The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
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The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus description
The Case for Christ records Lee Strobel's attempt to "determine if there's credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God." The book consists primarily of interviews between Strobel (a former legal editor at the Chicago Tribune) and biblical scholars such as Bruce Metzger. Each interview is based on a simple question, concerning historical evidence (for example, "Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?"), scientific evidence, ("Does Archaeology Confirm or Contradict Jesus' Biographies?"), and "psychiatric evidence" ("Was Jesus Crazy When He Claimed to Be the Son of God?"). Together, these interviews compose a case brief defending Jesus' divinity, and urging readers to reach a verdict of their own. |
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The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Cursory Review of the Evidence
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Strobel has a Degree of Master's of Studies in Law from Yale. But after earning such a degree, a person is essentially the equivalent of a law student who just finished his or her first year of law school. Furthermore, many students do not take an Evidence course during their first year of law school. This may explain why Strobel does such a poor job examining the totality of the evidence and misses or fails to mention basic evidentiary legal concepts. I know that Strobel is not offering this book into a court of law, nor does he hold himself out as a lawyer. But it is misleading when he invokes legal terms when in fact he does not have complete legal training.
In describing its Master of Studies in Law program, the Yale Law School website reads: "[the] Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.) degree program for a small number of non-lawyers who want to obtain a basic familiarity with legal thought and to explore the relation of law to their disciplines. It is a one-year terminal program designed for those who do not desire a professional law degree, but who are interested in a rigorous curriculum and grounding in legal studies. Candidates in the M.S.L. program are ordinarily experienced scholars with research or teaching objectives in mind, or journalists seeking an intensive immersion in legal thinking so that they are better able to educate their audiences upon their return to journalism."
This is exactly what Strobel did. He was a journalist by trade, went to Yale Law School for just one year to gain a basic grounding in legal studies, and returned to journalism. I am not saying that Strobel did not learn anything during that first year of law school. But any lawyer will tell you that after one's first year of law school, one really doesn't know much about the law. In fact, any lawyer will tell you that one doesn't know much after graduating from three years of law school! A career in law entails a lifetime of learning.
Here is an example of Strobel missing a basic concept in evidence law: He never addresses the issue of hearsay. Hearsay is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Subject to many exceptions, hearsay is generally inadmissible as evidence. If the gospels are used to prove the truth of its statements, then they are technically hearsay. If they do not fall under a recognized exception, then the statements would be inadmissible. On the whole (I am not going to go line-by-line here), the gospel statements do not qualify under any of the recognized exceptions.
Chapter 2 is entitled "Testing the Eyewitness Evidence," yet he never once mentions the hearsay problem or that the eyewitness accounts are that of unavailable witnesses whose statements would be inadmissible in court because the declarants could not be cross-examined. This is the underlying purpose of the hearsay rule: it attempts to exclude out of court statements as untrustworthy since they cannot be tested by cross-examination of its declarants. Furthermore, the eight "tests" that Strobel uses (e.g., "The Intention Test," "The Ability Test," etc.) are not recognized legal tests used to evaluate eyewitness testimony. They sound like they are because he puts the word "test" there, but none of them are legal tests one will learn in Evidence class or in practicing law. He made them up.
This passing treatment of evidentiary legal concepts epitomizes the overall problem with the book, which is its passing treatment of all issues. It briefly mentions its own problems and provides only lip service to opposing views. Granted, this is not meant to be a serious scholarly book and is meant for mass consumption. But you could find something much more intellectually challenging on the subject than this.
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