The best book on Christian Apologetics has yet to be written. “Orthodoxy” by GK Chesterton holds the number 2 position. Followed by Chesterton’s “The Everlasting Man” and CS Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”. Rounding out the top five is Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain”. Other excellent titles include the great books by Peter Kreeft, Scott Hahn, Cardinal Newman, Josh Mcdowell, etc. etc. Of course, this is just my opinion. You may write your’s in the comments section; or on your own blog.

The best book on Christian Apologetics has never been written, because the best books on Christian Apologetics would be a Scratch-and-Sniff book. It would be full of flavors, aromas, textures, pictures, cartoons, pyrotechnics, cuddle-fish, crocodiles, elves, oak trees, blades of grass, stars, microphones, internal combustion engines, elk, dogs, cats, clouds, angels, and the like.

Actually, Orthodoxy IS the best book on Christian Apologetics, because the more I think about the other, it seems less and less like a book at all. Systematic arguments and Biblical exegesis can only get someone so far. People’s eyes and ears and imaginations are the real tools of the trade.  Which is why Orthodoxy IS Number One on the list. It’s not an Apologetics book either. Orthodoxy is a sweeping philosophy of the world and the most sane way to view it. So, Orthodoxy isn’t really a book, either.

Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy,

 “When once one believes in a creed, one is proud of its complexity, as scientists are proud of the complexity of science. It shows how rich it is in discoveries. If it is right at all, it is a compliment to say that it’s elaborately right. A stick might fit a hole or a stone a hollow by accident. But a key and a lock are both complex. And if a key fits a lock, you know it is the right key. 

But this involved accuracy of the thing makes it very difficult to do what I now have to do, to describe this accumulation of truth.It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced. It is comparatively easy when he is only partially convinced. He is partially convinced because he has found this or that proof of the thing, and he can expound it. But a man is not really convinced of a philosophic theory when he finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced when he finds that everything proves it. And the more converging reasons he finds pointing to this conviction, the more bewildered he is if asked suddenly to sum them up. Thus, if one asked an ordinary intelligent man, on the spur of the moment, “Why do you prefer civilization to savagery?” he would look wildly round at object after object, and would only be able to answer vaguely, “Why, there is that bookcase . . . and the coals in the coal-scuttle . . . and pianos . . . and policemen.” The whole case for civilization is that the case for it is complex. It has done so many things. But that very multiplicity of proof which ought to make reply overwhelming makes reply impossible. 

There is, therefore, about all complete conviction a kind of huge helplessness.”

The ever-humble giant failed to note, though, that Orthodoxy IS entirely-convincing. The scope of Chesterton’s masterwork emcompasses Orthodox Christianity as a whole, and deals with it from every angle. CS Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity” is a fantastic book, but it would not have been possible without Orthodoxy. Once a man reads Chesterton he realizes that GK’s influence is felt in nearly all the pages of Lewis.

So, if you want my answer to the question, “What is the best book on Christian Apologetics?” I’d say Orthodoxy, hands down.

Because:

1. Orthodoxy is MORE than a book.
2. Orthodoxy is the most fun a man can have reading a book.
3. Orthodoxy is Scratch-and-Sniff Apologetics. It takes dogmas and doctrines and puts them into practical use; uses that a man can see in the streets, in the forrests, and inside the foreign and untamed lands on his heart.