You Don’t Need a Degree to be an Apologist (But You Do Need to be a Reader)
by Greg West
You don’t need a degree to be an apologist but you do need to be a reader. The first apologetics book I ever read was Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, and I was blown away about the amount of evidence for the truth claims of Christianity. Not only that, but it introduced me to a host of other apologists and apologetics resources.
Every Christian is called to be an apologist (1 Peter 3:15) and reading apologetics books is one of the best ways to learn apologetics, along with listening to lectures and debates. For the latter, Apologetics 315 is hands down the best resource on the internet, and as for the former, I’ve provided a list of over 100 books (and a handful of videos) from some of the best Christian thinkers past and present. Most of these I have in my own library as well as keeping extra copies of some of them to give away to unbelieving friends or Christian friends who are struggling with doubt.
The aspiring apologist should start with introductory level books (Lee Strobel’s “Case for…” series is a great place to start; click here for a broader list) and work your way up to higher level books (Reasonable Faith comes to mind) as you begin to become more familiar with some of the basic arguments for Christianity.
Visiting apologetics blogs and websites is another helpful way to learn apologetics and we have quite a few listed in our links directory. and more are always being added.
Once you become a more seasoned apologist, share your knowledge by volunteering to lead an apologetics small group or Sunday School class at your church. You might also consider becoming a certified apologist (relatively inexpensive) and becoming a Ratio Christi chapter director at a local college. Ratio Christi even has a program that enables you to become a supported apologetics missionary—so even if you don’t have a degree, you can still potentially earn a living as an apologist.
One thing that we must always keep in mind is that we don’t study and learn apologetics to be able to win arguments or to show how smart we are—we learn and study apologetics to be better disciples of Christ, better evangelists, and Christians that are better equipped and prepared to engage culture instead of disengaging from it.
GREG’S TOP 100+ RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES:
The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity
5-Minute Apologetics for Today: 365 Quick Answers to Key Questions
7 Truths That Changed the World: Discovering Christianity’s Most Dangerous Ideas
Apologetics for a New Generation: A Biblical and Culturally Relevant Approach to Talking About God
Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century
The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters
The Apologetics Study Bible: Understand Why You Believe
The Apologetics Study Bible for Students
The Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture
A Biblical Case for an Old Earth
The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation
Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?: Empirical Methodologies and the Bible
Can We Trust the Gospels?: Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God
The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
The Case for Christ
Study Bible: Investigating the Evidence for Belief
The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity
The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture
The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith
Christian Confidence: An Introduction to Defending the Faith
Christianity In Crisis: The 21st Century
Cold and Lonely Truth: The Beckoning of God’s Reality in an Age of Rationalization
The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition
The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics
Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists and Other Objectors
The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine
The Dawkins Letters: Challenging Atheist Myths
Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics
The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design
Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ
Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door: Know What You Believe and Why
The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World
Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science
Evolution Impossible: 12 Reasons Why Evolution Cannot Explain the Origin of Life
Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
The Faith Equation: Mathematical Evidence for Christianity
The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters
The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: Three Essential Books in One Volume
God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?
God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible
God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
Got Questions? Answers to the Questions People Are Really Asking
Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Has God Spoken?: Proof of the Bible’s Divine Inspiration
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics
How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
If God, Why Evil?: A New Way to Think About the Question
Intellectuals Don’t Need God and Other Modern Myths
Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God
Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists
Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message
Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
The Jesus Survey: What Christian Teens Really Believe and Why
Learning To Jump Again: A Memoir Of Grief And Hope
The Lee Strobel Film Collection
Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father’s Questions about Christianity
< img title="The Literary Study Bible" border="0" alt="The Literary Study Bible" src="https://www.thepoachedegg.net/footer.jpg" width="14" height="11" />The Literary Study Bible
The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate
Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul
The Magic Man in the Sky: Effectively Defending the Christian Faith
Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith
Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies
Misquoting Truth: A Guide to the Fallacies of Bart Ehrman’s "Misquoting Jesus"
More Than a Theory: Revealing a Testable Model for Creation
New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy
Not by Chance!: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution
Not God’s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith
On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision
Passionate Conviction: Contemporary Discourses on Christian Apologetics
The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind
The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask: (With Answers)
A Ready Defense The Best Of Josh McDowell
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Reasonable Faith (3rd Edition): Christian Truth and Apologetics
Reasons for Our Hope: An Introduction to Christian Apologetics
Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach
The Resurrection of the Son of God
Rose Bible Basics: Why Trust the Bible?
Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning
Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity
Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science
A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists
Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
Smooth Stones: Bringing Down the Giant Questions of Apologetics
The Stones Cry Out: What Archaeology Reveals About the Truth of the Bible
Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions
Tearing Down Strongholds: And Defending the Truth
Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture
Thinking About Christian Apologetics: What It Is and Why We Do It
Thinking About God: First Steps in Philosophy
True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to
Christian Faith
The Unexpected Journey: Conversations with People Who Turned from Other Beliefs to Jesus
What Have They Done with Jesus?: Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History–Why We Can Trust the Bible
What’s So Great about Christianity
When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics
When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences
Who Chose the Gospels?: Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy
Who Made God?: And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith
Who Made God? Searching for a Theory of Everything
Why God Won’t Go Away: Is the New Atheism Running on Empty?
Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe
Why It Doesn’t Matter What You Believe If It’s Not True: Is There Absolute Truth?
Why People Don’t Believe: Confronting Seven Challenges to Christian Faith
Why the Universe Is the Way It Is
Why Trust Jesus?: An Honest Look at Doubts, Plans, Hurts, Desires, Fears, Questions, and Pleasures
Great list! But where are the books we need to address today’s most pressing issues, which have more to do with story and Story then with questions and Answers, and have more to do with relationship and Relationship than with more questions and more Answers. On USAToday.com yesterday (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/18/christianity-christians-pew-research/1642315) I commented on why people are leaving Christianity by the millions. After 12 years of qualitative research, I presented the 9 reasons in “If God Disappears” (Tyndale House Publishers). Of course, that was only after listening to all the stories. Typically, any one individual’s story includes a mixture of two or more reasons. Any given person doesn’t wake up and think, “I have three reasons I’m walking away from God, the Church, and Christianity.” Instead, they have a long story. Sadly, they’re more brokenhearted than most pastors. I say that only because I am a pastor. My most important job in that role? Let people tell me their stories, without judgment, and then promise to walk with them as long as it takes…
I had a similar experience with Strobel’s Case For Christ. One bit of advice for budding apologists: don’t get your science from apologetics books. Get your science from science books, written by experts in whatever field you are studying. When I did this, I noticed that most claims made by apologists about what science tells us were quite wrong. For example, don’t get your cosmology from William Lane Craig. While a smart man with knowledge about science, he is not a cosmologist, and it shows. Be intellectually honest at all times, and us non believers will actually begin to think about the arguments that are being made.
Great comment David. I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I’m looking more and more to story and the arts as ways to connect. OUr culture is now much more narrative-oriented as opposed to propositionally-oriented. There is some stuff out there. Alister McGrath wrote on Imaginative Apologetics in his recent book, where he talks about marrying imagination and reason to persuade. Holly Ordway is also doing work in that area.
As a church we need more storytellers like Andrew Stanton, who tells a story about a father who swims the deepest oceans to rescue his son, and gets every family to take their kids to the movies to see it.
A model I have used is “Your story, my story, God’s story”, where you listen to their story, share your story, and connect them both to God’s story.