![]() It was the first book I read where a Christian looked at Christianity from a rational, questioning point of view. I read Mere Christianity shortly after I finished The Case for Christ, and it added fuel to the growing fire of my interest in Christianity. But it did open my eyes to the fact that Christians had a much better defense for their beliefs than I’d expected. It’s not that the book was perfect, or even that I instantly believed after reading it (I didn’t). Former atheist Lee Strobel lays out the data that convinced him that the Christian claims about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are true. I had no idea what it was, just that I was oddly drawn to it and had to go see it.Īs it turns out, the book was exactly what I needed to read. But one day back in July of 2005 I walked into a bookstore, saw this book from way across the room, and knew I wanted to read it. In my vague search for religion up to that point, I had been planning to explore Buddhism and other Eastern belief systems first (then Judaism, then Islam, then Baha’i, then that Wicca/”earth goddess” stuff that my friend from college was into…anything but Christianity!) It had never once occurred to me that there was even the most remote possibility that the Christian claims about Jesus could be true, so I was planning to skip over all that. My conversion to Christianity had a very clear beginning: the day I walked into a bookstore and saw this book. One of the reasons it’s taken so long to put this together is because I don’t want to present this as any sort of definitive list or hold myself out as an authority on the subject: I offer this as a humble account of my personal story, detailing some books that I found compelling in my search for truth about God, the world and the human experience. But they are, I believe, good places to start. These books alone were not enough to convince me to convert all the information in the world would not have been enough had my heart not been open to it (as I talked about here). These are by no means the only sources of information I used - the conversion process was a long road that involved lots of thinking and reading (and eventually praying) and gathering data from tons of different sources. This would also be a good list for people who are not Christian but are curious about the religion. I think it would be a good jumping-off point for lifelong Christians (especially Catholics) who don’t feel like they have a lot of knowledge of the how’s and why’s behind why we believe what we believe. I’ve finally had a chance to put together a list of books that I found helpful when I was first asking the tough questions of Christianity. “So where do I start?” is a frequent response I get to that statement. It’s a shame because, in the opinion of this former atheist, by asking challenging questions and seeking answers Christians have absolutely nothing to fear, and everything to gain. To summarize what I said there, occasionally I meet Christians who seem hesitant to delve too deeply into their faith for fear of what they might find. Back in this post I was talking about how I strongly encourage Christians to ask the tough questions about their faith. ![]()
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