Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a novel, but proves like an Apologetical textbook
Review: I must say that I did not have much intention to buy this book in the first place, but my friend gave it to me for free.Lee Strobel covers his personal quest to uncover Truth, turning from Atheist, to Agnostic, and eventually Christian. I have heard many bad reviews from this book saying that he goes on and on about description, and never gets to the point he wants to make. I agree in one sense that this is true, but the reason I find this fascinating is that the book is not a book to read necessarily just for Apologetics, but a narrative and testimony about the conversion of a man who was caught up in the secular world. Strobel hits on all the evidences, and while so much of it is meant more for the new or doubting Believer, I found myself asking "well, what about this?" after a question is answered. The great part is that he answers it right after that. I picked up this book one day in my dorm room and just started reading. I don't remember putting it down for anything but eat, sleep and going to the bathroom. It reads like a novel, but proves like a scholarly Apologetics textbook. I was disappointed that the content didn't satisfy more complicated questions, but this book is meant more for the beginning Christian. This is a must for any Youth Pastor or any ministry that is using Apologetics to bring unbelievers to confess the name of the Lord. No matter what you get this book for, may it help you grow closer in your walk with Christ, and God bless!
Rating: 
Summary: Good starting place for the devlopment of an apologetic.
Review: I happened to hear Lee Strobel preach and was very interested in obtaining his book, THE CASE FOR CHRIST. This book had a profound effect on me. The chapter on the crucifixion is one of the most powerful and detailed accounts of how Jesus was executed. The conclusion of why Jesus took such a horrible torture upon Himself, that it was for love, was enough to make me put the book down and drop to my knees. This book is not exactly neutral in approach. The scholars interviewed are Christian and obviously have a faith that goes beyond the material facts. Yet the facts outlined can be checked out by the curious reader, and the view on the facts turn out to be remarkably objective. This certainly lends credibility to the interview subjects' perspective. There are also a lot of good references listed at the end of each chapter that lend themselves to further study. This is a good book to start with if the reader is looking to discover Christ. If the reader is already a Christian, this book will guide him or her in building a foundation for an apologetic. The scholars are solid, and the book is full of footnotes and reference material. It is not the be all and end all of who Christ is or apologetics, but it provides a very good start to the curious reader.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE
Review: This book is what I said it is. Anyone who has a clear and outright objection to one of the claims in this book and can answer it in the fullest write it in a review.Plus unless your a scholar I doubt you would like to go head to head with one of these guys.
Rating:
Summary: Case for Christ settled my courts
Review: This was one of the most amazing pieces of Christian literature that I have ever read. It reminded me of the book by Josh McDowell, "More Than a Carpenter" only with a more scholarly twist. While living in a world where skepticism is the law, this book was able to settle some of the largest claims against the validity of Christianity. If you have any doubt in your mind about the potential existence of Christ, this is a must read. Mr. Strobel interviews scholars, some of the most intelligent men in the field, and is straight and honest in asking some of the most brutal arguments against Christianity. Furthermore, being a religious scholar myself, this information is accurate as presented. Just to validate any questions that might arise in thinking that the book was written at a slanted angle. It meets all of the criteria of unbiased literature, and will make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Great demonstration of historical foundation for NT
Review: Lee Strobel does an excellent job explaining the historical foundation for the NT. He starts off by asking the reader to analyze the data, and see what explanation best suites the information given. He then moves on to give the data needed to make a well-informed explanation. He starts by analyzing the NT writer's objectivity. By asking well-qualified professionals, he addresses several pertinent questions necessary to make a valued judgment. He addresses questions that deal with, 1. Analyzing their character
2. The way their accounts match up to outer historical evidence
3. Whether they decided to only write what would further promote their beliefs
4. If we should trust the books even though time has passed since the events happened and when they were written
5. If they could have plagiarized what they wrote from a common source
6. If the copies of the originals can be trusted Lee Strobel asks all these questions and more. He then moves to analyzing the character of Jesus. He answers questions like, was Jesus convinced he was God, could he have been crazy, and did Jesus fulfill the attributes of the OT prophesized God. Strobel finishes his investigation with a penetrating analysis of the resurrection. He directly investigates if the resurrection could have been a hoax, if it was possible for Jesus to have survived the ordeal, was the tomb really empty, and what do all the undeniable facts point to. When all is said and done, Strobel's analysis presents strong evidence that the NT books are the most reliable in history, the resurrection did occur, and answers many objections along the way. He does this by establishing facts that are un-contested by scholars, and showing how with just these, the evidence unquestionably points to the resurrection actually happening, and the NT's historical superiority. Other positives that added to the books value are Strobel's great answer's to issues like, why don't we accept other prophets of Jesus time, Jesus Seminar, Gospel of Thomas, whether the City of Nazareth existed, whether killing all first born children could have happened, Jesus and slavery, and comparing the historical accounts to that of Mormonism. Strobel also has a great writing style and starts each new chapter with a law problem, that he encountered, that shows the necessity to examine the historicity of the NT from that angle, and then describes the person and the credentials of the one addressing that particular question. The book also comes with a good Summary and Index at the end. However, there are some reservations I feel I should mention. First being, Strobel should have balanced the book more. He should have let the opposing side have more of their say. Especially if he is so confident in the historicity of the NT. A second point, the book did not address whether all books of the NT are as historically accurate as others. For example, it didn't address problems that some people have with Revelation, with Hebrews and other such books. It also concentrated too much on the historical proof that the resurrection did happen and not enough on the historicity of the NT as a whole. There is also nothing mentioned about the supposed miracles the apostles did. Which is needed to elevate the books they wrote from just history to infallible. I also would have liked Strobel to spend more time on the supposed "obvious" predictions of Jesus in the OT. I feel this chapter was the weakest out of all of them and was more of an "appeal to authority" argumentation than anything else. However, with the above in mind, Strobel does an excellent job of demonstrating that the most, and only, reasonable historical conclusion one can make about the resurrection of Jesus and the historicity of some of the NT books is that Jesus did rise from the dead and the NT is, by far, the most historically reliable book we have.
Rating:
Summary: A Rational and Interrogated Faith
Review: First off, let me lat my cards on the table: I am not Protestant, but a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I am not biased to give a gushy, lovey-dovey review of the book. However, despite my denominational differences, I found this book quite a pleasant read.
Each generation or so has a champion that articulates truth, and I think Lee Strobel has become one for Christians everywhere. He pulled a Malcolm Muggeridge, namely he started to investigate Christianity and was later converted to that which he was investigating. C. S. Lewis, himself a recovering atheist, once said, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere--'Bibles laid open,
millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and sratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." (Surprised by Joy, Chapter 12) Strobel tackles fourteen ferocious questions dealing with the veracity and divinity of Jesus as the Christ. These fourteen questions fall into three broad categories: I--Examining the Record, to wit the Bible; II--Analyzing Jesus, or the corpus delicti; III--Researching the Resurrection. For each of the fourteen questions, Strobel interviewed a scholar with expertise in the specific area. Strobel interrogated the scholars with the type of hardball (but not vacuous doubting)
questions you would expect a tough Chicago Tribune reporter to ask. Despite what Gov. Jesse Ventura thinks, there are strong-minded answers to these sharp and prickly questions. Open-mindedness is a sword that cuts both ways--there is such a thing as BLIND DOUBT that is an opposite to BLIND FAITH. What impressed me the most was that many of the theologians had a hard science background. Drs. Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking, contrawise, do not have any theological or religious
degrees. Mr. Strobel has flawless prose, and you can see past the ink and type and see clearly his ideas and the ideas of his interviewees. The book is logical, ordered, orderly, and absolutely unmuddled. This is a serious book for the serious skeptic and the person who just wonders. ONE PERSONAL INDULGENCE: In Chapter 5, John McRay, Ph.D., made a comment about my denomination, specifically that the Book of Mormon has no archeological evidence to support it. This is sheer and utter nonsense. For example, Immanuel Tov, Dead Sea Scroll Czar, pointed out in a colloquium that the famous Copper Scroll is similar to the gold plates that the Book of Mormon was written on. Secondarily, the Book of Mormon mentions a place on the Arabian peninsula called "Nahom,' and a place called "Nahem" was found in Arabia. You do the math. Moreover, there are other evidences beside archeology to support the Book of Mormon, as there are other evidences besides archeology to support Christianity. See Hugh W. Nibley's "Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaradites" for a primer on the evidence and data.
Rating:
Summary: The True Jesus
Review: Having read The Case For Christ several times now, I strongly recommend this book for both the non-Christian and Christian alike. This book is constructed by the research and testimonies of leading scholars throughout the United States and attempts to establish the "Jesus of Faith" as the true historical Jesus that walked on the earth two thousand years ago. The Case For Christ is very well-written and original in its form. Former journalist Lee Strobel records his interviews in a very conversational way, asking common questions and raising doubts to be tackled by these scholars. For the Christian, this book will undoubtedly strengthen his or her faith, building up an intellectual foundation for "why we believe in Jesus." For the non-Christian, I encourage that this book be read with an open-mind, grounded in an honest desire for the truth of who this Jesus was-and what, if anything, makes him so special. I have heard the objection that this book is biased because the only scholars that were interviewed were conservative Christian scholars. No liberal or secular scholars were interviewed. I believe this is a legimate point, but I also think that Lee Strobel's purpose for this book was to present a defense of the Christ of the historic Christian faith. In other words the question is "How do these Christian scholars answer the common objections to the historical Christian faith?" For a more in-depth and balanced study on this subject, the books "Will the Real Jesus, Please Stand Up?" and "Jesus Resurrecion: Fact or Figment?" present well-balanced essays from both sides. Overall, The Case For Christ was an easy-read and is a very good general historical apologetics book. It is both scholarly and readable at the same time, providing an introduction to the most relevant issues surrounding the life of Jesus. Pick it up! It might change your life!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: Compact yet extremly resourceful. Strobel's journalistic back ground and skills are aptly put to use. Very easy to read and follow even for people who are not Chirstian Apologist.
The evidence is clear and concise, mined from people who with extensive academic credentials that are all verifiable. A main criticism is that Strobel does not interview Critics of Christianity. Those people are missing the point and purpose of Strobel's book. The author is not trying to do a complete and exhaustive study, interviewing every single angle. He is recounting his own spiritual journey and the evidence that convinced him. For those who crave more evidence, they leave this book with a thirst for more knowledge and an idea where to start from. I would highly recomend this book for any non-christian who wants to read a well written apologetic stance of orthodox christianity without the drudgery of theological treatises. It also good for a lay person with a desire to know more about the firm historical basis that their faith is based on.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but DRY
Review: If you can trudge through all this info, its great. Its just really a tough read i found. There's a lot of other great apologetic books out there that are a faster read.
Rating:
Summary: Not afraid to ask difficult questions. A must-read.
Review: I have been wanting to expand my understanding of Christian apologetics for many years by reading Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Thumbing through the book in bookstores showed it to be in a rather dry outline form that discouraged me from actually following through. I was introduced to Lee Strobel a couple years ago when a pastor at my church was teaching my Bible study class from Strobel's God's Outrageous Claims. I recently discovered that Strobel wrote a book investigating the claims of Christianity and was eager to read it. That book is The Case for Christ. It proved to be more readable than Evidence, but still convicingly makes the case for Christ. Strobel, a lawyer and journalist, who covered the topsy-turvy world of Chicago crime, applied his training to verify or discount the claims of Christianity. An admitted atheist, he took up this task after his wife accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. He studied all of the information he could find from both supporters and detractors of Christianity and then set out on a several year voyage of research and interviews with experts in various fields. The Case for Christ is a history of this voyage. Strobel applies the various legal evidences that would be required for a conviction in the courts: eyewitness accounts, documents, corroboration, science, rebuttals, psychology, profiles, "fingerprints," medical evidences and circumstantial evidence. There are 14 chapters in all, and in each, he examines a different type of evidence and interviews an acknowledged expert in the field, travelling all over the US to do so. Each chapter addresses a question such as: Do historical accounts outside of the Bible confirm the life of Jesus? Were the eyewitnesses reliable? Was there credible evidence of the empty tomb? Could Jesus have survived the flogging and crucifixion? The list goes on an on, and I can't imagine that it leaves many stones unturned for someone verifying the claims of the church. All in all, he verifies the claims of Christianity most convincingly, and does so in a very academic manner. Even though this book is fairly easy to read, it is appropriately referenced. These can be very complex subjects, and about the only complaint that might be levied on this book is that it does not go deep enough. To do so would require volumes, though, and Strobel gives references for someone wanting to investigate further. I was trying to complete another book when I picked this one up. A mistake. I had trouble putting it back down. I certainly recommend this book to all Christians. It is not afraid to ask difficult questions, and is a welcome change from the fluffy, feel-good books that flood Christian book stores. Although this is information with which every Christian should be familiar, I also recommend the book for anyone investigating the claims of Christianity. We all probably suspect the end: Strobel, facing the undeniable mountain of evidence, accepts Christ himself, concluding, "it would require much more faith for me to maintain my atheism that to trust in Jesus of Nazareth!"
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