This massive work, written entirely by Norman Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, is part of the “Baker Reference Library.” This encyclopedia contains articles on general topics in apologetics, such as evaluative surveys of various kinds of apologetics (e.g., presuppositionalism) and the role of the Holy Spirit in apologetics, on philosophical concepts like the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and philosophical systems like nihilism, on biblical issues such as the resurrection and the reliability of the biblical manuscripts, on current “hot topics” like the Jesus Seminar and religious pluralism, and on the great perennial issues, such as the problem of evil and arguments for God’s existence. Great thinkers like Plato, Plotinus, Thomas Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein have their relevant ideas canvassed and evaluated as do almost all of the major players in twentieth century Anglo-American apologetics (e.g., Carnell, Ramm, Van Til). Most articles have bibliographies that cite primarily classical works.
Much of what Geisler has written is valuable. His strong commitment to biblical authority makes articles on topics such as hell and the salvation of “the heathen” reliable. He does, however, consistently oppose forms of what he calls “theistic determinism” like Jonathan Edwards’. And some articles contain far too many errors. For instance, in the one on Elton Trueblood, Stanford University becomes “Standard University,” Joseph Butler is “George Butler,” and Trueblood is identified as a pacifist.
