Confronting Christianity

I made the mistake of listening to this one instead of getting it in print. The audiobook is fine! It's read by the author! But I kept wishing that I had it in front of me, because this should not have been as difficult for me to get through as it ended up being. I officially stalled out in chapter 7, “Hasn't Science Disproved Christianity?” I don't love science stuff anyway, and it's gotta be REAL interesting to hold my attention, and I couldn't make myself keep going after that.

Though I do have to say, I learned a LOT in the chapter “Doesn't Religion Cause Violence?” especially as related to Nazi Germany - I had no idea (but maybe should have guessed) that the Nazis of course distorted Christianity to suit their needs. Including creating their own version of the Bible, in which they replaced Jesus with the Fuhrer and the entire Old Testament was removed so as to erase all reference to Jews being God's chosen people, among other things.

Basically, if this topic sounds interesting to you, give it a try. This was a personal failing, not a failing on the part of the book. Maybe I'll try again in print another time.

Winner of the 2019 Christianity Today's book award, Rebecca McLaughlin's “Confronting Christianity” is an excellent apologetic for Christianity. The questions McLaughlin tackles are by no means easy or simple, but she approaches them with frankness, depth, and nuance.

I especially appreciated her treatment of human suffering. After briefly comparing atheist, Buddhist, and Christian frameworks to suffering, McLaughlin dives into Christianity's multifaceted approach to this topic using the story of Lazarus as a lens (when Jesus doesn't come). By the end of the chapter, she's calling on Christians to take on Jesus' call to enter into the suffering of others, the way He did for us.

Not all the chapters were equally interesting. Some of the questions like “How can you take the Bible literally?” and “Doesn't religion hinder morality?” were not serious questions for me (but, they might be for you). Even on most of these, however, I learned something new and found my appreciation for Christianity deepened. For example, in “Doesn't the Bible condone slavery?”, McLaughlin (while acknowledging Christian failures through history in this regard) shows how the Church has actually done much to undo slavery, and how when blacks in America found freedom, they found Christianity not as a symbol of their oppression but as a reason for their hope. Moreover, she shows how condoning slavery is not simply one of many legitimate interpretations of Scripture, but rather a blatant twisting of Scripture.

The hardest questions for me were those concerning gender relations (“oppression of women” and “homophobia”) and the question on hell. While these chapters did leave me wanting a bit more, I greatly appreciate what McLaughlin has added to the conversation. These chapters certainly left me with a bite to chew on as she roots marriage in the Gospel and ties God's judgment into God's love.

This is another book that I would heartily recommend to all. More than just an apologetic, this book has deepened my faith as McLaughlin roots her answers in the goodness of God and the Gospel itself.

It also would make great discussion, so if you decide to give it a read, feel free to engage with me on it.