But her contribution doesn’t just rehash stock answers it really feels like an advance, again, in clarity, rigor, force, and freshness.
McLaughlin has clearly learned a lot from her predecessors here. So there is always a need for us to update unchanging truth with new logic, new light, and new illustrations. As Witness Lee never tired of repeating: “We cannot change the truth, but we should always improve on the method.” Where it Shines Even the old ones gain fresh traction based on how history unfolds. This means that our answers must be adapted and newly contextualized every few years, so that they make the most sense in, and leave the greatest impact on, whatever time and place we find ourselves in. Although many of the hardest questions against Christianity have been around for 2,000 years, new ones arise and new people ask. “Always” points to a readiness that extends across all of history and “everyone” includes every cultural perspective. Peter tells the church to be “always ready for a defense to everyone who asks” for an account concerning our hope ( 1 Pet. Just as every generation translates for itself anew, every generation must also answer for itself anew.
I think there are good reasons to welcome another addition to this genre. Yes, Another Book on Apologeticsīut do we really need another book answering the hard questions against Christianity? Isn’t it enough that we already have Tim Keller’s The Reason for God or Lee Strobel’s The Case for Faith or David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions? Or Origen’s Contra Celsum for that matter? Haven’t all these questions been answered again and again? Aren’t we just circling the wagons at this point? Do people write these just because they know they sell? And besides, can anyone beat Tim Keller in this game? This book won’t just shut mouths, it will open hearts. The book has a strong evangelical tone throughout, and in more than one place I wept at the beauty of the gospel flying off the page. As Augustine said long ago, God shoots the arrows of His word to turn us into His lovers. And yet the wound it aims to inflict is the wound of love. Like a well designed sword, Confronting Christianity strikes a good balance-it doesn’t just apologetically parry it thrusts with gospel power. It is a rigorous, compelling, and fresh defense of the Christian faith, centered on 12 hard and perennial questions.
I just finished Rebecca McLaughlin’s incredible new book Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion.
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