Resources For Those New To Apologetics

This post is for the purpose of giving people who are new to apologetics resources for developing their skill in apologetics. I'll probably add to this list as I have time.

In general, I don't like giving people popular level books. Part of it is because if people aren't willing to read the more scholarly articles, I think they probably need to not be doing apologetics. The other part is that many popular level books / articles on apologetics can be confusing. Here are some articles / sites / books that I recommend to get started in apologetics. I am including resources that are not specifically apologetics books because the task of apologetics requires you to have knowledge of a variety of topics.

Here are some apologists to avoid:

Alex McFarland
Josh McDowell
Ken Ham
Kent Hovind
Hank Hanegraaff
Ray Comfort

Books

Developing the Christian Mind

Love Your God with All Your Mind - Introduction to the Christian life of the mind. I recommend if this if you don't know how the life of the mind fits into your Christian life.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind - Exploration of the roots of evangelical anti-intellectualism and response.

Apologetics

Reasonable Faith - Introduction to Christian Apologetics. Craig has an easier version of this book that is geared to high school students. I recommend that you man up and read this one.

Scaling the Secular City - Another introduction to Christian Apologetics. Moreland is a better philosopher than Craig and Craig is probably better with the evidence for the resurrection.

Handbook of Christian Apologetics - Peter Kreeft's intro to apologetics. I am more in agreement with his philosophical background than with Craig and Moreland.

Building Belief - Apologetics text my friend recommends. He used to used it when teaching his seminary apologetics courses. I have not read it.

Mere Christianity - Overview of core christian tenants along with a prose defense of those tenants. Fun read that is insightful.

The Last Superstition - A good response to the New Atheism. Almost anything by Edward Feser is good.

Tactics - This book explains HOW to do apologetics effectively. I highly recommend this book as a supplement to other books listed above.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus - Great introduction to the evidences for the resurrection of Christ. Habermas and Licona take what's called the minimal facts approach in that they try to use the most widely agreed upon facts and base their argument off or those facts.

The Historical Reliability of the New Testament - Classic defense of the New Testament

Specific Issues

The Unaborted Socrates - Entertaining book that teaches you the arguments for the pro-life position. It is formatted like a Socratic dialogue. The "Socrates Meets" books by Kreeft are worth your time and are usually quick reads. See this link for more.

Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid Air - A good response to relativism. Super practical for on the street conversations.

Money, Greed, and God - Defense of Capitalism

Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions - This is from the professor who taught our world religion class in seminary. Great guy! He's thoughtful and offers a fair presentation.

Philosophy

Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview - Introduction to the main issues in contemporary philosophy. I personally don't agree with many of the positions defended in this book, but it does introduce readers to the main issues people should be aware of in a way that is accessible to the thoughtful reader.

Philosophy of Religion - Introduction to philosophy of religion. This is another series that offers some good material on Christianity and philosophy. Click this link to see more in this series.

Christianity and the Nature of Science - Very good introduction to the philosophy of science from a Christian philosopher.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Animate Nature - Excellent book if you are interested in Aristotle's views on animate nature and you can afford it!

Websites

1. Biblical Training - https://www.biblicaltraining.org
2. Closer to Truth - https://www.closertotruth.com
3. Institute of Catholic Culture - https://instituteofcatholicculture.org
4. University of Oxford - https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/open
5. Reasonable Faith - https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media
6. Veritas Forum - http://www.veritas.org/
7. Lumen Christi - https://www.youtube.com/user/LumenChristiInt/videos
8. Orthodox Christian Network - http://myocn.net/the-rudder/
9. Apologetics 315 (has good and some not so good stuff) - https://apologetics315.com
10. Library of Historical Apologetics - http://historicalapologetics.org/ 
11. Moral Apologetics - https://www.moralapologetics.com/

Blogs

Alexander Pruss's Blog
Edward Feser Blog
Maverick Philosopher
Uncommon Descent

Intelligent Design

These days there are more online resources than you have time for. I have tried to include a reasonable set of resources.