On Guard (book)

On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description: This concise guide is filled with illustrations, sidebars, and memorizable steps to help Christians stand their ground and defend their faith with reason and precision. In his engaging style, Dr. Craig offers four arguments for God’s existence, defends the historicity of Jesus’ personal claims and resurrection, addresses the problem of suffering, and shows why religious relativism doesn’t work. Along the way, he shares his story of following God’s call in his own life.

 

My Review: William Lane Craig is a very sophisticated apologist for Christianity and this book is a very sophisticated argument first, for the existence of God and, second, for the historicity of Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

The philosophical arguments for the existence of “God” were the most interesting and compelling in the book. Craig is a professional philosopher who studied under John Hick. The topic of his PhD was Liebniz's cosmological argument for the existence of “God”. And his careful and articulate presentation of the argument and refutation of major criticisms is very persuasive and logically coherent. In addition to these arguments, Craig also presents a moral argument for God's existence.

Craig also studied under the NT scholar Wolfhart Pannenberg and he draws on Pannenberg's scholarship in mounting an argument for the historicity of Jesus Christ.

For me, the philosophical arguments were excellent. I didn't enjoy the arguments for Christ's historicity as much - I have more questions about those than the philosophical arguments. And I thought his justification of Christian claims to exclusivity of salvation through Christ could have been better.
William Lane Craig is a frequent target of atheists and there are times I agree with some of the those criticisms. I can't help believing, however, that some of those criticisms are based on a misunderstanding of Craig's arguments.

If you are looking for a clear, articulate defence of (specifically) Christian belief in the existence of God and the historicity of Christ then this book is a good place to start - for believers and non-believers alike.

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The Earthquake Bird (book)

The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book description: A haunting first novel set in Tokyo, "The Earthquake Bird" reveals a murder on its first page and takes its readers into the mind of the chief suspect, Lucy Fly -- a young vulnerable English girl living and working in Tokyo as a translator. Lucy grew up in England, and still harbors painful memories of her childhood in Yorkshire. Only her fascination with music and language provide her with a final break from her past, allowing her to move to Tokyo and start a new life as a translator of technical books. There, she begins an intensely erotic affair with a brilliant and secretive photographer named Teiji. But when Lucy befriends Lily Bridges, a young woman who has also fled trouble in Yorkshire, her life begins to unravel. Lucy doesn't like being reminded of what she left behind in England. Nor does she like Teiji's friendship with Lily. Now the police have accused her of killing Lily, because it is becoming apparent that Lucy has had the motive, the means, and the opportunity.

My review: What an intriguing crime story - nothing like any crime I've read before. The crime is very much secondary to the character telling us of the events. The story starts off with Lucy being arrested and, while she is being interrogated, she tells of her life and events leading up to the crime. Some readers will hate the ending - I loved it - and I won't say more about it than that. Hard to believe this was the author's first novel. Not only that, she won an award for it. Beautifully written and the way she writes about Tokyo makes me want to go there and visit! Heartrending and deeply emotional, I couldn't wait to see how it turned out - and wish there was more now it’s over!

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