My Apologetics Dinner Party

Faith Conversations for a Modern World

Have you ever wanted to look over the shoulder of an expert apologist as he has conversations about faith?

Louis Markos, acclaimed author of From Plato to Christ and Passing the Torch, gives you a seat at his table for an international potluck dinner held in his home, where guests from many faith traditions and walks of life engage in spirited discussion about faith, miracles, and the meaning of life.

My Apologetics Dinner Party presents a method of talking about Christian faith that is not based primarily on propositional logic or the defense of truth claims (though these features do show up). Instead, he aims to clarify what Christians actually believe through a winsome and engrossing narrative in the tradition of Socratic dialogue. The conversations in this book are rooted in real-life interactions Professor Markos has had with skeptics, seekers, and adherents of other faiths throughout a lifetime as a professional apologist for Christianity.

In My Apologetics Dinner Party, you will



- get a unique opportunity to look over the shoulder of an expert apologist in action.

- observe a laid-back, conversational approach to evangelism built upon hospitality and designed for life in a modern, pluralistic society.

- see an example of how to engage in conversational apologetics among people of diverse cultural, educational, and religious backgrounds.

- hear dialogues, rather than debates, as creative narrative in the Socratic tradition.

You'll be entertained as well as enlightened as you're taken up in the banter, humor, and atmosphere of lively dinner conversation—only to find at the end that some of your deepest questions have been addressed. If you are looking for a book that will show you how to discuss your faith in a real-life setting with friends who have deep questions to ask but don't want to hear a sermon, or a book you could give to curious seekers to read on their own, you'll find it in My Apologetics Dinner Party.



Louis Markos (PhD, University of Michigan) is professor of English and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University, where he holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His many books include From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics, From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith, The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes, Apologetics for the 21st Century, Atheism on Trial, From Aristotle to Christ, and On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis.

Introduction: Setting the Table
First Course: Pre-Dinner in the Den


1. Are Miracles Possible?


2. Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?


3. Are the Gospels Historical?
Second Course: Dinner Is Served


4. Did the Resurrection Really Happen?


5. What Is the Real Problem with Man?


6. Why Are Christians so Obsessed with Sex?
Third Course: Dessert by Candlelight


7. Why Would a Just God Choose a Single Nation?


8. How Can there be Only One Way to God?


9. What About the People Who Lived Before Christ?


10. What About New-Age Spirituality?
Fourth Course: After Dinner by the Fire


11. Is God Really Involved in the World?


12. Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?


13. How Has God Worked in Your Life?


A Note to the Reader


Why Everyone Is So Polite in This Book


Further Reading

"This is a dinner party to savor and remember. Through a multi-course Socratic dialogue with Christians, skeptics, and adherents of other faiths, Louis Markos presents the gospel in a way that is faithful yet fresh and accessible for the twenty-first century."



"A tough challenge faced by all Christians is how to explain and defend their convictions—how to transform their knowledge about God into conversations with real people. They need models. That's what Louis Markos gives us in this book—a wealth of models based on real conversations with people from many different countries and walks of life. Read it to hone your skills of communication with the people in your life."



"The delivery of Christian apologetics is happily moving from philosophical texts to conversational encounters. Cafés, podcasts, radio programs, and informal centers are proving to be safe places for hearing the gospel. Louis Markos' Thanksgiving potluck is Exhibit A for this kind of encounter. Although the Christian 'wins,' the skeptic represented in these dialogues comes across as an authentic person. These questions and answers are tried and true. The setting, however, is relatively original. If this is the future for apologetics dialogues, the future is bright."



"My Apologetics Dinner Party serves us two things even more delicious than the dinner: an extended Socratic dialogue and a popular but persuasive apologetic for the crucial and controversial claims of Mere Christianity à la C. S. Lewis. Rarely has profundity been so clear and so much fun." weniger anzeigen expand_less