Tim McGrew's Recommended Apologetics Reading

If you are looking for book recommendations in the area of apologetics, you may have checked out Apologetics315's Recommended Apologetics Book Directory. But what if you want to build a good foundational knowledge in the key areas of defending the faith? Where can you start? First, listen to Dr. Tim McGrew's Practical Apologetics audio, where you will find his advice for those studying in this area. You'll also find his recommended reading. Listed here are Tim McGrew's recommendations in various apologetic categories. Items marked with an asterisk (*) are available online in google books or other sources. Items marked with a dagger (†) are works by adversaries of Christianity.

Conversational Apologetics

Mandatory
Greg Koukl, Tactics

Recommended

Norman and David Geisler, Conversational Evangelism
Supplementary
Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism
Randy Newman, Corner Conversations

General Bible and Historical Background

Mandatory
*James M. Gray, Primers of the Faith, chs. 1‐32 (Part I)
* Samuel P. Tregelles, Historic Evidence of the New Testament
E. M. Blaiklock, The Compact Handbook of New Testament Life
Recommended
E. M. Blaiklock, The Century of the New Testament
Paul Maier, In the Fullness of Time
* G. Rawlinson, The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records, ch. 7
* Robert Baker Girdlestone, The Building Up of the Old Testament
Supplementary
* Thomas Cooper, The Bridge of History over the Gulf of Time
* Isaac Taylor, History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times
* Isaac Taylor, The Process of Historical Proof
Reference
* William Binnington Boyce, Introduction to the Study of History

Basic Reasoning Skills in Apologetics

Mandatory
Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell
Recommended
Peter Kreeft, The Best Things in Life
Peter Kreeft, The Unaborted Socrates
Peter Kreeft, Socrates Meets Jesus

Positive Biblical Apologetics: Minimal Facts Argument

Mandatory
* C. S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, chs. 7 and 8
Terry Miethe, ed., Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
Copan and Tacelli, eds., Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment?
Recommended
Komoszewski, Sawyer and Wallace, Reinventing Jesus
Craig A. Evans, Fabricating Jesus
Supplementary
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God
William Lane Craig, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus
Mike Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach

Positive Biblical Apologetics: Eyewitness Testimony Argument

Mandatory
* C. S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”
J. W. Montgomery, Where is History Going?, chs. 2 and 3 (Also published separately as Jesus Christ and History)
* Edmund Bennett, The Four Gospels from a Lawyer’s Standpoint
* F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
* William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity, Parts 1 and 2
Recommended
* Thomas Cooper, The Bridge of History over the Gulf of Time
* John James Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences, Part 4
Jeffrey Sheller, Is the Bible True?
Mark D. Roberts, Can We Trust the Gospels?
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
Eddy and Boyd, The Jesus Legend
Komoszewski, Sawyer and Wallace, Reinventing Jesus
Craig A. Evans, Fabricating Jesus
Supplementary
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God
Reference
* T. H. Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, 8th ed., vols. 1 and 2
* Nathaniel Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, 17 vols.

Positive General Apologetics: Orientation

Mandatory
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Recommended
Craig and Copan, eds., Contending with Christianity’s Critics
Sennett and Groothuis, eds., In Defense of Natural Theology: A Post‐Humean Assessment
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God
Reference
Craig and Moreland, eds., The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology

Positive General Apologetics: The Kalam Argument

Mandatory
* William Lane Craig, “The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe”
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, chs. 3 and 4
Supplementary
William Lane Craig, The Kalam Cosmological Argument
Craig and Smith, Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology
Reference
William Lane Craig, The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz

Positive General Apologetics: The Origin of Life

Mandatory
Stephen Meyer, “The Explanatory Power of Design,” in Mere Creation
Dean Overman, A Case Against Accident and Self‐organization
Recommended
 J. P. Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis, ch. 5
C. Thaxton, W. Bradley, and R. Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin
Robert Shapiro, Origins: A Sceptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth
Stephen Meyer, Signature in the Cell

Positive General Apologetics: Intelligent Design

Mandatory
† Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, chs. 1‐4
J. P. Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis, Intro. and chs. 1 & 2
Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box
Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution
Recommended
William Dembski, ed., Mere Creation
Jon Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design
Supplementary
* Tim McGrew, “Toward a Rational Reconstruction of Design Inferences”

Positive General Apologetics: The Moral Argument

Mandatory
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book I
* Paul Copan, “God, Naturalism, and Morality,” from The Future of Atheism
Recommended
C. E. M. Joad, The Recovery of Belief, ch. 3
Mark Linville, “The Moral Poverty of Evolutionary Naturalism,” in Contending with Christianity’s Critics

Defensive General Apologetics: The Challenge of Naturalistic Science

Mandatory
C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, ch. 3
John Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
Recommended
* Arthur James Balfour, The Foundations of Belief, 8th ed.
Supplementary
Rodney Holder, Nothing but Atoms and Molecules?

Defensive General Apologetics: The Problem of Evil

Mandatory
† David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Section X
William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers, chs. 4 and 5
Recommended
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Defensive General Apologetics: The Objection to Miracles

Mandatory
† David Hume, “Of Miracles”
* William Adams, An Essay in Answer to Mr. Hume’s Essay on Miracles, 3rd ed.
Recommended
* George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles
Habermas and Geivett, eds., In Defense of Miracles
Supplementary
* John Douglas, The Criterion
C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study
Reference
* Tim McGrew, “Miracles,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Defensive General Apologetics: Other General Objections

Recommended
Paul Copan, When God Goes to Starbucks
William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers
Craig and Copan, eds., Contending with Christianity’s Critics
Reference
* John Leland, A View of the Principal Deistical Writers, 2 vols.
Geisler and Brooks, When Skeptics Ask

Defensive Biblical Apologetics

Mandatory
* Richard Watson, An Apology for the Bible
Recommended
Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?
* Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion
* William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity, Part III
Supplementary
* B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament
Köstenberger and Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy
Eddy and Boyd, The Jesus Legend
Reference
* Haley, An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible
* Tuck, A Handbook of Biblical Difficulties, 2 vols.
* John Thein, The Bible and Rationalism, 4 vols.
* T. H. Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, 8th ed., vols. 1 and 2
Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
Geisler and Howe, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties
Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, 5 vols.