ECPA Christian Book Award 2021 Finalist: Biography & Memoir

Explore Apologetics through the Lives of History's Great Apologists

The History of Apologetics follows the great apologists in the history of the church to understand how they approached the task of apologetics in their own cultural and theological context. Each chapter looks at the life of a well-known apologist from history, unpacks their methodology, and details how they approached the task of defending the faith.

By better understanding how apologetics has been done, readers will be better able to grasp the contextualized nature of apologetics and apply those insights to today's context. The History of Apologetics covers forty-four apologists including:

Part One: Patristic Apologists



Justin Martyr by Gerald Bray
Irenaeus of Lyons by Stephen O. Presley
Athenagoras of Athens by W. Brian Shelton
Tertullian of Carthage by Bryan M. Litfin
Origen by A. Chadwick Thornhill
Athanasius of Alexandria by Jonathan Morgan
Augustine of Hippo by Chad Meister

Part Two: Medieval Apologists



John of Damascus by Daniel J. Janosik
Theodore Abu Qurrah by Byard Bennett
Timothy I of Baghdad by Edward L. Smither and Trevor Castor
Anselm of Canterbury by Edward N. Martin and Steven B. Cowan
Saint Thomas Aquinas by Francis J. Beckwith and Shawn Floyd
Ramon Lull by Greg Peters
Gregory Palamas by Byard Bennett

Part Three: Early Modern Apologists



Hugo Grotius by Bryan Baise
Blaise Pascal by Tyler Dalton McNabb and Michael R. DeVito
Jonathan Edwards by Michael McClymond
William Paley by Charles Taliaferro
Joseph Butler by David McNaughton

Part Four: 19th C. Apologists



Simon Greenleaf by Craig A. Parton
John Henry Newman by Corneliu C. Simut
Søren Kierkegaard by Sean A. Turchin and Christian Kettering
James Orr by Ronnie Campbell
B. B. Warfield by Kim Riddlebarger

Part Five: 20th C. American Apologists



J. Gresham Machen by D. G. Hart
Cornelius Van Til by K. Scott Oliphint
Gordon Haddon Clark by Robert A. Weathers
Francis A. Schaeffer by William Edgar
Edward John Carnell by Steven A. Hein

Part Six: 20th C. European Apologists



A. E. Taylor by Michael O. Obanla and David Baggett
G. K. Chesterton by Ralph Wood
Dorothy Sayers by Amy Orr-Ewing
C. S. Lewis by Alister McGrath
Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Matthew D. Kirkpatrick
Lesslie Newbigin by Krish Kandiah

Part Seven: Contemporary Apologists



John Warwick Montgomery by Craig A. Parton
Charles Taylor by Bruce Riley Ashford and Matthew Ng
Alvin Plantinga by James Beilby
Richard Swinburne by Greg Welty
William Lane Craig by R. Keith Loftin
Gary R. Habermas by W. David Beck and Benjamin C. F. Shaw
Alister E. McGrath by James K. Dew and Jordan Steffaniak
Timothy Keller by Joshua D. Chatraw