I just discovered a six-pack I can endorse—and probably the only one available at your local Christian bookstore. There you can buy six shrink-wrapped mass-market-paperback versions of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ (Zondervan). You can also buy it as a hardback or as a trade-sized paperback shrink-wrapped with a mass-market editon.
Why the creative packaging? Because Zondervan recognizes that Strobel, a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, has performed a valuable service. Strobel has re-created his spiritual journey to Christ in the narrative of an investigative journalist. And that is what Strobel was for 13 years, sleuthing for newspapers like the Chicago Tribune. He is also a graduate of Yale Law School. With this background, Strobel crisscrossed the continent interviewing the best evangelical scholars on the questions Strobel had to overcome when he became a Christian: “Can the biographies of Jesus be trusted?” “Was Jesus really convinced that he was the Son of God?” “Was he crazy?” and many more. For each question we sit at the feet of the best thinkers in the evangelical world: Craig Blomberg on the trustworthiness of the Gospels; Bruce Metzger on the Greek text; Edwin Yamauchi on historical evidence; Ben Witherington III on Jesus’ self-identity; D. A. Carson on Jesus’ divinity; and eight more.
In each interview Strobel plays the devil’s advocate, trying to poke holes in the arguments and explanations. The result is a surprisingly energetic narrative that offers highly nuanced, deeply reasoned answers to the common questions seekers ponder. Zondervan thinks it is so good people will want to give it away.
Never before in the twentieth century has the church amassed so many highly skilled, believing scholars to illumine our Scriptures, our theology, our traditons, our church work. And what do we do with these riches? Not as much as we should. There is a chasm separating our popular discourse from our expert knowledge. This can lead (and has led) to debates being conducted without benefit of expert testimony.
Which is why Strobel’s book is worth celebrating. He mediates between two worlds that need to speak to one another: the church and the academy. Christianity Today plays a similar mediating role, taking the best of evangelical thought and applying it to the concerns of today’s church. For instance, in this issue’s special section (see “The New Theologians,” p. 30), Senior Writer Tim Stafford profiles five cutting-edge Christian scholars. In this endeavor we, like Lee Strobel, wish to provide a bridge between two worlds that need to know each other better.
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