| | |  | | Home » Stand Your Ground: An Introductory Text for Apologetics Students | | | | | | | Description: | | About the Book: "My freshman year of college was a battle," writes Katie, a college student and a strong Christian. The transition from high school to college is one of the most pivotal times in a young person's life. After departing from under the protective wings of their parents, young adults often have trouble holding firm to the Christian faith. 'Stand Your Ground' is an introduction to apologetics for young adults in high school or college. The book includes thirteen chapters that confront the overwhelming intellectual attacks Christian college students face on university campuses. Dean Hardy takes readers on a spiritual and intellectual journey, addressing such issues as the nature of truth and reality, the investigation of other worldviews, the evidence for Christianity, critics' arguments against Christianity, and the relationship between apologetics and evangelism. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Dean Hardy | | Paperback:
| 170 pages | | Publisher:
| Wipf & Stock Publishers | | Publication Date:
| 2007-04 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1556351046 | | Product Width:
| 152.5 centimeters | | Product Height:
| 227.5 centimeters | | Product Weight:
| 0.6 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 29 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 29 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
AmazingNov 04, 2007
By Randy Vetter
As I have progressed through each chapter of this book I have grown more and more amazed by its ability to engage my interest and to entertain me. Not only does Mr. Hardy do a fantastic job at intellectually grasping the reader's attention, but he also includes analogies and examples that make the reader laugh and understand the point he is making. His text presents such helpful guidance on how to become an effective apologist. As my faith has grown, I've discovered that I have a desire to defend it. Now that I'm a senior and am getting ready to graduate- I know that after reading this book, I will be ready to go to college and defend my beliefs with logical arguments and the "gentleness and respect" that God tells us to use as apologists. I'm constantly telling my parents something new that I've gathered from my reading and I am so glad to have the opportunity to learn from this book- if you want to be able to effectively defend Christianity, this is a vital book to own and I encourage everyone to read it. It's perfect for students and adults alike. - Anna Vetter
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Stand Your Ground: An Introductory Text for Apologetics StudentsFeb 24, 2011
By Daniel Smith
This text is theologically conservative and well-written. It fully accomplishes its purpose of conveying a cursory understanding of apologetics to the beginning student. It is an excellent read and resource for personal interest or for use in small groups or the classroom setting. I have used it as a textbook in undergraduate introductory apologetics classes and my students found it informational as well as easy to read and understand.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The Only Book I Took to College...Feb 20, 2010
By Mrs. Wright
"Bella"
When I graduated from high school, I cleaned out all my closets and looked through all the books that I had been hoarding over the past four years of my life. Many had been helpful educational resources during their season, but as I looked through the memorable titles, I thought only one held promise of being helpful to me in my college years and beyond. So I gathered together all my notes and materials surrounding this one little book and set off for college.
Turns out I was right. Stand Your Ground is the only book that I have kept with me and referenced repeatedly for the past two years of my college life. Through many religious courses and many faith-challenging confrontations, I have gladly cracked open the pages of this wisdom-filled text.
I write this review not to sound redundant in repeating my earlier praise for this book but to emphasize to those of you who currently study under Mr. Hardy that his insights into the world of apologetics will remain useful to you long after you have left his classroom. Do not take this season of learning for granted. Listen to what he has to teach you with eager ears and take this book with you to college, whether you are attending a Christian university or not and whether you think it will be useful or not. I hope you have studied it and recognized its value because it WILL be an effective tool of truth for your future.
Defending our faith is more important than many of us realize and I challenge and encourage you to recognize the worth of this book in equipping you to face the adversary. Trust me, in the world of religious diversity, you need to know what you're talking about.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Enables students to effectively counter challenges to their faithDec 05, 2007
By Kirsten S. Dexter
Stand Your Ground is divided into 13 chapters, each of which marks out a subject area that can constitute a challenge to the Christian faith. Hardy provides clear definitions for truth and reality. He places worldviews by placing them into 7 distinct categories. He refutes challenges to the historicity of the Bible, introduces students to effective arguments for Christ-centered ethics, morals and views of truth, and underlines the necessity of logic in discourse by dedicating chapter 5 to the subject.
The occasional cliche and typos don't undermine the impact of Hardy's concise definitions and relevant examples. The book is geared towards high-school kids, so it reads on that level but still effectively helps students prepare for higher-level apologetics learning. The highlight of Stand Your Ground is Hardy's consistent categorization; the division of his topics into small, understandable blocks made learning the material easy. Ideal book for a late high-school or early-college introductory apologetics class.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Good Introductory Text, but Philosophically LackingJan 17, 2011
By Kiel N. Moreland
Being an introductory text to apologetics I understand that there is only so much that one can demand from such a work. Examined in this way, Stand Your Ground is a good introductory text to some of the issues that apologists have been examining through the ages. For those who want a quick overview of apologetic topics, this book is decent.
However, whenever examined more critically, I found that from a philosophical point of view the book as much to be desired. A few examples. In chapter 1, Hardy presents four ways that may go about making apologetic arguments, critiques three of them presenting difficulties, and in the end he argues that the "classic apologist", an apologist who begins by showing God exists, is superior to other three. However, he offers no critique of the "classic apologetics" and I find this problematic. Hardy does not take into account the issue of context-sensitivity (what I have in mind is something close Stalnaker's contextualism); the argument that an apologist must begin an apologetic argument by showing God exists will not always be appropriate, because in an apologetic context where someone already believes in God or grants God's existence for the sake of argument, beginning with arguments for God's existence, as Hardy advocates, is redundant. Someone wrestling with the goodness of God doesn't need to be convinced that God exists; they already believe it.
Chapter 3 Hardy tackles truth, and he argues for the correspondence theory of truth, and rejects the pragmatic and coherence theories of truth offering pretty standard philosophical objections to them. However, no such critique is presented for the correspondence theory of truth and anyone who has studied philosophy will know that this theory does have problems. While I am sympathetic to the correspondence theory, I think it is disingenuous not offer a critique of the theory and simply claim that it is the only correct theory of truth.
Hardy states that knowledge is justified true belief, but offers no critique of this position either. He states it as if it is a matter of fact, but modern epistemologists would contest this. I think would be better for Hardy to state that he holds knowledge has justified true belief as a tacit assumption rather than making it sound like it is just a matter of fact. The logic in the book is much to be desired. The logic focuses solely on Aristotelian syllogistic logic, and while syllogistic is still used, sentential logic is the primary system of logic used by apologists today, such as Plantinga, Craig, and Moreland.
The chapter on the problem of evil, while decent, I think does not really address the harder issues surrounding the problem of evil. While it is generally accepted that as a result of human sin, evil entered the world, but Hardy address the more pressing issue that since God knew that humanity would eat of tree of knowledge, and evil would result, why did He put the tree in the garden in the first place? This is not addressed and is a more direct attack on God's goodness, and is a question that I have had to face numerous times.
So, again, examining it as an introductory text, the book does its job. But on a philosophical note, I think that there is room for improvement.
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