Catholic Review of: Handbook Of Christian Apologetics

I picked up this book because I expected it to contain a concise defense of Catholicism.  What I discovered is that this is not a book to use to discuss Catholic beliefs with Christians.  As the title suggests, it is a handbook of Christian apologetics.  Once I realized the purpose of the book I realized how valuable a resource it is.

Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli have laid out a logical plan for Christian belief and they have done so in an amazingly organized way.  Students of logic (and Aquinas) will appreciate the organizational beauty and brevity of the questions and answers in this work.  Each chapter begins with a title, short introduction and definition of terms.  Following is an explanation of the doctrine.  This part is organized by argument using numbers and letters to distinguish different points.  

My favorite part of the chapter is the objections section (with answers) after the explanations.  I went to a debate between Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza and atheist apologist Christopher Hitchens.  Many of Hitchens "objections" seemed to have been taken right out of this book and I had solid responses to give when talking about the event with my friends.

With atheism spreading in the world, a defense manual like this is essential.  Kreeft and Tacelli cover 20 proofs for the existence of God, the problem of evil, the divinity of Christ, life after death, and 400 hundreds pages of other important topics.  

The book closes with the important warning:  Reason cannot convince an unreasonable person.  Even after all the questions have been answered there will be people who refuse to believe because it might require them to change their lives.  The Handbook of Christian Apologetics will help you determine which fights to fight and the true purpose of apologetics. 

This book is written by Catholics, but even non-Catholics will find this to be a valuable resource in the defense of Christianity.