In the prior post, I suggested to Christians in their interactions with seekers and skeptics that they make modest claims about the faith. Don’t over do it!
In the current post, the obvious danger in making a “suggestion” to seekers and skeptics is that I’m biased toward the Christian faith and will shape my comments in that direction.
I acknowledge this predilection.
In fact, it’s from the distinct vantage point of being a Christian for three-and-a-half decades that I offer this suggestion:
Engage with the Best
My own goal in dealing with the thought and practice of atheism or non-Christian religions is to interact with the finest representatives of scholarship and behavior.
In atheism, for example, it means I cross off “bad” atheists such as Joseph Stalin and the disappointing polemics of, say, Richard Dawkins, as representing atheism well.
Rather, I wish to make up my mind by reading professional atheist scholars such as Quentin Smith, Michael Martin, Kai Nielsen, William Rowe and J.L. Mackie.
These guys always give me a good challenge.
Similarly, my hope for friends who are not Christians is that they’ll avoid picking the worst examples of Christian thought and behavior, but rather, focus on the best.
After all, every worldview has its low-life. Why give “the worst” so much power and influence over one’s thinking?
The best of Christian thought, in my opinion, is represented by scholars such as Alvin Plantinga, N.T. Wright, Paul Eddy, and C. Stephen Evans (a favorite philosopher of mine) — and popularists such as C. S. Lewis, Greg Boyd (who is both scholar and popularist), Ravi Zacharias, Timothy Keller and Lee Strobel.
Specific titles
- Entry Level
- Letters from a Skeptic by Greg/Edward Boyd
- The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
- Letters from a Skeptic by Greg/Edward Boyd
- Mid-range
- The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
- Philosophy of Religion by C. Stephen Evans
- Advanced
- The Jesus Legend by Eddy and Boyd
- Where the Conflict Really Lies by Alvin Plantinga
