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Confronting Christianity

12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion

5.00 stars  from 2 reviews
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About this book

Religion’s decline in the modern world turns out to be a myth.

Christianity is the most widespread global belief system, and promises to remain so well into the future. But for many educated westerners, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea—challenging some of their deepest beliefs.

Channeling state-of-the-art research, personal stories, and careful biblical study, Confronting Christianity explores 12 questions that keep many of us from considering faith in Christ. Look more closely, McLaughlin argues, and the reality of suffering, the complexity of sexuality, the desire for diversity, the success of science, and other seeming roadblocks to faith become signposts. Jesus becomes not a relic from the ancient world, but our ...

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Specifications

Contributors:
Rebecca McLaughlin
ISBN:
9781433564239
Format:
Hardback
First published:
April 2019
Dimensions:
162mm x 235mm x 26mm
Weight:
0.48 kg
Language:
English
Pages:
240
Publisher:
Crossway

Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Aren’t we better off without religion?
Chapter 2: Doesn’t Christianity crush diversity?
Chapter 3: How can you say there is only one true faith?
Chapter 4: Doesn’t religion hinder morality?
Chapter 5: Doesn’t religion cause violence?
Chapter 6: How can you take the Bible literally?
Chapter 7: Hasn’t science disproved Christianity?
Chapter 8: Doesn’t Christianity denigrate women?
Chapter 9: Isn’t Christianity homophobic?
Chapter 10: Doesn’t the Bible condone slavery?
Chapter 11: How could a loving God allow so much suffering?
Chapter 12: How could a loving God send people to hell?

Endorsements

This book is compelling reading, not only because of its intellectual rigor and the fact that it is beautifully written but also because of its honest, empathetic humanity. Readers will find themselves expertly guided on a journey that involves them not only in confronting Christianity but also in confronting themselves—their worldviews, hopes, fears, failures, and search for identity and satisfaction—and, finally, in confronting Christ as the altogether credible source of life as God means it to be.

John Lennox Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford

McLaughlin probes some of the trickiest cultural challenges to Christianity of our day and clearly demonstrates the breadth and richness of a Christian response. Confronting Christianity is well worth reading and pondering.

Tyler J. VanderWeele John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University

In the West, many people are persuaded by dominant secular narratives and think they already know what Christianity is about. In this bombshell of a book packed with myth-busting statistics, McLaughlin reveals the many surprises in authentic Christianity.

Dr Peter J Williams Principal, Tyndale House, Cambridge; author, Can We Trust the Gospels?

A deep and caring response to current criticisms and confrontations of the Christian faith fills Rebecca McLaughlin’s book. She speaks from real-life experience of the personal and intellectual challenges we encounter today in considering the claims of Jesus Christ. Her open and faithful answers to serious questions provide not an easy stroll through imagined virtual reality but an adventurous rocky pathway through true and abundant life.

Ian Hutchinson Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author, Can a Scientist Believe in Miracles?

Apologetics with heart, discernment, empathy, and rigorous study. Confronting Christianity will help you understand the hard questions of the Christian faith while also igniting a love for neighbor. McLaughlin doesn’t shy away from tough questions about diversity and the nations, as well as slavery and facing America’s past and present. Her answers are not only insightful; they have the potential to transform a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Take up and read.

Trillia J. Newbell Author of Enjoy, Fear and Faith, and United.

Rebecca McLaughlin’s defense of the Christian faith is what all defenses should be: sensitive, smart, and sound. This is apologetics done right—and exactly right for this age in which we live. Confronting Christianity is a book I will draw upon myself and will recommend widely to believers and skeptics alike.

Karen Swallow Prior Author of Fierce Convictions—The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist

Rebecca McLaughlin addresses the most frequent and pressing objections to Christianity in our time with unflinching honesty, rigorous clarity, and deep compassion. This book is written not merely for skeptics but also for those who have suffered much in this sin-sick, destructive world. It is brimming with hope and will surprise you—and likely change the way you think about Jesus.

Jon Bloom Co-founder, Desiring God; author of Not By Sight

What Christianity has to offer the world is bound up in its strangeness. Only a distinctive word can be truly good news in a world like this. In a secularizing age, though, Christianity is often not simply odd to the world but also unexplained and seemingly inexplicable. In this book, Rebecca McLaughlin takes seriously both the Bible and the questions of nonbelievers. If you’re a non-Christian and have wondered why Christians think and do as they do, this book will be a good start to exploring those questions. If you’re a believer, this book will not only equip you intellectually but also call you to compassion and empathy for your questioning, unbelieving neighbor, as well as prepare you to bear witness to the Light that has come into the world.

Russell D. Moore Editor in Chief, Christianity Today

A fresh voice, arresting arguments, and an easy-to-read style. McLaughlin writes for curious thinkers everywhere, and handsomely repays the open-minded reader.

Os Guinness author of "The Call"

Customer Reviews

5.00 stars Bringing subjects with blurred edges into sharp focus

 

My difficulty as an ordinary Christian is to know how to be best prepared to answer questions about the Christian faith raised by modern society. The selection of 12 topics I found spot on for these days; the wealth of factual data gave sufficient information to sift falsehood and presupposition out from truth and reality; the stories of individuals pointed warmly to the impact of the gospel. I feel I now have a valuable resource, so as and when questions may come my way, I can with more confidence get to the heart of matters and provide a clear appeal ...

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5.00 stars Thoroughly researched, beautifully written, disarmingly honest

 

'Confronting Christianity' is a thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and disarmingly honest examination of issues and problems that sincere Christian faith faces. Rebecca McLaughlin is candid about the patent failures of Christians and Christianity in history, while remaining insistent about the credibility, beauty, and believability of Jesus Christ and his gospel. Rigorous in research, robust in logic, and personally transparent, the author portrays Christian faith and the Christian church as capable of facing the challenges it faces from thinking people. As with any apologetic text, the emphasis throughout is not on one particular tradition or theology, but on the broad claims ...

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