Recommended Apologetics Book Directory
Many have asked for a list of recommended apologetics books. This list is an attempt to provide a quick and helpful reference for apologetics reading. Each category is listed in the order in which the books are recommended. An *asterisk indicates a high recommendation. Apologetics 315 reviews are also linked here.
Keep in mind this is by no means intended to be a comprehensive list. Comment with your own recommendations.
(These links are Amazon affiliate links and help Apologetics 315.)
Beginner Apologetics
Know Why You Believe – Paul Little (review)
*On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision – William Lane Craig
*The Case for Christ – Lee Strobel
*A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics – James Sire (review)
*5 Minute Apologist – Rick Cornish
No Other Gods – Phil Fernandes (review)
The Big Argument: Does God Exist (review)
The Reason Why Faith Makes Sense – Mark Mittelberg
Apologetic Foundations
*Love Your God With All Your Mind – J.P. Moreland
*Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
*Testing Christianity’s Truth Claims – Gordon Lewis (review)
*Trilogy – Francis Schaeffer (review)
Contend Earnestly for the Faith – Phil Fernandes
The Kingdom Triangle – J.P. Moreland (review)
Choosing Your Faith … In a World of Spiritual Options – Mark Mittelberg
General Apologetics
*I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist – Geisler & Turek (review)
*Without a Doubt – Kenneth Samples
*Contending with Christianity’s Critics – Copan & Craig
Hard Questions, Real Answers – William Lane Craig (review)
True For You But Not For Me – Paul Copan
Who Made God?: Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith – Zacharias & Geisler
When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences – Norman Geisler and R. Brook
The Case for Faith – Lee Strobel
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism – Tim Keller
What’s So Great About Christianity – Dinesh D’Souza
Intellectuals Don’t Need God and Other Modern Myths – Alister McGrath
To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview – Moreland, Craig, & Beckwith
Why I Am a Christian – edited by Geisler & Hoffman
Reasons for Faith – edited by Geisler & Meister
That’s Just Your Interpretation – Paul Copan
How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? – Paul Copan
Passionate Conviction – edited by Copan and Craig
Unshakable Foundations – Geisler & Bocchino
The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (with answers) – Mark Mittelberg
Jesus
*The Historical Jesus – Gary Habermas (review)
*The Case for the Real Jesus – Lee Strobel
Fabricating Jesus – Craig Evans
Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus – Wilkins & Moreland
Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ – Bowman and Komoszewski
What Have They Done with Jesus? – Ben Witherington III
Reinventing Jesus – Komoszewski, Sawyer, Wallace
Resurrection of Jesus
*The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus – Habermas & Licona (review)
Evidence for the Resurrection – Josh & Sean McDowell
*The Resurrection of the Son of God – N.T. Wright (review)
The Son Rises – William Lane Craig
Did the Resurrection Happen? – Gary Habermas & Antony Flew
The Risen Jesus and Future Hope – Gary Habermas
Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment?: A Debate Between Craig Ludemann
Miracles
*Hume’s Abject Failure – John Earman
*In Defense of Miracles – Habermas & Geivett
Miracles – C.S. Lewis
Miracles & the Modern Mind: A Defense of Biblical Miracles – Norman Geisler
Intermediate Apologetics
*Reasonable Faith – William Lane Craig (review)
*Christian Apologetics – Norman Geisler (review)
*Scaling the Secular City – J.P. Moreland (review)
The Rationality of Theism – Copan & Moser
Advanced Apologetics
*The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology – Craig & Moreland
Naturalism: A Critical Analysis – Craig & Moreland
Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz – William Lane Craig
The Kalam Cosmological Argument – William Lane Craig
Creation out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration – Craig & Copan
Reliability of the Bible
*Can We Trust the Gospels? – Mark D. Roberts (review)
*The Historical Reliability of the Gospels – Craig Blomberg (review)
*The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? – F.F. Bruce (review)
The Canon of the New Testament – Bruce Metzger (review)
Is the New Testament Reliable? – Paul Barnett (review)
The Testimony of the Evangelists – Simon Greenleaf (review)
Inerrancy – Edited by Norman Geisler (review)
The Canon of Scripture – F.F. Bruce (review)
From God To Us – Geisler & Nix (review)
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses – Richard Baukham
Misquoting Truth – Timothy Paul Jones
The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable and Relevant? – Walter Kaiser
General Introduction to the Bible – Norman Geisler
Problem of Evil
*The Problem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World – William Dembski
The Many Faces of Evil – John Feinberg
When God Weeps – Joni Eareckson Tada & Steven Estes
Till We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis
Evil and the Evidence for God – Douglas Geivett
Doubt
*Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith – Alister McGrath
Faith and Doubt – John Ortberg
In Search of a Confident Faith – Moreland and Issler
Science
A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology – Alister McGrath
Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? – Henry F. Schaefer III
The Creator and the Cosmos – Hugh Ross
Why The Universe Is The Way It Is – Hugh Ross
The Fingerprint of God – Hugh Ross
Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology – William Lane Craig & Quentin Smith
Philosophy
*Philosophy of Religion – C. Stephen Evans
**Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview – Craig & Moreland (review)
*Philosophy of Religion – Norman Geisler and Winfried Corduan (review)
Reason for the Hope Within – Murray (review)
Faith and Reason – Ronald Nash
Life’s Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy – Ronald Nash
Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion – Paul Copan
Introduction to Philosophy – Geisler & Feinberg (review)
An Introduction to Christian Philosophy – Gordon H. Clark and John W. Robbins
Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult – Moreland and DeWeese
Longing To Know – Esther Meek
Thinking About God – Gregory Ganssle
Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous – W. Jay Wood
Metaphysics: Constructing a Worldview – William Hasker (review)
Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide – William Lane Craig
The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion – William Mann
In Defense of Natural Theology – James Sennett & Douglas Groothuis (review)
On Pascal – Douglas Groothuis (review)
Warranted Christian Belief – Alvin Plantinga
God, Freedom & Evil – Alvin Plantinga
Faith & Rationality – Alvin Plantinga
Warrant & Proper Function – Alvin Plantinga
The Nature of Necessity – Alvin Plantinga
The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology by Paul Moser (review)
Ethics
Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions – Arthur F. Holmes
Ethics: Options & Issues – Norman Geisler
The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics – Hauerwas and Wells
Moral Choices – Scott Rae
Ethix – Sean McDowell
Abortion
The Case for Life – Scott Klusendorf
Pro-Life 101 – Scott Klusendorf
Defending Life – Francis Beckwith
Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments – Randy Alcorn
Why Pro-Life? – Randy Alcorn
Existence of God
*20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists – Ken Boa & Rob Bowman (review)
*The Case for a Creator – Lee Strobel
The God Who Sits Enthroned – Phil Fernandes (review)
The Existence of God – Richard Swinburne (review)
The Existence of God edited by John Hick (review)
Does God Exist: The Craig-Flew Debate
Does God Exist? – J.P. Moreland and Kai Nielsen
Logic
*A Rulebook for Arguments – Anthony Weston (review)
*Being Logical – D.Q. McInerny (review)
**Asking the Right Questions – Neil Browne & Stuart M. Keely (review)
*Nonsense: A Handbook of Logical Fallacies – Robert Gula (review)
Informal Logic – Douglas Walton (review)
Come Let Us Reason – Geisler & Brookes (review)
Introduction to Logic – Irving Copi (review)
Logic – Gordon Clark (review)
Biblical Logic – Joel McDurmon
Socratic Logic – Peter Kreeft
A Concise Introduction to Logic – Hurley
History of Apologetics
*A History of Apologetics – Avery Dulles (review)
*Classical Readings in Christian Apologetics – L. Rush Bush (review)
Christian Apologetics Past & Present: A Primary Source Reader – Edgar & Oliphint
Faith in the Age of Reason – Jonathan Hill (review)
Apologetics Reference Books
*Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion – C. Stephen Evans (review)
*Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics – Kreeft & Tacelli
*Handbook of Christian Apologetics – Kreeft & Tacelli
Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics – Doug Powell
Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics – Norman Geisler
New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics – Evans, Campbell-Jack, McGrath
Evidence That Demands a Verdict – Josh McDowell
Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties – Gleeson Archer
Big Book of Bible Difficulties – Geisler & Howe
Charts of Apologetics and Christian Evidences – House & Holden
The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics – Hindsun & Caner
Hard Sayings of the Bible – Kaiser, Davids, Bruce, Brauch
Apologetics Study Bibles
*The Apologetics Study Bible
Apologetics Study Bible for Students
Books on Methodology
*Faith Has Its Reasons – Ken Boa & Robert Bowman
*5 Views on Apologetics – Cowan, Gundry, Habermas, Craig
The Apologetics of Jesus – Geisler & Zukeran
Classical Apologetics – R.C. Sproul
Presuppositional Apologetics
*Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction – John Frame
*Always Ready – Greg Bahnsen
*Presuppositional Apologetics Stated and Defended – Greg Bahnsen
The Portable Presuppositionalist – Jamin Hubner
Pushing the Antithesis: The Apologetic Methodology – Greg Bahnsen
Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis – Greg Bahnsen
The Defense of the Faith – Cornelius Van Til
Christian Apologetics – Cornelius Van Til
Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought – John Frame
Every Thought Captive: A Study Manual for the Defense of Christian Truth – Jr. Richard L. Pratt
Cults
*Kingdom of the Cults – Walter Martin
The Kingdom of the Occult – Walter Martin
Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons – Rhodes & Bodine
Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims – Ron Rhodes
Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Ron Rhodes
Reasoning from the Scriptures with Masons – Ron Rhodes
The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions – Ron Rhodes
Angels Among Us: Separating Fact from Fiction – Ron Rhodes
The New Mormon Challenge – Beckwith, Mosser, Owen
Unmasking the New Age – Douglas Groothuis
Atheism
*God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? – John Lennox
* God is Great, God is Good – edited by William Lane Craig & Chad Meister (review)
*The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions – David Berlinski
If There is a God, Why Are There Atheists? – R.C. Sproul
A Sceptic’s Guide to Atheism – Peter S. Williams
Atheism Remix – Albert Mohler
The Dawkins Delusion – Alister McGrath
The Dawkins Letters – David Robertson
The Real Face of Atheism – Ravi Zacharias
The End of Reason – Ravi Zacharias (review)
The Twilight of Atheism – Alister McGrath
The Future of Atheism – Alister McGrath & Daniel Dennett
Faith of the Fatherless – Paul Vitz
The Atheist Delusion – Phil Fernandes
Atheism & Theism – Smart & Haldane
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind – Antony Flew (review)
The Truth Behind the New Atheism – David Marshall
Apologetics and Evangelism
**Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions – Greg Koukl (review)
*On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision – William Lane Craig
*Questioning Evangelism – Randy Newman
*The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning – J.P. Moreland
How to Argue Like Jesus – Carter & Coleman
Corner Conversations – Randy Newman
When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics – Paul Copan
Why Good Arguments Often Fail – James Sire
Conversational Evangelism – David Geisler
The God Conversation – Moreland & Muehlhoff
Dialogical Apologetics: A Person-Centered Approach to Christian Defense – David Clark
Humble Apologetics – John Stackhouse
Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion – Wiliam Edgar
Apologetics for a New Generation – Sean McDowell
Intelligent Design
*Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language – Dembski & McDowell
*The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design – Jonathan Wells
*The Edge of Evolution – Michael Behe
*The Design Inference – William Dembski
Icons of Evolution – Jonathan Wells
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis – Michael Denton
*Signature in the Cell – Stephen Meyer
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology – Dembski & Behe
The Design Revolution – William Dembski
The Cell’s Design – Fazale Rana
The Privileged Planet – Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards
Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe – Behe, Dembski, Meyer
Darwin Strikes Back: Defending the Science of Intelligent Design – Thomas Woodward
Billions of Missing Links: A Rational Look at the Mysteries Evolution Can’t Explain – Geoffrey Simmons
Darwin’s Black Box – Michael Behe
Darwin on Trial – Phillip Johnson
The Design Matrix: A Consilience of Clues – Mike Gene
Worldviews
*World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test – Ken Samples
*Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept – James Sire
*Total Truth – Nancy Pearcy
Worldviews in Conflict – Ronald Nash
The Universe Next Door – James Sire
Postmodernism / Relativism
*Relativism – Koukl & Beckwith
Truth Decay – Douglas Groothuis
A Refutation of Moral Relativism – Peter Kreeft
Classics in Apologetics
The First Apology of Justin – Justin Martyr
Irenaeus Against Heresies – Irenaeus
The Apology – Turtullian
Against Celsus – Origen
*Confessions – Augustine
*The City of God – Augustine
Monologium & Proslogium – Anselm
Summa Contra Gentiles – Thomas Aquinas
*Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas
*Institutes of the Christian Religion – John Calvin
The Analogy of Religion – Joseph Butler
*Natural Theology – William Paley (review)
A View of the Evidences of Christianity – William Paley
**Pensées – Blaise Pascal (review)
DVDs
The Lee Strobel Film Collection
*Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
The Privileged Planet
Unlocking the Mystery of Life
Darwin’s Dilemma (review)
Icons of Evolution
Collision (Wilson & Hitchens)