Bulletin Banner

Return to March/April 2014 articles.

Article title

The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics

by Ed Hindson and Ergun Caner, Harvest House Publishers, ©2008,
502 pages, $26.99 (hardcover), ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-2084-1.

Picture of BookIf you want a book that enables you to look up something quickly when you are at a loss for the meaning of a word related to apologetics, this book is for you. The contents section at the front of the book lists over two hundred subjects in alphabetical order. The subjects have some kind of connection to apologetics, although the connection is sometimes distant. The subjects include philosophies, religions, issues, key personalities, and theology. A sampling of the subjects in alphabetical order as listed in the contents are: Abortion, Bahá'í, Creation theories, Deism, Euthanasia, Fideism, Gnosticism, Islam, Jesus Seminar, Kabbalah, Lost Gospels, Monism, Occult, Pantheism, Relativism, Sin, Tertullian, Universalism, Van Til, Wicca, Zoroastrianism.

That sampling shows you how broad the subjects are. The editors are professors at Liberty University, and the subjects are flavored by their immersion in Jerry Falwell’s teaching and the views of the denominations that support that school. There are fifty-five contributors to the book including some well-known apologists like Norman Geisler, John Morrison, and Ron Rhodes. The subjects covered in this work are treated well, and for the most part are academically solid. The pros and cons of each subject from a conservative Christian viewpoint are given. The weaknesses of the book are because of the huge variety of subjects making it difficult to cover all of them with the conciseness that an encyclopedia demands.

This is not the kind of book you would just sit down and read, but as a reference book or a resource for people writing articles or teaching classes it would be very useful.