BOOKS
Beyond the Wager: the Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal
In this accessible and well-documented study, philosopher Douglas Groothuis introduces readers to Pascal's life as well as the breadth of his intellectual pursuits, including his contributions to mathematics, science, ethics, and theology. Groothuis overviews the key points of Pascal's Pensées, which captures his thoughts about God, humanity, and Jesus Christ. Readers will also explore Pascal's views on a range of topics, including culture, politics, Islam, and miracles.
Often quoted and often misunderstood, Pascal is a complex figure whose writings have charmed, puzzled, and inspired readers across the centuries. With guidance from a leading Christian thinker and longtime student of Pascal, Beyond the Wager takes you on a journey to discover the riches Pascal has to offer today.
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The Knowledge of God in the World and The Word: An Introduction to Classical Apologetics
Amid the crisis of authority in our modern and postmodern era, Christians need to be able to point to God's revelation in the natural world in addition to defending God's unique revelation in the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ.
Classical apologetics takes a two-step approach to commending the Christian picture of reality. First, arguments for the existence of God, such as those of natural theology, are employed to create common ground with people outside the household of the Christian faith and to provide intellectual support for Christians. Second, classical apologetics defends key items of Christian revelation, including the reliability of the Bible, the identity of the historical Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In Knowledge of God in the World and the Word, authors Douglas Groothuis and Andrew Shepardson provide a simple introduction to classical apologetics that also addresses the most common objections to natural theology. Readers will discover in the book an easy point of entry into understanding why Christian beliefs about Jesus are true and rational. Further, the authors apply the power of classical apologetics to Christian ministry.
Fire in the Streets: How You Can Confidently Respond to Incendiary Cultural Topics
From the origins of critical theory in the bowels of the academy to its use in justifying rioting and arson in the name of a dubious equity agenda, an eminent philosopher unmasks the intellectual origins of this mental virus, and details steps rational thinkers can take to combat its insidious spread.
In this book, we consider the importance of critical theory, explain its origins, question its aims, and subject it to a logical critique. Readers will:
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Gain a better understanding of critical theory
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See how it is permeating many aspects of society
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Discover how it opposes a Christian worldview
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Learn how to counter it constructively
Walking Through Twilight: A Wife's Illness―A Philosopher's Lament
How do you continue to find God as dementia pulls your loved one into the darkness? Nothing is simple for a person suffering from dementia, and for those they love. When ordinary tasks of communication, such as using a phone, become complex, then difficult, and then impossible, isolation becomes inevitable. Helping becomes excruciating. In these pages philosopher Douglas Groothuis offers a window into his experience of caring for his wife as a rare form of dementia ravages her once-brilliant mind and eliminates her once-stellar verbal acuity...
In Defense of Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment
The shadow of David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, has loomed large against all efforts to prove the existence of God from evidence in the natural world. Indeed from Hume's day to ours, the vast majority of philosophical attacks against the rationality of theism have borne an unmistakable Humean aroma. The last forty years, however, have been marked by a resurgence in Christian theism among philosophers, and the time has come for a thorough reassessment of the case for natural theology. James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished team of philosophers to engage the task: Terence Penelhum, Todd M. Furman, Keith Yandell, Garrett J. DeWeese, Joshua Rasmussen, James D. Madden, Robin Collins, Paul Copan, Victor Reppert, J. P. Moreland and R. Douglas Geivett. Together this team makes vigorous individual and cumulative arguments that set Hume's attacks in fresh perspective and that offer new insights into the value of teleological, cosmological and ontological arguments for God's existence.
Are All Religions One
As we look at the claims of many religions and their leaders, does it make sense that one of them, Christianity, has the right to claim the truth? Or are all religions the same at the core?
In this concise and helpful booklet, Douglas Groothuis examines the basic doctrines of great world religions, including Islam and nondualistic Hinduism, and compares them to Christianity. He concludes that all religions are not one. But he assures us that diverse people can find oneness at the foot of Christ's cross.
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith
2012 Christianity Today Book Award of Merit winner
The Christian worldview proposes answers to the most enduring human questions. But are those answers reliable? In this systematic text, Douglas Groothuis makes a comprehensive apologetic case for Christian theism--proceeding from a defense of objective truth to a presentation of the key arguments for God from natural theology to a case for the credibility of Jesus, the incarnation and the resurrection. Throughout, Groothuis considers alternative views and how they fare intellectually.
ON PASCAL
ON PASCAL, like other titles in the Wadsworth Philosopher's Series, offers a concise, yet comprehensive, introduction to this philosopher's most important ideas. Presenting the most important insights of well over a hundred seminal philosophers in both the Eastern and Western traditions, the Wadsworth Philosophers Series contains volumes written by scholars noted for their excellence in teaching and for their well-versed comprehension of each featured philosopher's major works and contributions. These titles have proven valuable in a number of ways. Serving as standalone texts when tackling a philosophers' original sources or as helpful resources for focusing philosophy students' engagements with these philosopher's often conceptually daunting works, these titles have also gained extraordinary popularity with a lay readership and quite often serve as "refreshers" for philosophy instructors.
Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism
A 2001 Christianity Today Award of Merit winner
The concept of truth as absolute, objective and universal has undergone serious deterioration in recent years. No longer is it a goal for all to pursue. Rather postmodernism sees truth as inseparable from culture, psychology, race and gender. Ultimately, truth is what we make it to be. What factors have accelarated this decay of truth? Why are people willing to embrace such a devalued concept? How does this new view compare and contrast with a Christian understanding? While postmodernism contains some truthful insights (despite its attempt to dethrone truth), Douglas Groothuis sees its basic tenets as intellectually flawed and hostile to Christian views. In this spirited presentation of a solid, biblical and logical perspective, Groothuis unveils how truth has come under attack and how it can be defended in the vital areas of theology, apologetics, ethics and the arts.
Jesus in an Age of Controversy
Who is this man Jesus? An ordinary man about whom the early Christians made up extraordinary stories? A spiritual guru or master who tapped into a cosmic consciousness that we can all aspire to? Or is he the unique Son of God? Best-selling books challenge us to rethink our ideas about Jesus. The "Jesus Seminar" makes headlines with its systematic attempts to undermine the accuracy of the Gospel accounts. New Age teachings about Jesus have found their way into many pulpits.
Revealing the New Age Jesus: Challenges to Orthodox Views of Christ
The New Age movement spreads more and more confusing ideas about the identity of Jesus Christ. Now Douglas Groothuis examines the claims of leading New Age thinkers, comparing their picture of Jesus with the teachings of biblical Christianity. Meeting New Age beliefs about Jesus head-on, he demonstrates how the Bible gives a trustworthy record of the man who forever changed world history. This compelling book is the first to consider both Orthodox and New Age views of Jesus. It is an understandable introduction to the claims and work of Jesus Christ for all seekers. It appeals to anyone who wants to know more about the Jesus of Scripture and history.
Confronting the New Age: How to Resist a Growing Religious Movement
The first book to tell you how to confront the New Age The threat is growing. So not only do we need to understand the New Age, we need to stem the tide of this growing religious movement. Here's the first book that tells how. You'll find all you need to know for: - Witnessing to New Age adherents - Identifying New Age influences in business seminars - Exposing New Age curriculum in our public schools - Discerning New Age influences in pop psychology, biofeedback therapy, visualization, and New Age music This book takes you a step beyond other books with its practical advice and sound suggestions.
World Religions in Seven Sentences
In this brief volume in IVP Academic's Introductions in Seven Sentences, philosopher Douglas Groothuis creatively uses a single sentence representing each of several world religions as a way to open readers to their depth and complexity, including:
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Atheism: "God Is Dead."
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Judaism: "I Am Who I Am."
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Hinduism: "You Are That."
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Buddhism: "Life Is Suffering."
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Daoism: "The Dao That Can Be Spoken Is Not the Eternal Dao."
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Christianity: "Before Abraham Was, I Am."
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Islam: "There Is One God, and Mohammad Is His Prophet.
With a sympathetic but not uncritical approach, Groothuis welcomes readers to a vital and global conversation.
Unmasking the New Age
What is the New Age movement? Is it a conspiracy? What can Christians do about it? In the last ten years the New Age has shifted out of the counterculture into the mainstream of society. Today its effects are felt in almost every aspect of life--medicine, politics, science, psychology and even religion. --Fortune 500 corporations routinely send their managers to New Age seminars to expand their minds and increase productivity. --Entertainer Shirley MacLaine has written two best-selling books that chronicle her conversion to the New Age. --Doctors and therapists increasingly employ healing techniques that are based on pantheistic principles. --Even advertisers on radio and television, in tune with New Age ideas, are telling us that we have unlimited potential. Douglas Groothuis explains how the New Age combines Eastern mysticism with Western optimism and why it has become so popular. His thorough, biblical analysis helps Christians know how to respond to this aggressive movement.
