Rating: 
Summary: Good for some, not for others
Review: Prof. Kreeft's book is a book on Christian apologetics, that is, a defense of the Christian faith. It answers a lot of questions that critics have about God, Jesus, miracles, hell, etc. The book also lists objections that critics raise and then continues to refute the heck out of those objections. When you read the book, it sounds like your reading St. Thomas.
This is an excellent book for the classical theist but irrelevant for those who no longer stand within that tradition. One wonders how Kreeft and Tacelli would respond once an alternative model of God is put into the world. To be sure, we wouldn't get most of the "answers" in this book.
Still, the book has an audience, as the sales report on Amazon well shows. So, if you're a classical theist, and are sold on the worldview of Fundamentalism or conservative evangelicalism, buy this book. But if you're looking for more persuasive theologies, keep searching--they're out there.
Rating: 
Summary: good book
Review: A very good, philosophical reflection on the Christian faith. Could go more in depth in some areas.
Rating: 
Summary: The best apoligets book I've read
Review: When I first purchased this book, I was a 20 year old college student looking for an easy, but in-depth read. This book was that.
To start, the book is huge. I hate seeing these books that claim to answer all these questions, and then find it has about 100 pages.
The H.o.C.A. does a great job of explaining each arguement to the point where they even include common objections to the answers, and THEN answering those objections.
This book is so detailed I took about half a year to carefully highlight and take notes.
To those who dismiss a lot of the authors' explinations to questions, read it again, and this time stop and think about it. People so often want clear cut answers that they never stop and think. In reading this book, I often found myself taking a day to reflect and think on one or two points in this book.
Besides content, this book is carefully and wonderfully laid out. I love how the table of contents is laid out in order that the reader can jump straight to the meat of an argument without having to read through 4 or 5 pages of random explinations to pointless arguments.
To those thinking about buying this book, remember. Christianity is so simple that people often dismiss it for it's simplicity. This book is the same way. Many people will speed read through it, toss out a handfull of big words on why this book didn't answer their questions, and walk away. The reason their questions are not answered is not their intellegence, but rather their lack of patience. Buy this book. Take your time. Reflect and discuss what you read.
I can guarantee if you do you'll love this book. It broke down walls I had built between God and myself that existed for over six years. This book is worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Very Nice Introduction to Apologetics
Review: Handbook of Christian Apologetics accomplishes exactly what its authors intend, as stated in the introduction. Most particulary striking is the insistence by the authors of "Restoring the Older Notion of Reason." The entire volume reads more like a Philosophy 101 text than a self-help guide for would-be evangelistas, and certainly leads me to hope that it's being used as a textbook in at least some of the nation's Christian colleges & universities (my alma mater is probably burning it as "anti-ecumenical and counter to post-Christian Christianity", if they have had time to look up from their Call-to-action newsletter).The consistently syllogistic approach that the authors take is the great benefit of the work. I am not aware of any instance in which they stooped to polemic or let eloquence and passion overcome the larger effort. Of particular worth, outside the scope of apologetics but invaluable nonetheless, is the chapter on Objective Truth (15). The authors do a great service by summarizing the fundamental differences between Eastern & Western thought with regard to objectivity and subjectivity. The resultant conclusions (not always drawn) are very instructive when one seeks to understand the moral relativism and cultural relativist dynamics at play in the United States. In any case, this is an invaluable reference to jumpstart an understanding of typical apologetic arguments, and makes a darn good read from page one, if you prefer to do it that way.
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