What's So Great About Christianity

D'Souza begins What's So Great About Christianityby suggesting many Western Christians live as postmodernists, distinguishing between religious and secular truth. This dualism offers no protection against vigorous attacks from atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, leaving them to make their claims without opposition. D'Souza says it's time to make a stand for traditional Christianity.

What's So Great About Christianity is his stand. Adapting the two-truth approach, he dismantles atheistic arguments and presents the case for Christianity, using everything from philosophy to astronomy and the Crusades. His most surprising arguments are scientific, as he attempts to show that Christianity is consistent with scientific fact, and that atheism is actually incompatible with science. He even claims that Darwinian evolution isactuallyevidence for the truth of Christianity.

Making no concessions to Christianity, atheism or skepticism, D'Souza writes reasonably and clearly, avoiding polemics (unlike many of his atheist opponents). Some of his claims will raise eyebrows, like his suggestion that the Inquisition wasn't all that bad; at other times he states the obvious, such as the fact that atheist regimes in the 20th century have perpetrated the worst crimes against humanity. Buthe'smostly lucid, presenting often overlooked evidence and taking nothing for granted.

Unfortunately, D'Souza never admits to having presuppositions, instead using atheist and anti-Christian logic to disprove atheism and prove Christianity. On the upside, he approaches Christianity globally, taking into account not just the West, but the life of the Church worldwide. Fairly unique among books of its kind, What's So Great About Christianity nevertheless falls into the common apologetic problem of trying to prove the truths of God with man's fallible reason as the starting place.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviewshere.