unique set of credentials to authoritatively compare the code in DNA to computer programming code. The book is short at only 127 pages (included appendixes) and is divided into nine chapters. This review will be a chapter-by-chapter summary, but should not be confused with providing Johnson's case comprehensively or precisely.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Math Basics: Probability and Large or Small Numbers
Johnson prepares his readers by providing a quick tutorial of some basics required to understand his arguments. It is commonly misunderstood that "chance" is a force; however, it is rather merely an expression of likelihood of an event taking place versus its not taking place. If an event has any likelihood of taking place, it is considered "possible," but possibility should only be claimed in scientific observations have demonstrated the event to have taken place. "Plausibility" is a value of the level of possibility (0-1; 0=impossible; 1=certain; 0.5 is the threshold for an event to be considered "plausible"). Johnson prepares the reader for the significance of these concepts by explaining the lowest limit of physical possibility given all the resources (atoms in the system, the fastest chemical reactions in the universe, and the age of the systems) of the universe (10-108), galaxy (10-96), solar system (10-85), and earth (10-70). He explains that if the probability of an event taking place is lower than these physical barriers, the event is indistinguishable from impossible within that system, and the proposed event may be considered scientifically falsified.