Truth in a Culture of Doubt: Engaging Skeptical Challenges to the Bible Paperback – September 1, 2014

The incredible length agnostics go to discredit opposing scholarly research in making no attempt to even acknowledge its existence is unconscionable and deceptive. The authors present a very credible unmasking of Bart Ehrman's position point by point leaving a knowledgeable reader embarrassed should they hold Ehrman's biased views. As bright as Ehrman comes across publicly, his scholarship is so selective and one sided it leaves one suspecting he dares not bring to the fore any counter research lest his premise collapse as did Dagon's temple in Sampson's revenge.

A friend suggested I read this book as an antidote for reading a couple of Ehrman's books. I was willing to give it a shot to see what the authors had to say. I was a little disappointed with how incomplete their arguments are. This book is obviously written to reinforce the Christian mindset, but as a non-believer, it did little for me. Their argument essentially comes down to faith. In fact, all religion comes down to faith... that's kind of the definition of religion: "a particular system of faith and worship". Ehrman doesn't use a belief on a supernatural god to frame the lives and writings of the early Christian writers. I'm sure this statement is laughable to faithful Christians, but understand that the world is full of religions that started with very non-supernatural means. However, adherents to Mormonism will defend their faith tooth and nail-- Scientology, Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, and thousands of other religious minds believe their faith was started with a series of events that can't be backed by evidence or science (most of the time), but by faith.With that said, I find this book unsatisfying because it did not provide arguments at the level that Ehrman provides. If you are already a believing Christian, this book will reinforce your beliefs, but to a non-believer, it does little. The authors do bring up some good points that expose some weakness in Ehrman's reasoning, but over all the book doesn't hold up to Ehrman's.

A theologian, Ehrman, originally a subscriber to Christian orthodoxy, has become a 'professional critic' of Christianity. This book examines all the objections raised by Ehrman and provides in depth responses based on theology, history, culture and probability. It is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the authenticity of the New Testament and the claims the Jesus rose from the dead and also that he was not a man who was somehow deified, but in fact, God comin into his creation in order to save it as the Messiah.

This book years apart the contradictions and fallacies of Ehrman's refutation of the Bible. A must read for reasoned faith in the postmodern era.

I found this book very helpful in thoughtfully responding to questions of doubt that Ehrman and seekers of Christianity's truth may ask. Well structured, concise but including enough detail to understand the depth of scholarly research involved. Highly recommend this to anyone that has read Ehrman's books or even taken his classes (like my wife who affirmed some of the examples about Ehrman's teaching having taken his courses before). Excellent summary at end of the book that will be useful for revisiting the ideas again in the future.

This book has a few great arguments, but a lot of fluff in the middle. A lot of the rebuttals are not backed by evidence or are backed by mediocre evidence at best. The first chapter and the last two are worth reading.

This book does a good job of repeatedly showing how Ehrman keeps his conclusions despite evidence (similar to how fundamentalist Christians are negatively portrayed, but from the opposing side) and actually disallows believing Christian conclusions from possibly being arrived at before he begins an analysis. This is a good book that deals with both the arguments and what is behind his arguments.

Very good book on correcting the grave mistakes of so called "Christians" that actually fight against the faith. Good biblical exegesis.

I think it's a great book, a great effort to get ordinary folk to understand culture and engage with it.

After reading The heresy of Orthodoxy I was looking forward to this book. However, I quickly realized that the title of the book is misleading. When I hear a title like engaging skeptical challenges as a subtitle I assume that refuting the error of heretics like Ehrman would be secondary to the purpose of the book. If you have heard of Ehrman you have probably heard of these arguments, there is nothing new here. I thought it would be addressing how our culture is a culture of doubt and then respond to it. Also, truth needs to be addressed, can we know it, how do we find it, how do we know it when we have found it. Proving Ehrman wrong does not make a position right, it is just a different perspective, or so our society tells us. The book should have been titled Responding to Bart Ehrman in a Culture of DoubtI have a hard time believing that many people outside of seminaries and universities know who he is. In my 40+ years of being a member of the Christian community I have only known one person (other than my pastor) to be interested in reading theology or anything remotely resembling it. I know he has been on a number of popular television shows but that doesn't prove he has influence. John MacArthur has been on the Larry King show dozens of times but I don't think anyone would say that he has any influence in our culture. Just because a person is seen doesn't mean he is heard, our attention spans are too short for that.I know he has had books on the New York Times bestseller list so I did some research as to how an author makes this list. This information comes from authors and publishers. An author only has to sell between 4000-8000 copies of his book in a week to be on the list depending on the time of year. Lets face it, how many of us have purchased a book with the best intentions but never read it. People in the church don't know who Ehrman is or care who he is, they just want to quietly live their Christian life and ignore theological wranglings because that would require them think.I really don't like being negative, but the authors missed a great opportunity to address one of the most important issues of our time.