Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith by J. Warner Wallace

About the book: (from the publisher) Forensic Faith will help readers:

• understand why they have a duty to defend the truth
• develop a training strategy to master the evidence for Christianity
• learn how to employ the techniques of a detective to discover new insights from God’s Word
• become better communicators by learning the skills of professional case makers

With real-life detective stories, fascinating strategies, and biblical insights, Wallace teaches readers cold-case investigative disciplines they can apply to their Christian faith. Forensic Faith is an engaging, fresh look at what it means to be a Christian.

About the author: Warner Wallace is a cold-case homicide detective who has been featured on Dateline, Fox News, and Court TV. A former atheist, he is the author of “Cold-Case Christianity” and “God’s Crime Scene.” Wallace has a master’s degree in theology and lives in California with his wife and four children.

Find out more about J. Warner at http://coldcasechristianity.com.

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Genre: Non-fiction/Religion/Christian Theology/Apologetics

[bctt tweet=”Learn the daily cold-case investigative disciplines of Christianity. @JWarnerWallace @David_C_Cook @Litfuse http://bit.ly/2pLet7A ” username=”KatherineSJones”]

My take: Even if you haven’t seen it, you’re probably aware that The Case for Christ has recently been in theatres around the country. The movie, of course, is based on the contemporary classic by Lee Strobel. Our family saw it, and enjoyed it, and partly because of this, examining the claims of Jesus — the basis for Christianity — has been at the forefront of my mind lately. Historically, I’m the kind of gal who tends to be guided by emotions and subjective experience. Which doesn’t on its own generally provide an effective witness for my faith. Personal experience can only take you so far.

Which is why I’m excited when books like J. Warner Wallace’s come on the scene that promise to help emotional creatures like me build a more reasoned case for what I believe and why I believe it. I believe in Jesus because it’s true (according to overwhelming historical evidence), but I don’t always have the facts at hand to defend that claim.

That said, Forensic Faith wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Through no fault of the author, I do not think I am the primary targeted audience. Reading this, I kept thinking it would make great material for middle- or high-school kids seeking evidentiary ways to strengthen their claims of faith. The illustrations and formatting of the book lends to that audience. As a group study, this would make a fantastic guide.

What I did find most valuable were the resources found at the back, including brief answers to these four common challenges to the Christian faith:

• Faith is incompatible with reason
• Christians are hypocrites
• Science and religion are incompatible
• Christians are intolerant

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably been challenged on each of these at one time or another. Thanks to Wallace’s clear, evidence-based logic, next time it happens I’ll be much better prepared to meet these sorts of challenges kindly but rationally.

Thanks to Litfuse Publicity and David C Cook for providing me this book free of charge. All opinions are mine.

After words: What have you found to be the most effective way to defend your faith?