Challenges For Christian Faith

The Collected Lore of the Star and the Catfish

Harold Netland traces the emergence of the pluralistic ethos that challenges Christian faith and mission, interacting heavily with philosopher John Hick and providing a framework for developing a comprehensive evangelical theology of religions.

In recent years the Christian faith has been challenged by skeptics, including the New Atheists, who claim that belief in God is simply not reasonable. Here prominent Christian philosopher C. Stephen Evans offers a fresh, contemporary, and nuanced response. He makes the case for belief in a personal God through an exploration of natural "signs," which open our minds to theistic possibilities and foster belief in the Christian revelation. Evans then discusses why God's self-revelation is both authoritative and authentic. This sophisticated yet accessible book provides a clear account of the evidence for Christian faith, concluding that it still makes sense to believe.

Inspired by the person and writings of C.S. Lewis, this book examines pertinent and pressing issues in living the Christian faith today. Experts in their fields share their insights and conclusions.

Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.

Moving in to the twenty-first-century America is experiencing a change in culture that has affected attitudes toward sex, race, and religion. Political correctness is making a vain effort to keep everything open without offending opposing views on these subjects. However, often because of political correctness, it brings a clash between biblical values and popular opinion. This evolution of culture no longer adheres to biblical principles, but rather self-satisfactions justified by political correctness. However, to true Bible-believing Christians, this presents a challenge because much of modern thought is contradictory to the Bible. When the nation, by and large, becomes ungodly, the true believers must stand in opposition and declare the truths of God. Just like the prophets of old warned Israel, so must the church warn the nation today. In Scott Bradley's book, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century Church, he begins to confront and challenge modern thought, religion, and various other topics that are forefront in today's society that are a direct contradiction to the Bible, Christian principles, and godly character in believers. Bradley differentiates what the Bible says and what is politically correct. He encourages the reader to study the Bible, unite with God through Jesus Christ, and draw closer to Him. He challenges the church world to reexamine itself and see if we are still following the true and living God. The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century Church will encourage you, enlighten you, and inspire you to continue in the paths of the Lord Jesus Christ and experience the fullness of your walk with Him.

Throughout its entire history, the discipline of anthropology has been perceived as undermining, or even discrediting, Christian faith. Many of its most prominent theorists have been agnostics who assumed that ethnographic findings and theories had exposed religious beliefs to be untenable. E. B. Tylor, the founder of the discipline in Britain, lost his faith through studying anthropology. James Frazer saw the material that he presented in his highly influential work, The Golden Bough, as demonstrating that Christian thought was based on the erroneous thought patterns of 'savages.' On the other hand, some of the most eminent anthropologists have been Christians, including E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, and Edith Turner. Moreover, they openly presented articulate reasons for how their religious convictions cohered with their professional work. Despite being a major site of friction between faith and modern thought, the relationship between anthropology and Christianity has never before been the subject of a book-length study. In this groundbreaking work, Timothy Larsen examines the point where doubt and faith collide with anthropological theory and evidence.