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Summary: Finally, a breath of reason.
Review: A friend of mine made me read "The Case for Christ" last year in an effort to convert me. Needless to say, it didn't work. The margins of my copy were full of questions and problems I saw in the evidence. In this book, Earl Doherty takes up most of the questions I had and the problems I saw. This book has been bashed by many other reviewers, and those that did so are probably Christians. I myself am a former Jew turned agnostic (who also holds a Ph.D in biology) and I enjoyed the book and agreed with it. If you have an open mind, and want to critically examine Christianity, then pick up this book. If not, don't bother, you don't get it.
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Summary: They never learn.
Review: Atheists will do anything to refute Christianity, which goes to show how desperate they are! You should get James Patrick Holding's article on this book. You'll find out that Doherty has not researched the Historic Jesus acurately.
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Summary: Ahhh, the fresh breeze of rationality
Review: It boils down to this: Are you interested in religion? the Christ myth? just curious? open-minded? rational? Do you question dogmas? Christian dogmas? the supernatural? If yes, then this book is for you, and this collection of Amazon.com reviews will tell you all you need to know to make the informed decision to buy it (and also his "Jesus Puzzle" while you're at it, saving shipping costs.) The 5* reviews give a fine synopsis of approach and content; I couldn't possibly improve on them. Reading the 1* reviews was, for me, a painful and almost nauseating experience; but don't skip them as the contrast between the two sets of reviews is very telling, saying a lot about the book, it's detractors, and the subject in general.... But I'm still buying this edition, maybe even several copies for handouts to wavering friends. The book is not only informative, making you exercise those little grey cells, but it's lots of fun too. And by the way, this book stands on it's own. Thanks to Mr. Doherty's recapitulations and presentation style, you don't have to waste your time with the Strobel tract to follow the argument. Mr. Doherty is such a good writer, and his scholarship runs such rings around that of his detractors, that they must be secretly green with envy. But you can see that for youself: you don't have to take someone else's word. And be sure to visit his website for some great rebuttals and all sorts of other really interesting stuff. And thank you, Mr. Doherty, for your persistence and clarity!
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Summary: Question: When is a trial not a trial?
Review: Answer: When the prosecuting attorney doesn't let any of the witnesses respond to his cross-examination. By that cute (but totally prejudiced) trick, Doherty may have won a few "converts" to skepticism in his abysmal challenge to Lee Strobel's best-selling The Case for Christ. Even if one didn't have the interest, time, or skill to carefully and objectively examine every main point made by Doherty, common sense and a few over-arching principles should give anyone concern that Doherty's case AGAINST Christ (Strobel and Strobel's expert witnesses' presentation of Christ)is less than honest. Compare the two books: Strobel's qualifications are clearly identified and the experts he "calls to the stand" in his defense of the historic Christian view of Christ are well qualified in their respective fields of academic achievement, whether it be history, literature, theology, etc. Doherty doesn't give any hint about any academic or legal proficiency on his part at all, and by and large the "expert" skeptics he calls to his side in disputing the Christian truth claims are either Jesus Seminar members, who are recognized by most even liberal scholars as far on the liberal fringe, or those like Robert Funk who once told me that his interpretation of Jesus as a first century cynic sage Jewish standup comedian was based on nothing more than his subjective "experience" of the New Testament. No kidding! I asked Funk, "If the New Testament text we have led you to discover this Jerry Seinfeld Jesus, what kind of text would there have to be for you to discover a Son of God, Resurrected Jesus Christ?" After my husband and I went back and forth asking the same question a couple of different ways until he finally got it, he responded, "The exact same text we have already." No kidding! "But," I pressed, "If the same text can give some readers a divine resurrected Christ and others a human rabbi comedian Christ, then you're saying either interpretation is completely subjective -- based only some 'inner experience' and not on any scientific, historic, linguistic, or rational investigation or standard." In so many words, he agreed. "After all," he concluded, "This isn't science. It's literature. It can mean all things to all people." Well, post-modern deconstructionism may have earned a few people Ph.Ds for novel ideas, but such "scholarship" based on mere subjective, blind faith can't come close to the historical, linguistic, and rational evidence Lee Strobel and his experts amass so compellingly in The Case for Christ. Let's see now -- how do I get a book to sell well on Amazon.com when I'm a nobody with an ax to grind and a subjective, untestable "faith" that Jesus never existed? I know! Find a best-selling book that I disagree with, and get all my buddies to write customer reviews criticizing it and recommending MY book! Never mind that I never check the published materials of the Christian book's experts, where they overwhelmingly answer my objections. Never mind that I never give Strobel or his experts the opportunity to answer. Never mind that I contradict myself from page to page, arguing first that Jesus never even existed and then that he did but was just a simple country bumpkin. Never mind that I argue first that we can have NO idea what the New Testament documents ACTUALLY said and then argue that somehow I KNOW they couldn't say what the Christian Bibles say. Never mind that I argue that Christian scholars can't POSSIBLY be objective about the evidence because they have a bias in believing Jesus is God, but I also argue that "my" scholars MUST be objective because they believe Jesus ISN'T God. And I can misrepresent the evidence, facts, history, scholars, language, and everything else, because it's MY BOOK! Only what I want gets in! This is too cool! Thanks, Doherty, whoever you are! I've gotta get off line right away and start my own book. I think I'll call it "The Defense Rests."
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Summary: Sad, Deluded Christians
Review: Clearly Earl Doherty has touched a raw nerve in Christians, who so obviously are threatened by the truth that their religion is nothing a but a chimera --a rehash of ancient mythology and superstition. In his first book, Mr. Doherty proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that a man named Jesus not only never existed, but(even if he did)would hardly have qualified as a god or savior. So the Christians attack with hysterical ad hominem arguments, because they cannot refute Mr. Doherty's scholarship and conclusions. How very sad.
Raed both books and take the blinders off!
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Summary: Doherty's courtroom setting completely fair
Review: I'm dumbfounded by critic's complaints of Doherty's presentation, calling it "unfair". Do you really expect ANY author to give "equal time" to an opposing viewpoint? Of course Doherty presents his viewpoints, what else do you expect? Strobel presents the Christian viewpoint, Doherty presents the counter viewpoint. What is "unfair" about that? Also note that one of the reasons Doherty chose the courtroom setting simply as a literary device so that he could work in the counter arguments to Strobel's experts while preserving and not misconstrue their positions. The people trying to contend that Doherty was "hog-tying" his witnesses are just reading too much into Doherty's literary device. And speaking of fairness, Doherty is actually MORE fair than Strobel. You see, Strobel pretends to play the part of the skeptic and introduces some counter-arguments. But the counter-arguments that Strobel raises are mere straw-men that he knows his experts will knock down. So Strobel's pretense of playing the critic is just pure deception. Doherty, on the other hand, accurately presents the Christian perspective - he quotes sufficiently from Strobel's book to accurately represent the Christian perspective. If anybody deserves the criticism of being "unfair" it is Strobel! Finally, people claim that had Doherty given Strobel's experts the chance to respond, they would have shredded Doherty. But Doherty HAS given Strobel's experts a chance to respond on his website, and they have not done so. Nobody has any real response to Doherty, they just slander him or ignore him.
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Summary: a young girl has her say
Review: Being only 17 years old, I don't expect to have all the answers in the universe. But I definetly think it worthwhile to at least try. I first read Lee Strobel's the Case for Christ, and decided I should read Earl Doherty's book challanging it. While the Case for Christ explained things in a clear, logical manner, Challanging the Verdict succeed only in confusing me, as well as coming across as harsh, accusing, and nit-picky. I encourage everyone to read both books, and take neither as the gospel truth. I guess the book that I would love to read next would be one where Lee Strobel interviewed experts from the opposite end of the spectrum.
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Summary: Okay, let me get this straight....
Review: Let me see if I've got this right. This "scholar," who puts forth no academic credentials in this book by a publisher I can't seem to locate, and whose credibility has already been lost due to his fringe position that Jesus never even was born, now "cross-examines" Christian scholars but does not even give them a chance to answer his questions or correct his misstatements and mischaracterizations. His historically dubious challenges in reality were only posed to these professors in his own vivid imagination and not in a single instance were they raised in an actual conversation in which the challenged individual was able to offer any kind of a response. That's supposed to be a valid exploration of these issues -- to taunt scholars with your inflated allegations but gag their mouths so they cannot set the record straight? This is supposed to be a credible book that for the first time in 2,000 years has been able to dismantle Christianity? Uh, I don't think so. Instead of denting Lee Stroble's book "A Case for Christ," this challenge falls flat -- deflated by its lack of credibility and its refusal to even open itself to other (and more reasonable) viewpoints. All it succeeds in doing is winning the enthusiastic support of others who need some reason -- ANY reason, no matter how poorly supported -- to maintain their conclusion that Jesus was a mere myth who somehow has hoodwinked millions of people for two millennia. I found this book incredibly frustrating to read because at the end, you have nothing but random attacks on the historical record and you lack the responses of those who are in the best position to give the other side. Something is not true because a person says it and doesn't allow the other side to be expressed. At least in Stroble's book he challenges scholars with objections of skeptics and then let the reader decide whether their answers were sufficient. Personally, instead of this book I'd rather read legitimate debates between two opposing scholars, many of which have been conducted and published (see ones by William Lane Craig, for example, the scholar with two doctorates who this author "questions" but never allows to respond). This book isn't scholarship; in fact, it isn't even fair.
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Summary: I've read Strobel and Doherty - Doherty is better
Review: I've read and reviewed here Strobel's books. (See more about me.) Okay, much has been said about Doherty's style of using a courtroom setting. Yes, I understand it is a literary device. And yes, I know, he's poking some fun at Strobel's self-portrail of being a "tough, investigative reporter". Okay, I understand it, but I still don't care for it. But while I don't care for the style, what is more important, to me anyway, is the material. And the material is good. Since I'm very poor at history, there is much here that I can't really honestly say whether Strobel's version or Doherty's is more accurate. I wish I could, but I can't. But when Doherty is able to demonstrate logic errors and circular reasoning in Strobel's work that I didn't catch myself when reading it, that to me lends credence to his work. One good example of this is where Doherty points out that Dr. Craig used the Gospel of Matthew's account of the guards at the tomb as an alternate-source verification of, well, Matthew's account of the guards at the tomb! Another interesting point that Doherty makes is in the discussion of the medical evidence. In Strobel, Dr. Metherell portrays crucifixion being a form of torture to which even breathing is difficult due to the way the victim is hung. And yet the gospels portray Jesus as carrying on conversations, including with the bandits that were also being crucified. And Doherty also points out how the scene gets embellished from one gospel to the next. There's a lot more than these couple of items I've pointed out. Get the book. If you read the other reviews of the book, you'll find that the negative reviews usually call Doherty "outlandish" or some such, but few seem to have any actual evidence to dispute him. The negative reviews also harp on Doherty's belief that Jesus may not have existed at all. Though Doherty does discuss this opinion of his, it is not central to this work. I'm not sure I buy that theory myself. But even if Doherty is all wet on that theory, it is not significant to this work. Finally, the negative reviews also condemn the literary style, which as I said, I agree with the criticism to some extent. But ignoring the style, there is a lot of good stuff here. Don't let the positive or negative opinions here sway you, read the book and make up your own mind.
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Summary: The overall picture . . .
Review: Wow, after reading the editorial review and the many different reviews of this book, I am deeply saddened by what is going on here. It is so easy for scholars to pick apart the works of others. It would not matter if Lee Strobel interviewed God in person, someone like Earl Doherty would come along and convince many that it was all a lie. The overall picture is this: if you don't want to accept the gift of salvation offered by God through Jesus, then you will find any excuse available to deny it. However, don't use Doherty or anyone else's theories to keep you away from Jesus. If you TRULY seek to know God, He will reveal Himself to you - that's His promise to all of us.
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