The Case for the Real Jesus is Lee Strobel’s follow-up to his excellent 1998 book The Case for Christ.  This volume seeks to answer some of the more recent objections to Christianity popularized largely through the internet, novels such as The DaVinci Code and new aggressive forms of atheism.  Skeptics, taking advantage of the ignorance and gullibility of many, have been able to plant seeds of doubt in and occasionally shipwreck the faith of some through unsubstantiated claims, poor but impressive sounding scholarship, and distortion of the truth.  Strobel attempts to counteract these attacks on Christianity through the same methodology as in his previous book: interview the best conservative Christian scholars on the subjects of their expertise.  The result is most gratifying as the myths, rumors, misrepresentations and false claims melt away quickly when exposed to the light of truth.

This volume deals with six major challenges to Jesus and Christianity:

• Neo-Gnosticism (pp. 15-17, 23-63) which has been elevated in the public consciousness by Dan Brown, The Jesus Seminar and New Age Spirituality.

• Textual criticism (pp. 17-18, 101-155) which has been distorted and then popularized most recently by Bart Ehrman’s book, Misquoting Jesus.

• Denial of the resurrection (pp. 17-18, 101-155).

• Accusations that Christianity is merely a throwback to pagan religions (pp. 18-19, 157-186).

• Claims that Jesus was an imposter (pp. 14-20, 189-225).

• Postmodern relativism and syncretism (p. 70, 227-260); surely the greatest challenge of all as people pick and choose what they want to believe in the cafeteria of religions and philosophies.

The Case for the Real Jesus is a powerful resource in the defense of the faith.  I recommend it highly. 

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