Outside Reading #1

[Jon]

Jon Steel
Pd. 5
The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel is about Lees's investigation into what evidence there is for the claims of Christianity. Lee was the editor of the Chicago Tribune and a devout atheist who was getting tired of Christians claiming that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. He decides to travel all over the country to interview various experts on Christianity to expose what he believes to be massive holes in Christianity's integrity. His journey eventually lead him to an outcome he never expected, given the evidence he decided that there is much more to Christianity than he thought and he became a Christian himself.
While I don't agree with Lee's original atheist stand point I feel like we would have been able to be great friends at any point in his life. Lee seems to have a very similar curious type personality to my own and we both want to get to the bottom of things. I feel like if I were to have known him while he was an Atheist there would have been many debates but they would have been constructive. I truly admire Lee's determination and dedication to his cause and because of that I feel like a friendship could have worked.

[Peter]

I felt lee was very disingenuous and shallow. his faux skepticsim really annoyed me. his woefully incomplete treatment of the the c.s.Lewis "lord, liar or lunatic" was especially trite. to totally ignore the obvious fourth "L" ie legend is either deceptive or ignorant IMHO

[[deleted user]]

I loved this book! I was very skeptical when my fiancee asked me to read it, because I tend to stay away from some aspects of the mainstream christian atmosphere, such as their contemporary music, and some of their literature. But I am glad I read it! This book answered many of the questions I had, without deviating from exposin facts and figures. It didn't really touch on the spiritual answer to certain things, but it explains with in detail how some of the fundamental events of christianity took place, such as the crucifixion. I recommend it to everyone!

[Bill]

I agree with Peter that the whole basis of the book is a somewhat awkward, given that he's now obviously made his decision and is writing with an agenda. None the less, these are kind of people you want to hear from (people who did their research and came to a conclusion), and I think he made a pretty good effort at being balanced in his record.

Regarding his neglect of the 4th L (legend), he does devote the first 6 chapters to "examining the reliability of the eyewitnesses" etc etc etc, concluding that the NT gospels are accurate -- does that address the Legend option?

[Bill]

It is rather like tying to prove the soul exist, but by scientic reasoning only.

[Tylor]

I think the answers and questions this book raises are outdated. These questions don't really get to the heart of the issues, nor are they the questions that have any meaning for Christians.
Lee Strobel assumes that the gospels are biographies. Most theologians disagree with this point, saying that the gospels are testimonies and traditions to the Jesus of faith (that is, the Christ). The historical Jesus hasn't much to do with the New Testament, as the New Testament is filled with the questions and issues of the early church and their answers. For example, the Gospel of John is very anti-Jew because, around the time it was written, the Christians were especially hell-bent on excluding the Jews from the Christian identity and faith.
I can make many other points on the book, but it has been so long since I read it. I tried watching the documentary on Netflix with the same title and turned it off after seeing the perpetuation patriarchy at the beginning. Of course (he seems to say): women are always the dumb-founded floaters who don't think about anything and only feel their way through life, while men are always logical and detached from reality, questioning everything. This generalization is disingenuous at best, although billboarded in many evangelical communities.
Although the last critique hasn't much to do with the particular book, it says much about his puerile argumentation and reflection. The function of this book and the video with the same title is to get Strobel's name mainstream. How do I know this? By his reciting a lot of empty, outdated, talk and platitudes about gender roles.

[Bill]

A better book to read would have been Gandhi on Christianity edited by Robert Ellsberg.
Mohandas Gandhi was both a life long and devoted Hindu,unwilling to accept Christian dogma.
But in Christ he recognized and revered one of history's great prophets of nonviolence.

[Denise]

I would recommend The Case Against the Case for Christ by Price. Not because I expect you to drop your beliefs, but it might give you some insight as to why Lee is a very poor source of information or argument.

[James]

Another good source for information on why Strobel's book here is such a bad source can be found at infidels.org:
http://www.infidels.org/library/moder...

[Steven]

I could almost tolerate the lopsided interviewing technique Strobel demonstrates. I could even tolerate weak arguments and proofs such as we should believe the New Testament writers because there isn't "any reasonable evidence to suggest they were anything but people of great integrity." (p 57)

However, Strobel's ending statement infuriated me: "My investigation into Jesus was similar to what you've read, except that I primarily studied books and other historical research instead of personally interacting with scholar". (p 349) Are you kidding me, man?!? 300 pages of describing how these experts reacted to your questioning, and you didn't even talk to them?!?! That makes your fact-finding excursion a lie and that's intolerable to me.

[Deborah]

Peter wrote: "I felt lee was very disingenuous and shallow. his faux skepticsim really annoyed me. his woefully incomplete treatment of the the c.s.Lewis "lord, liar or lunatic" was especially trite. to totally ..."
Wow I liked it thought it was very informative and prompted a desire to dig deeper

[[deleted user]]

I rly lked it wen Sammy did a wee on da sofa bt nt wen she gets caugt in da ceiling fan lol
wen I red da bok I cry very very hard lyk a rok bcoz it reli speks 2 me as reder bt afta i finish i mak shore 2 jumo @ the happynes dat u felt wud me
the questun i ask myself is "am i rely worthy of such fantastic lituruture bcoz i do not fink i am to be witness 2 da grace of bok.
bby hold me thru da nite and clense my sprit mmay god b wit u 4eva
luv from betty :)