The Shelf
These are the books and online sources to start with if you’re asking whether Christianity is true, or if someone you love is. They’re sorted by who’s reading, and each note says who the book is for.
If someone you love is asking
The apostle Peter told the first Christians to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”1 The books for parents and teens below were picked with that in mind.
Start here
Can We Trust the Gospels?
A short book (160 pages) on what non-Christian writers said about Jesus, how well the Gospels fit their time and place, whether the text has changed, and the apparent contradictions. Written for anyone from a skeptic to a scholar.
The Case for Christ
A former legal editor at the Chicago Tribune retraces his path from atheism by interviewing scholars about the New Testament’s reliability, evidence for Jesus outside the Bible, and the resurrection. This is the updated and expanded edition; the book first came out in 1998.
Cold-Case Christianity
A homicide detective who was an atheist applies the rules of evidence he used on cold cases to the Gospels. The 2023 edition is updated and expanded; the first edition came out in 2013.
For teens and kids
The Case for Christ, Student Edition
A shorter version of The Case for Christ for teenagers, covering the Bible’s reliability, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.
Cold-Case Christianity for Kids
Kids investigate the case for Jesus alongside a real detective. It follows the adult book chapter by chapter, so a parent and child can read them side by side.
The Case for Christ for Kids
A children’s version of The Case for Christ. This is the updated and expanded edition; the first came out in 2006.
For parents
Talking with Your Kids about Jesus
Thirty conversations on what skeptics say about who Jesus was, his death, and his resurrection, each with a guide for talking it through with your child.
Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side
Forty short answers to common challenges to Christianity, such as whether Jesus existed, written so parents can have age-appropriate conversations at home.
Going deeper
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
Lays out the evidence for the resurrection using the “minimal facts” approach: facts that most scholars accept, including skeptical ones. It answers the alternative theories and shows how to present the case to others.
Evidence That Demands a Verdict
A large reference book (880 pages) on whether the Bible can be trusted, fully updated in 2017. The first edition came out in 1972. Best used to look things up.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
An academic case that the Gospels rest closely on the testimony of people who knew Jesus. The second edition adds three chapters answering critics.
The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
One volume (816 pages) on the main objections to the New Testament’s history: how the Gospels were written, how the text was copied, the canon, apparent contradictions, and miracles.
The Resurrection of the Son of God
A long scholarly study of what ancient pagans and Jews believed about life after death, and of the empty tomb and the appearances as history.
Canon Revisited
How the New Testament books came to be recognized as Scripture, looking past councils and creeds to what the books themselves show. Kruger’s shorter The Question of Canon (IVP Academic, 2013) covers similar ground.
Bigger questions
The Reason for God
Takes the doubts skeptics, and believers too, raise most often, and argues that Christian belief is reasonable. Broader than the evidence for the Bible, for someone whose questions are about more than history.
Confronting Christianity
Twelve hard questions people ask about Christianity, including suffering, sexuality, science, slavery, and hell.
Mere Christianity
Lewis’s case for the Christian faith, revised and expanded from three earlier books of his talks, beginning with Broadcast Talks.
Know the other side
These are by a scholar who doesn’t share the site’s beliefs. They’re here because you’ll meet his arguments, and because he states them well.
Did Jesus Exist?
An agnostic historian argues, against people who say Jesus never existed, that the historical evidence shows he did. Useful because it comes from a skeptic.
Misquoting Jesus
Ehrman’s account of the mistakes and changes scribes made while copying the New Testament, and his argument that some of them matter. Has the Bible been changed over time? responds to this question.
Read the ancient sources yourself
- Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library: high-resolution images of the scroll fragments, including the oldest known copies of biblical texts, free online.
- Codex Sinaiticus: a whole 4th-century Greek Bible, reunited online from the libraries that hold its pieces.
- Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: photographs of Greek New Testament manuscripts.
- Tacitus, Annals 15.44: the Roman historian’s report on Christus and the Christians, in English, at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library: the early church fathers in English.
- ESV.org: the English Standard Version, free to read.