This is a fantastic book. But is it the "greatest defense of theism" ever assembled? No. Why? Because it is (in general) not defensive; rather, this would fall under the category of "offensive" apologetics. In general, this book attempts to prove God through Kalam, ontological, etc. But to say that this is a defense of theism simply shows the other reviewer's misunderstanding of philosophy. A defense of theism is when atheists attempt, through logic, to disprove God, and the theist "defends" theism Armstrong admitted to the coherency of theism during another Craig debate, and yet the average layman believes he has a chance??? Go look on Reasonablefaith.org to read all the poor attempts at outsmarting Craig.

My main point is this: Do not obsess. I went through a time when I was rampantly reading apologetics, and then I would turn around to read atheistic literature. I did this because I was constantly in a state of, "But what if Craig/Plantinga/Moreland/etc. is wrong?? Look at all the atheists today! Surely they can't ALL be wrong!" This line of thinking is natural, though can be very detrimental. Even the great Socrates recognizes the problem here: "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing. And that is that I know nothing." We cannot know the answer to every question or every objection. Do not constantly worry about atheists attempting to disprove God, for this leads no where. Eventually you will have to make a choice, and stick with it without having to worry about possible objections.

Oh, and order this for your library! That's an easy way to get it (and without cost!).

Note: This book is definitely advanced. If you would describe yourself as "the layman," this book is not for you. I immerse myself in apologetics, but there is quite a bit that I don't understand. You need a thorough education in certain aspects in order to understand EVERY argument from top to bottom. Nonetheless, it is a joy to read.

This book features some of the top theistic philosophers of religion in the world delivering a defense of the existence of God. This book is extremely thorough, answering every possible objection along the way.

Be warned, this book assumes you have an understanding of the vocabulary and methodology of analytic philosophy. The ontological argument assumes that you, the reader, understand propositional calculus. This book is not for the layman.

As an atheist, I recognize this as the single greatest defense of theism ever assembled. Craig and Moreland basically made a list of the most compelling contemporary arguments for the existence of God, tracked down their foremost living defenders, and gave them 50-100 pages to make their case. The result is awe-inspiring, even for the atheist.

I do not expect the book to succeed in demonstrating theism, but it might take a full decade for me to fully analyze its meaty arguments and come to some conclusions.

Even if Earth's universities are emptied of theists point in the philosophical defense of theism. So I give this book 5 stars not because it convinced me that a magical super-being spoke the universe into existence and revealed himself to ancient, ignorant people through the virgin birth of a man-god who did party tricks, got killed, then rose from the dead and flew off into the sky. No, I give this book 5 stars because it's the best defense of such a myth that can possibly be mustered.

High points include Craig & Sinclair's new deployment of the Kalam Cosmological Argument and McGrew & McGrew's astounding Bayesian defense of the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus.

Also, readers may be surprised to learn that the modal ontological argument has progressed a great deal since Plantinga. To my knowledge, atheists have yet to show what might be wrong with Robert Maydole's latest ontological argument, printed within.

Because I hold this book in such high esteem, I will be writing hundreds of pages in response to its arguments, starting with Craig's kalam argument and Linville's moral argument. You can track my progress at CommonSenseAtheism.com.

'The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology' is a tour-de-force of analytic philosophy. If the world is just, it will shape the theistic side of the debate over the existence of God for at least a decade. In my opinion, it has no equal among atheistic literature - yet.