This book has given me a philosophical grounding that I never believed I could attain. Everything is explained thoroughly and (in my opinion) in a way easily understood by the beginner. The only thing that is needed is a desire to learn.

This book is so excellent--thank you Dr. Craig and Dr. Moreland!!

I highly recommend this outstanding book. Moreland and Craig are two intellectual leaders in a growing movement of Christian philosophers who have offered to both the general public and the academic world sophisticated and compelling arguments for why it is rational, and sometimes obligatory, to embrace the beliefs that are central to the Christian worldview--e.g., the existence of God, the existence of the soul, the reasonableness of miracles, the coherence of the Incarnation, the possibility of theological knowledge, etc. If you have an interest in philosophy and its relationship to the rationality of Christian belief, do yourself a favor and buy this book...

It was to be expected that Craig and Moreland's book would be excellent. However, I must say, this work by far suprasses the degree of excellence that I had anticipated. *Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview* explains the use of philosophy for the construction and defense of Christianity. Furthermore, they apply philosophy to a breadth of issues, showing their direct relevance to Christianity. As one gets to the end of the book, the more distinctly theological the book becomes.

For many people, this book is not going to be an easy read. They cover so many big issues and there is a gigantic amount of vocabulary. But don't be afraid. The layout of this work is very nice. New ideas, words, theories, and so forth are written in bold type font with clear explanations and definitions. One does not need to be a well read student of philosophy in order to comprehend this book. All that this is suggesting is that if you do read this book, you will have to use your mind to a more significant degree than reading most other - nontechnical or nonacademic philosophical - books. Interestingly, the explanations in the book are often the same that they give to their own students.

The content of this work is very good as well. Plus they deal with contemporary issues in philosophy. For instance, they explain Alvin Plantinga's model under the religious epistemology section, offer a few criticisms, but come out saying that any model that is correct is going to be something very close to his. Under the freedom and moral responsibility issue, it offers really good information about what are the conditions that contemporary philosophers list for free agency (i.e. rationality condition, etc.), along with the other relevant information. Also, on issues like this, they realize that Christians disagree amongst themselves. So, while they may be dogmatic about certain issues, they seem to leave elbow room for disagreemnt (e.g. in the chapter on freedom).

Thus, my over all assessment of this book is that it is the best work out there that covers such as wide number of issues from a Christian perspective and in the depth that they provide. Remember, this is not going to be as technical and exhaustive on all of the points as any doctoral dissertation is going to be. Seriously, who can do that on so many issues in under a thousand pages? To compensate, since they are aware of this, there is a "for further reading on..." in the back of the book for each of the given sections. Nonetheless, I have not seen a better book that offers lay people and new students of philosophy such exhaustive account of the issues in contemporary analytic philosophy and done in such a readable manner. Put it this way: I am willing to bet that this will be one of the top five books printed this year. Buy this book... and hope they continue with a similar book for graduate students :)

This book is not for laymen (which I am). In fact, it assumes you can read Greek. Craig enters into discussion in New Testament Criticism, with full awareness of the work of top scholars, to evaluate the evidence for the ressurection of Christ. His arguments are extremely logical and compelling.

This is one of Craig's first books and, I believe, one of his more interesting books. Craig Begins with Plato and walks through the cosmology and metaphysics of Aristotle, the Arabic philosophers (i.e. Kalam), Jewish philosophers, Aquinas (i.e. five ways, etc.), John Duns Scotus, Spinoza, and Leibniz. He covers each of these thinkers views on cosmology, creation, metaphysics, and their various arguments in support of their philosophies. Craig's writing style is direct and easy to follow which makes for a good read. The contents of the book are not too complicated and thus Craig has (or had rather)the potential of a fairly wide audience. Some of the strengths of the book, I thought, were the chapters that dealt with the Arabic philosophers (this may be since I do not know a whole lot about this area of philosophy and this section was very helpful), and the chapter titled "Typology of Cosmological Arguments." In this latter chapter Craig goes through certain arguments that have arisen against philosophers such as Hume and Kant, and then he delineates the types of arguments that have been used throughout the history of philosophy (i.e. kalam, Leibnizian, etc.). He discusses errors that have arisen regarding certain cosmological arguments, explains how they occurred, etc. Of course, Craig is in favor of the kalam cosmological argument, and this can be seen sprinkled throughout the text (and the chapter on the Arabic philosophers is the longest in the whole book). Nonetheless, this is a nice assessment of several various arguments in the history of philosophy regarding the cosmological argument. If you can get Amazon to find this book you will not be disappointed. I highly recommend this book. I wish someone would reprint it.

This book covers five arguments for the existence of God:
-The Cosmological Argument
-The Moral Argument
-The Argument from the Evidence of the Bible
-The Argument from Personal Experience
and possibly -The Argument from Design [but I'm not sure, it's a while since I read it]

These are prefaced by a brief introduction in which Craig argues, quite sensibly, that there is no such thing as 100% proof- his aim through the book is merely to show that there is enough evidence to reasonably believe that God is there.
Up to date and with a good list for further reading, it surprised me how clear, detailed and focused this small booklet is. You can read it in an hour, and understand not only the basics of the arguments covered, but also brief answers to common objections.
One friend complained that he wasn't clear on some points: for example, he passes over Stephen Hawking's analysis of the origin of the universe with a brief sentence. I can only say to that that with the size of the booklet, there would be no point in Craig even attempting to give a comprehensive analysis of such a detailed, complex topic! For anyone reading this booklet and wanting more detailed analyses, I would recommend visiting Craig's website.

Highly recommended for the believer and the skeptic. If you are very familiar with modern apologetics and religious philosophy, though, it is probably not so useful.

Dr. Craig offers a number of compelling reasons for accepting the historicity of both the empty tomb and resurrection of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. Extensive references to the primary literature are provided for those who wish to do further study. A "must read" title, particularly for those who have questions about the veracity of orthodox Christianity.

David A. Frenz
Duluth, Minnesota, USA

This is by far Craig's most basic book. It was geared to lay people who are possibly suffering or at least asking questions such as, "Why is there suffering and pain?"

Not only does Craig cover the issues and questions surrounding suffering, but he discusses doubt in the life of a believer. He uses certain Scripture references to explain why doubt, while not necessarily a good thing, is not always a bad thing if we hand it over to God (Mark 9:24).

In the chapter titled "Failure," Craig tells the story of his second doctorate, under Pannenberg, where he initially failed his oral examination. The story itself is a very humbling story and actually encouraging in many ways. It is encouraging in the sense that here is a man (Dr. Craig) who is a great thinker in the area of Christian philosophy and apologetics, and yet he too has been confronted with failure. Which demonstrates that failure can happen to anyone, it is how we handle the trials of failure which make the difference in our Christian walk.

This is a nice change of pace from Craig's other more technical and scholarly works. The book itself is fairly easy to find in the used market, so Amazon should not have trouble tracking it down for you. It is well worth the search.

This audio book is of excellent quality, a real pleasure to listen to! Craig's voice is modified in accordance with the parts he deals with each chapter, this avoid montony. Even much better, the audiobook is agreemented by different musics or sounds that serve as transitions between the different parts, and make the book terribly pleasant. The audio realization is professional work. A complete chapter of the paper book has been removed (Blomberg' defense of the historical reliability of the New Testament) as well as a few short passages. The rest is unabriged. The strengths of this book are its accessibility (it is easy to follow, and presented in a direct, style, Craig addresses the listener); the historical approach for each topics (This is missing in most apologetics books. One can notice in particular how Craig masters the deist controversy , he did research on it); its dealing with existential aspect of apologetics ("the human predicament")

The shortcomings are the absence of a global framework, reasoning for integrating the diverse arguments; and one still need to read Geisler's Christian Apologetics for such an integration; Craig's view of Christianity as basically true, his circular reasoning (based on the Bible) about the Holy Spirit, and his uncritical endorsment of Plantinga's nonsensical epistemology ; This book is definitely intended to Christians (Craig tells how to convert non-Christians...), I would not lend to a non-Christian. Strangely, Craig addresses at the end of the album non-Christian listeners, asking them to make a commitment for Christ. But this may be a good thing for nominal Christians.

The book is a debate between two well-informed philosophers who debate the implications of big bang cosmology on the issue of God's existence. I recently re-read the book and was amazed at what I missed the first time around. The technical nature of the book will make it difficult to understand for those who are unfamiliar with both philosophical argument and big bang cosmology. I recommend one read Robert Jastrow's _God and the Astronomers_ and Hugh Ross' _ Creator and the Cosmos_ before embarking on this heavy dose of technical philosophy. I consider Craig's Kalam cosmological argument for God's existence to hold more weight than Smith's interesting but weak cosmological argument for God's non-existence.

According to Big Bang cosmology, the universe began to exist about fifteen billion years ago with an explosion called `the Big Bang'. But was this explosion created by God, or did it occur without cause? In Part I, Christian philosopher William Lane Craig defends the theistic interpretation of Big Bang cosmology. In Part II, atheist philosopher Quentin Smith defends the atheistic interpretation. Part III contains Craig's and Smith's interpretations of Stephen Hawking's cosmology, and its implications for the existence of God.

An excellent scholarly resource for anyone interested in the debate over Big Bang cosmology. Readers unfamiliar with Big Bang Theory may wish to consult other works before reading this one.

This is not the easiest book in the world to read. Then again, its subject matter is recondite enough to warrant its difficult essays. It is recommended that anyone who wishes to take on this monster first be acquainted with philosophy as well as contemporary 20th century cosmology. Stephen Weinberg's "The First Three Minutes" and Timothy Ferris' "The Whole Shebang" would be good places to start before attempting to read this book. It would also be helpful for one to have read at least one book on quantum mechanics ("Taking The Quantum Leap" by Fred Alan Wolf would be a wise choice) as a pre-requisite. Even having read these books beforehand, this is STILL not an easy book.

What this book deals with is the First Cause argument which St. Thomas Aquanis borrowed from Aristotle & then modified for Christianity. The question it confronts is "Why is there something rather than nothing?" The Creationist's answer is that the answer lies with God, the cause of all things. The atheists counter that this does nothing but push the question back, as then one must ask "where did God come from?" (if, indeed, the universe "came" from anywhere at all). If one cannot answer this, then why not just skip a step and say that nobody knows where the universe came from? (as opposed of taking the seemingly superfluous step of inferring a God or gods). William Craig Lane defends the theistic side of the argument while Quentin Smith takes the helm for the atheists. Both are quite erudite & it makes for a very good match.

In the 20th century, scientists used to adore the "steady state" theory, which was invented by Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous Cambridge astronomer. Why? you ask. Well, in the 1920s Edwin Hubble confirmed what Einstein's theory of Relativity had already predicted: the universe was either expanding or contracting (expanding, as it turns out). Due to the redshift, if one were to "run the film backwards" the universe must have been at a single point sometime in the remote past. However, if this were true, it would suggest that the universe had a beginning. However, if this were true, one could say that that was the moment of "creation" that Aristotle & St. Thomas Aquanis were talking about. This became known as the Big Bang theory.

Enter Hoyle. Hoyle speculated that there must constantly be matter "created" (for lack of a better term?) that "fills in the gaps" between galaxies as they rushed away from each other. This became known as the "steady state theory." The theory was very ad-hoc, but it did preserve an infintely old universe and was adopted by over 90% of the scientists on the planet.

The story took a decided turn in the mid 1960s when Arno Penzias & Ralph Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which was radiation left over from the first instants of the incredibly hot Big Bang. Almost overnight, Big Bang passed the steady state theory in the HOV lane. Today, steady state is a dead theory.

To many scientists' horror, they once again had to grapple with the First Cause argument as applied to a finite universe. Sir Arthur Eddington once said "I find the idea of a beginnig to the universe repugnant. I should like to find a genuine loophole." Oscillating universe theory became the favorite "loophole" of atheists. However, it suffers from significant faults (as William Craig Lane describes in this book).

This is a wonderful book as the polemics of the First Cause argument are presented on the battlefield of cosmology rather than straight-philosophy these days. That is as it should be. The book is filled with paradoxes of infinity as well as the possiblity of the entire universe being a quantum fluctuation (virtual particle) gone awry. Although the book dabbles with the Anthropic Principle a wee bit, it is primarily focused on the question of causation. Did God create the universe? Or is it, as they say, turtles all the way down? Or did the universe LITERALLY appear out of nowhere (and nothingness)? Read this book & you will be much more informed to decide for yourself.

A few sparks, but no fire. The problem with this debate was that the speakers were not really fighting for every argument. Craig offered several reasons why Jesus is the son of God because of his ressurection. Crossan didn't answer any of those. Craig was right in asserting that the problem with Crossan is that he is neglecting the historical evidence while presenting his case from a naturalistic viewpoint. You need better arguments than that. The most serious problem was I think that in comparison with other debates of Craig against atheists, that both speakers call them selves christians. This was confusing me. In the end I follow Craig's argument, that if jesus didn't rise from the dead, we have no better rational reason to believe in his divinity than to believe in Peter Pan. Cornelis van Putten.

Waaooh, this is a must. Unfortunately the debate is not yet in print, one has to be content with Moreland's "Jesus under Fire", for example.

Dr. John Dominic Crossan is the co-chairman of the media darlings known as the Jesus Seminar. Dr. William Craig is (in my opinion) the best Christian apologist of the late 20th century who has specialized his theological research on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus in 3 major academic books. The give and take of this debate much favored Craig in which he clearly won. Craig argued two major contentions: 1. Jesus rose from the dead and confirmed his claims to act in the place of God. 2. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then belief in him is a fairytale and equivalent to an irrational faith of Peter-Pan theology. Crossan never seems to address point 2 at all in the debate. In fact, Crossan thinks that one should just go on believing in Christ even though , according to Crossan, Jesus never rose from the dead bodily and was probably eaten by dogs. One wonders who is the one with the irrational faith? Listeners will enjoy the 40 minute dialogue section in which William F. Buckley participates in.