Book Synopsis:
There's little question that he actually lived. But miracles? Rising from the dead? Some of the stories you hear about him sound like just that - stories. A reasonable person would never believe them, let alone the claim that he's the only way to God! But a reasonable person would also make sure that he or she understood the facts before jumping to conclusions. That's why Lee Strobel - an award-winning legal journalist with a knack for asking tough questions - decided to investigate Jesus for himself. An atheist, Strobel felt certain his findings would bring Christianity's claims about Jesus tumbling down like a house of cards. He was in for the surprise of his life. Join him as he retraces his journey from skepticism to faith. You'll consult expert testimony as you sift through the truths that history, science, psychiatry, literature, and religion reveal. Like Strobel, you'll be amazed at the evidence - how much there is, how strong it is, and what it says. The facts are in. What will your verdict be in The Case for Christ?
My Review:
5/5 stars. This was a very thorough, in-depth exploration of the evidence for Christ. It covered a lot of different topics and brought up a lot of arguments I had never heard of before. Reading a lot of the evidence together in one book really makes it that much more obvious that it’s true.
I've already read two of Lee Strobel's "The case for..." books so far, but those were both "student editions" rather than the full thing, like this one. Because of that, this book definitely felt very long and took me a while to get through. However, because of its size, there was room for lots of thorough research and expansive conversations, covering a lot of objectives people could have to who Jesus was.
I appreciated how Strobel would continue to press certain issues until he got a satisfactory answer. Also, there were some things he put a pin in for the sake of the book, but explained how he made a note of it to research even further later. That shows that he had integrity in presenting his information, and that he was committed to finding the truth.
At the beginning of every chapter, Strobel shared real-life anecdotes, either from forensic science history or from his own experience as an investigative journalist and involvement in court cases. I really enjoyed these, and how he connected them to whatever evidence for Jesus that chapter was covering.
Some of the chapters ended with the great message/idea that apologetics and learning more about the evidence for your beliefs can strengthen your faith. I loved that. As someone who loves apologetics and has used it to grow stronger in my beliefs, it was great to see that same experience talked about in other people's lives. It's not all just about blind faith - the more evidence you find, the more confident you can be in your beliefs.
Another thing I liked was that it wasn't just Christians who were quoted. While all of the interviews were with Christian scholars, Strobel also cited sources from skeptics and atheists who agreed with him on certain things. That shows that atheists are still able to come to the same conclusions in their research, which further strengthens the validity of the points.
The evidence given in this book was very comprehensive. For example, while I knew there are a lot of mentions of Jesus or Biblical events outside of the Bible itself, reading them listed out all in one chapter makes it way more obvious. I also learned some things I thought were cool, like how there was an external source that mentioned the sudden darkness during the Crucifixion. Like I already mentioned, it also brought up a lot of arguments I had never even heard before. It's a great book to prepare you for any argument against Jesus you might encounter.
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