Methodology

Advanced

• Kenneth Boa, et al. Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith (2006).

• Cowan & Gundry (eds.). Five Views on Apologetics (2000).

• Brian Morley. Mapping Apologetics: Comparing Contemporary Approaches (2015).
  
  

History of Apologetics

Intermediate

• Edgar & Oliphint, et al. Christian Apologetics Past and Present, 2 vols.: A Primary Source Reader (2011).

• Chatraw & Forrest (eds.). The History of Apologetics: A Biographical and Methodological Introduction (2020).

• Norman L. Geisler. The Big Book of Christian Apologetics: An A to Z Guide (2012).
  
  

Survey of Positions

Fideism, Presuppositionalism (Van Til, Frame, Bahnsen, Oliphint, Clark, Keller), Reformed Epistemology (Alvin Plantinga, Wolterstorff, Willaims ALston, Kelly James Clark), Experientalism, Pragmatism, Veridicalism, Cumulative Case (Francis Schaeffer, Nancy Pearcey, Carnell, Gordon Lewis), Classical (Moreland, Geisler, Craig, Sproul, Lewis, Swinburne, Groothuis, Mathison, Peter Kreeft, Beckwith), Evidentialism (McDowell, Habermas), Rationalism. [There are figures missing from this list, and arguments against the classification system, but it's a start that I will refine over time]

Presuppositional Apologetics

Intro

• Richard Pratt, Every Thought Captive 

• Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready 

• John Frame, Apologetics 

• Douglas Wilson, Persuasions: A Dream of Reason Meeting Unbelief
  
  

Intermediate

• Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics

• Tim Keller, Reason for God [inconsistent presupp. but still a good book all around]

• Tim Keller, Making Sense of God  [better but still suffers from mixed methodology]
  
  

Advanced

• Greg Bahnsen. Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings & Analysis (1998).

• John Frame. Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought (1995); Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief (2015).

• Greg Bahnsen, Pushing the Antithesis 

• Greg Bahnsen, The Apologetic Implications of Self-Deception

• Cornelius VanTil, The Defense of the Faith 

• Schissler (ed.), The Standard Bearer: The Standard Bearer: A Festschrift for Greg L. Bahnsen. (see Butler on Transcendental Arguments)

• Gordon Clark, God’s Hammer

• Gordon Clark, Religion, Reason and Revelation
  
  

Presupp. Lay of the Land

Cornelius Van Til: are you prepared to parse German idealism? I actually don't mind his idealism. I think there is more to it than people give him credit for. I also think he is a far more interesting theologian and churchman than actual philosopher. Further, it seems to me he never consciously drew elsewhere in the Reformed tradition for his apologetic methodology, aside from some passages in Calvin. For example, you will find more of Kant than you will of Turretin in Van Til.
Greg Bahnsen: You need to have his big reader on Van til. He does a good job walking you through the tall grass. I think he better than anyone else shows why atomism falls because of no unifying principle and why realism falls because all is absorbed into the One. My only quibble is that no one on the streets holds to those positions in such a pure manner.
John Frame: I know, I know. Still, his book on Van Til covers aspects of Van Til's thought that Bahnsen's doesn't. It is required reading if you want to know Van Til.
Vern Poythress: Great job in applying presup to other disciplines.
K. Scott Oliphint: I liked his early stuff. He got in trouble on the doctrine of God.
James Anderson: Probably he and Welty are the hardest hitters today.
Sye Ten Bruggencate: "oh yeah, how do you know that?" "oh yeah, how do you know that?" "oh yeah, how do you know that?"
Douglas Wilson: Say what you will, but he has both good wit and deductive reasoning.
Jason Lisle: Today's Bahnsen?

Classical Apologetics

Classical apologetics takes a two-step approach to commending the Christian picture of reality—first establishing arguments for the existence of God and then defending key items of Christian revelation, including: The reliability of the Bible, identity of the historical Jesus, & the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Intro 

• R. C. Sproul. Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics (2018). [best classical intro]

• Norman Geisler. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (2004).

• R. C. Sproul. Classical Apologetics (1984). [critique of presupp]

• Douglas Groothuis. The Knowledge of God in the World and the Word: An Introduction to Classical Apologetics (2022).
  
  

Intermediate

• Douglas Groothuis. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (2022). [probably my favorite textbook]

• J. P. Moreland. Scaling the Secular City (1987).

• Edward Feser. Five Arguments for the Existence of God (2017). 

• C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity (1952); Miracles (1960). [When explaining Christianity to Christians, he was an evidentialist/classicist. When defending Christianity against pagans, he was a radical presuppositionalist].

• Norman Geisler. Christian Apologetics (1976); The Big Book of Apologetics (2012).

• William Lane Craig. Reasonable Faith (1994). [I very often demur at Craig's positions].
  
  

Advanced

• J. V. Fesko. Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith (2019). 

• David Haines (ed.). Without Excuse: Scripture, Reason, and Presuppositional Apologetics (2020). [modern critique of presupp.]

Cumulative Case

• Francis Schaeffer. The God Who Is There (1968); Escape From Reason (1968); He Is There and He Is Not Silent (1972); How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976).

• Nancy Pearcey. Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning (2010); Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes (2015); Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (2008); The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy (1994).
  
  

Reformed Epistemology

Plantinga is drawing upon Reid, who drew from Turretin (especially on free will).

Intermediate

• James F. Sennett. The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader (1998).
  
  

Advanced

• Alvin Plantinga, Warrant and Proper Function (1993); Warranted Christian Belief (2000); Warrant and the Current Debate (1993); Knowledge and Christian Belief (2015); Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (2011); God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God (1990).

• Kelly James Clark. Return to Reason: A Critique of Enlightenment Evidentialism and a Defense of Reason and Belief in God (1990).
  
  

Evidentialism

Intro 

• Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World (2017).

• Michael Licona

• Gary Habermas

Natural Theology

Intermediate

• David Haines. Richard Hooker on Natural Theology and Scripture (2024).

• David Haines. Natural Theology: A Biblical and Historical Introduction and Defense (2024); Without Excuse: Scripture, Reason, and Presuppositional Apologetics (2020).

• Stephen Grabill. Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics (2006).

• Michael Sudduth. The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology (2009).

• James K. Dew Jr. Natural Theology: Five Views (2024).

• Mannin, et. a;. The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology (2013).

• Criag & Moreland. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (2009).