The Case for Faith

iby Lee Strobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 49530, 300 pages,
$12.99 in paperback, ISBN 0-310-23469-7, 2000

We reviewed a book by this same author titled The Case for Christ in the September/October 1999 issue.  Lee Strobel has a degree from Yale Law School and was the legal editor of the Chicago Tribune for many years. Like his previous book, this is a well written book in which outstanding scholars are used to provide answers to astheistic challenges to faith. Strobel is also a teaching pastor at Saddleback Valley Community Church in California so he is aware of much of the challenge to faith going on in today's world. 

What Strobel does in this book is to give eight objections to belief in God that those of us who work with people in apologetics hear, and he then responds to them. The objections are:

  1. Since evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot
  2. Since miracles contradict science, they cannot be true
  3. Evolution explains life so God isn't needed
  4. God isn't worthy of worship since He kills innocent children
  5. It is offensive to claim Jesus is the only way to God
  6. A loving God would never torture people in Hell
  7. Church history is littered with oppression and violence
  8. I still have doubts so I can't be a Christian
Each of these is answered, and outstanding apologists or recognized authors are used to give factual material that they have expertise in. Walter Bradley, Ravi Zacharias, Peter Kreeft, Norman Geisler, William Wayne Craig, I. P. Moreland, and Lynn Anderson are familiar names to most regular readers of apologetic material. There is also a chapter titled "The Power of Faith" and a summary of The Case for Christ.

Strobel is an excellent writer, and the book is a good apologetic work. It is not a deep work that will lose readers, and yet it gives unique and useful answers. High School and college students will find it very useful, and it could be used in class as a each chapter ends with questions for study. We recommend this book highly.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, SepOct03.