Book Review: One Minute Answers to Skeptics by Charlie Campbell

One Minute Answers to Skeptics: Concise Responses to the Top 40 Questions by Charlie H. Campbell is a book intended to provide brief and good answers to common questions raised by skeptics of Christianity. It is dedicated to high school and college age people who are questioning the validity of Christianity as well as those who want to be ready with their own answers for those who ask.

The author has compiled what he has found to be the most popular questions that skeptics ask. These forty questions range from evidence for God and the existence of Jesus to questions on the crusades and religious pluralism. Each “chapter” presents a question and then provides a brief answer. And, literally, it will only take about a minute to read the answer that Campbell provides.  Each chapter is bracketed with quotes from notable scientists, historians, and scholars that defend the veracity of Christianity. The entire book could be read in under an hour with little effort.

Campbell intentionally gears his answers to be useful for conversion. He provides scriptural references and citations as needed, but the overall answers he provides offer an encapsulated, concise response that will be an appropriate starting point for ongoing dialogue with the skeptic. With this goal in mind, the book achieves its purpose of being a starting point for the conversation; it is not intended to provide a complete, comprehensive answer. If the reader is looking for a substantial treatment of the questions that are posed, he will need to do further digging elsewhere.

This book is a fine beginner's primer for the complete novice in apologetics or for young people who are asking questions. For those who want to be ready with sound conversational answers and who have a good understanding of the meat of the issues, this small book may also be a good tool to have alongside other apologetics texts.