Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity

by J.P. Moreland

Here are up-to-date arguments for God's existence and for Jesus' deity and resurrection, answers to objections to Christian theism, and discussions of four key issues.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Christianity, Christian, Religion, Nonfiction, Science

276 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

About the author

J.P. Moreland is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University in La Mirada, California. He has four earned degrees: a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Missouri, a Th.M. in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, an M. A. in philosophy from the University of California-Riverside, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California.

He has co-planted three churches, spoken and debated on over 175 college campuses around the country, and served with Campus Crusade for Christ for 10 years. For eight years, he served as a bioethicist for PersonaCare Nursing Homes, Inc. headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

His ideas have been covered by both popular religious and non-religious outlets, including the New Scientist and PBS’s “Closer to Truth,” Christianity Today and WORLD magazine. He has authored or co-authored 30 books, and published over 70 articles in journals, which include Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, American Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Philosophia Christi, and Faith and Philosophy.

Reviews

[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

― “It seems clear that the New Testament writers were able and willing to tell the truth. They had little to gain and much to lose for their efforts for one thing, they were mostly Jewish theists. To change the religion of Isreal with its observance of the Mosaic law, Sabbath keeping, sacrifices, and clear-cut non-Trinitarian monotheism would be to risk the damnation of their own souls to hell.”
― J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity

Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity is a work of Christian apologetics, that branch of Christian theology which seeks to defend the faith and to provide rational warrant for Christianity’s truth claims. 1 Peter 3:15 instructs the believers to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.” This instruction applies to both the apologist and the lay person.

Apologetics helps others develop an intellectual and reasonable examination of the Christian message. The goal of apologetics is to both strengthen the faith of Christians and to attract others to the gospel. A number of evangelical apologists have prepared excellent works for both the academic and lay reader, including J.P. Moreland of Biola University, William Lane Craig (resonablefaith.org), Alvin Plantinga, Norman Geisler, Greg Koukl (Stand to Reason (str.org)), Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, R. C. Sproul (ligonier.org), and Hugh Ross (reasons.org).

In recent years, there has been a tidal wave of apologetics research that would help believers to make a defense, demolish strongholds, answer objections, and win arguments. That has been especially true in neo-Darwinian evolution.

― “In science, there has been a crisis in the neo-Darwinian version of evolutionary theory, and sociologists and philosophers of science have raised objections which have called into question the truth claims and rationality of science as a discipline.”
― J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity

Yet too few Christians show an interest in studying apologetics. In part, this is due to rampant anti-intellectualism in the church today. In part, this is because of a focus on feelings within the church. Another cause and symptom of anti-intellectualism in the church is neglect of a form of reading that cognitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf refers to as deep reading. What many of us read tends to be online, including blog posts, Facebook updates, tweets, and the like—in other words, reading that tends toward shorter, less complex sentences. There is a lack of engagement with complex literature, and current reading proficiency is less than optimal. We need to read books that stretch and challenge our souls.

At a time when Western culture is deeply post-Christian, evangelicals need to be better prepared to engage that culture. Apologetics can play a vital role in shaping our culture, but it can also play a vital role in the lives of individual people. J. P. Moreland reviews most of the standard arguments in apologetics, including the cosmological, design, and mind arguments, as well as the historicity of the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus, and the integration of Christianity and science.

While I found the book informative, there seemed to me to be too many discussions that dealt with issues that the average reader is likely ever to encounter outside the college campus, such as the discussion on “potential” versus “actual” infinities. Yet, with careful study, the reader can get a lot of meat out of this book. For those willing to devote the time, Moreland has added to the arsenal of weaponry needed to defend the Christian faith in this post-Christian era in which we live.

[Brian Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't the best book on Christian Apologetics that I've read, but it's solid and it holds up well. (It was published in 1987.) Moreland approaches apologetics from a largely philosophical angle, so much of his comprehensive case for Christianity is philosophical in nature. Perhaps that is why it doesn't seem dated. He does provide some information about the reliability of the New Testament and the historicity of the resurrection.

My only complaints are that aside from those chapters, much of the book doesn't directly argue enough for a distinctively Christian theism. Additionally, the chapters seemed somewhat disjointed. Though each chapter was fine, they didn't seem to lead one into another.

For a similar, but more comprehensive book, I would recommend Douglas Groothuis's Christian Apologetics. But since that book is almost three times the length of this one, this is a good place to start for a philosophically-minded person who wants to explore some good arguments for the truth of the Christian faith.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since this is an earlier book of Moreland’s, and from what I assumed would be an introductory text, it is surprisingly good. Some of the chapters have been sharpened in his other works, but this is a good handbook on areas like substance dualism and the Kalaam argument.

Moreland lists several problems with an infinite universe, with infinite being understood as an actual infinite. An actual infinite is considered as a complete totality with an actual infinite amount of numbers. An actual infinite can neither increase nor decrease in the number of members it contains. Potential infinite: it increases its numbers through time. It is always finite. actual infinities cannot exist. A beginningless series of temporal events cannot exist. Therefore, the universe had a cause (22). If an actual infinite is possible, then the following puzzles occur:

Imagine a library with an infinite number of books. Each book has a different natural number. Further, there are an infinite number of red books and an infinite number of black books such that each even number is on a red book and each odd number is on a black book. Problem: there could be no red or black book added to the library because there would be no natural number for its cover. Further, if one took away all the red books, one would diminish the library by an actual number of infinite books. Yet one would still have the same number of books in the library. The Impossibility of traversing an actual infinite: you cannot cross the actual infinite by successive addition.

Moreland is known for his arguments relating to the philosophy of mind. He capably defends substance dualism and shows the problems with physicalism. His chapter on ethics was okay, but he has given more substantial arguments in Philosophical Foundations.

The book also contains a useful bibliography (which, again, has been updated in Philosophical Foundations).

[Luís Branco · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Moreland makes all efforts to make Christianity credible with several arguments. His arguments are very well laid an especially in what is concerning to the existence of God and for Jesus' deity and resurrection. Moreland also provides very good answers to objections to Christian theism, and discussions of four key issues: The Cosmological Argument; The Design Argument; The Historicity of the New Testament, The Resurrection of Jesus. I think that Moreland explains very well the theories of the Kalam theory, what made this more interesting to me.

The book has some very good insights and strengths I liked specially Moreland explanation of apologetics. As he puts it: First, Scripture command us to defend the faith and gives us several examples of such activity. Second, apologetics can help remove barriers to faith and thus aid unbelievers in embracing the gospel. Third, apologétics can strengthen believers in at least two ways. For one thing, it gives confidence that faith is true and reasonable and also apologetics can encourage spiritual growth. Fourth, apologetics can help to health in the culture at large. For example, in the formation of bioethics committees.

With all the resources and information available in this book, I felt very encouraged to engage in the use of apologetics as a tool to bring people to Christ through the presentation of a very reasonable message. I was able to understand that apologetics is much more than defence of the gospel, but above also a presentation of its logical message to the world.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book takes the classical approach to apologetics, as a result, there is no scripture index at the back of the book, demonsrating the author's dependence on general revelation, science & philosophy, rather than God's Word for his apologetic methodology, and the Gospel isn't even fully given in the conclusion since the imputed righteousness of Christ is left out, also Moreland says in the conclusion, "If we follow the New Testament example, we are to present the Gospel as a rational message to be believed and we are to defend it against objections" (pg. 249), but this contradicts the New Testament methodology for apologetics especially 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and Paul's apologetic methodology outline in Romans 1:18-32, there are no true atheists, they are actively suppressing the truth of the God that they know exists, so we cannot approach them on neutral ground, thereby reducing the Gospel to an intellectual problem of ignorance, it is better to read books by apologists who are good exegetes and actually know Biblical Greek and Hebrew such as James White, rather than "good" philosophers such as Moreland and William Lane Craig.

[Mason Frierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have ever read on the topic of defending Christianity rationally. That said, for a Christian new to this topic, a more entry-level book would be more helpful (e.g. Lee Strobel's two books: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith).

The book is written to an educated audience and parts of it are difficult. The most difficult part was Moreland's discussion of the kalam cosmological argument and the mathematical part evidence therein. Moreland is an excellent scholar; in total, there are 359 footnotes where Moreland documents arguments, refers to other philosophers and so on.

There is also an excellent bibliography at the end where Moreland classes the books under three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.
Moreland covers what one would expect to find in an apologetics book:
The Cosmological Argument
The Design Argument
The Historicity of the New Testament
The Resurrection of Jesus

Much of this material can be found in hundreds of other books. In his chapter on the Cosmological Argument, Moreland focuses on a specific form of it, recently revived by William Lane Craig, namely the kalam Cosmological argument (in brief: If the universe had a beginning, then it was either caused or not-caused, if caused, then the cause is either personal or not-personal). In the Design Argument, Moreland covers different forms of Design, some of which are untouched, even if evolution is true (e.g. Design as Order, Purpose, Simplicity, Complexity, Beauty, Sense and Cognition, Information and Cosmic Constants).

Moreland's defense of the Resurrection is similar in many respects to Craig's; see my reviews of, "Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Fiction," and, "Will the real Jesus please stand up?"

However, Moreland has several chapters that make his book stand out from the crowd:
God and the Argument from the Mind
God and the Meaning of Life
Science and Christianity
Four Final Issues

In the Mind chapter, Moreland argues for and defends the idea of substantial, immaterial human souls or minds to the existence of an original Mind or Soul (i.e. God). In the Meaning chapter, Moreland looks at the ethics dimension of the question, examines the options (e.g. Nihilism, optimistic humanism, immanent purpose and Christianity), and concludes that Christianity is not only the most rational but also provides more meaning than the competing views.

In the Science chapter, Moreland discusses philosophy of science and the creation/evolution debate. Often, there is an idea that either science and theology are working in totally different spheres of reality or that science should dictate to theology what it can and cannot do. I think Moreland makes an important advance here; his approach takes both science and the Bible seriously. He concludes the chapter with a discussion of evolution and offers a serious of reasons why creation science IS NOT a religion.

In the last chapter, he looks at four final issues; the problem of the visibility of God, the religious experience argument for God, the objection that God is merely a psychological projection and relativism.

To explain the visibility problem is the view that sense God cannot be seen, one cannot know He exists; Moreland rightly exposes this as, crude empiricism. The author offers two fairly convincing arguments based on religious experience; the reader must keep in mind that even if you reject this argument, there are numerous other objective arguments that are objective in nature. Psychologists and sociologists originally came up with the idea that God is a projection of the mind, or a fulfillment of psychological needs, obviously forgot that philosophy is not their realm. Moreland responds by saying that to explain the origin of the belief does not show whether one is justified in believing it (to discredit an idea solely by pointing to its origin is to commit the genetic fallacy), and Moreland also questions the premise that people project God. Relativism is the view that there are no universal moral rules that apply to all people, all cultures and all times; for more on this topic, see my review of, Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air.

Throughout the book, Moreland considers objections to his arguments and systematically disables them. He does not make up objections, but footnotes specific books written by advocates of different philosophies. To those that claim that Christianity is intellectually bankrupt, irrational or whatever, you have a challenge to deal with. Moreland shows the intellectual strength of Christianity and makes it difficult to dismiss Christianity casually.
I would highly recommend this book to college and university students and all those who long for a robust defense of the faith.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN "INTERMEDIATE-LEVEL" APOLOGETICS WORK

J.P. (John Porter) Moreland (born 1948) is Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University; he has also written books such as 'Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul,' 'The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning,' 'Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview,' etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1987 book, "This book is an attempt to defend the thesis that the Christian God does in fact exist and that it is rational to believe that he does... I have tried to write an intermediate-level work that is aimed at those who want a serious discussion of apologetic issues without having formal training in philosophy. A number of good works ... are written at a popular level. There are also a number of very technical works ... which are accessible only for the professional scholar. This work is an attempt to provide a treatment of some central apologetic themes at a level somewhere between the two." (Pg. 13-14)

He suggests, "One suspects that at bottom, the assertion that the universe came from nothing without a cause is a mere assertion without support; a sort of ungrounded logical possibility which provides the atheist with a last-ditch effort to avoid the existence of a first Cause... Such a view is a logical possibility, but one which is most likely metaphysically impossible, and in any case, one without sufficient reasons. There is no reason to deny what we experience as true every day. Events have causes. So did the first one." (Pg. 41)

He notes, "The third objection is that the existence of God and an afterlife does not give meaning to life. Bestowing eternity on an empty life does not make it meaningful. It may yield only an eternity of emptiness... If life is not meaningful and valuable in itself, then even God cannot bestow meaning on it in a nonarbitrary way. Two things can be said against this objection. First, at best it shows only that God and an afterlife are not sufficient conditions of a meaningful life... But this does not show that God and an afterlife are not necessary conditions for an objectively meaningful life. Christian theism does not assert that any kind of God or any kind of afterlife gives meaning. Christian theism asserts that the CHRISTIAN God and the biblical worldview give meaning to life." (Pg. 130)

He observes, "In Palestine during the days of Jesus, at least fifty tombs of prophets or other persons served as sites of religious worship and veneration. However, there is no good evidence that such a practice was ever associated with Jesus' tomb. Since this was customary, and since Jesus was a fitting object of veneration, why were such religious activities not conducted at his tomb? The most reasonable answer must be that Jesus' body was not in his tomb, and thus the tomb was not regarded as an appropriate site for such veneration." (Pg. 161)

Citing the early speeches in Acts, he asks, "Why is the empty tomb not mentioned in these speeches? The best answer seems to be that the fact of the empty tomb was common ground between believers and unbelievers. Thus, there was no reason to mention it, especially since the early church did not usually use the empty tomb in itself as proof of the Christian message." (Pg. 162)

He states, "Most scholars believe that Joseph of Arimathea was a real, historical person and that Jesus was actually buried in his tomb. According to the Gospels, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, a group of seventy-one leaders whose members were very well known among the populace. No one could have invented a person who did not exist and say he was on the Sanhedrin if such were not the case. Almost everyone knew who was on the Sanhedrin. A fictitious character would have been more plausible if someone obscure had been chosen." (Pg. 167)

He admits, "It is difficult to harmonize the empty tomb and appearance narratives in the Gospels, though such a harmonization can be done." (He cites John Wenham's 'Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict?')

This is an excellent, detailed, and wide-ranging apologetics work, that will be of great value to Christians studying apologetics.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to go back and read this book again right away. I had to speed through it for seminary but it went so deep into realms I’m unfamiliar with that I want to take it slow so I can comprehend everything. Moreland is an excellent resource for apologetics and the defense of the Christian faith. Scaling the Secular City was intended to be a graduate-level textbook, so it is a worthwhile resource but probably for the more dedicated reader.

[Damon Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, but a little more philosophical than I would have liked. It was a bit hard to follow at times, but very informative.

[Jordan Litts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book.

[Franklin Peach · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a breath of fresh air Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity by J.P. Moreland was to read while living in our 'God is Dead' culture. I generally feel comfortable while defending Catholicism to my protestant brothers and sisters, but always felt just a little inadequate when discussing God with agnostics or atheists. This book is a good foray into defending Christianity as a logical conclusion in our hyper-scienced culture.
As someone with a Math background I especially liked his appeal to the Kalam argument for the existence of god and the use of a mathematical understanding of infinity to argue the the universe must have a beginning. (Please don't shy away from this book if you don't have an aptitude in math, this is the only area in the book that deals with it and he explains it well enough, it just may seem odd to think that it is possible to have one infinite list larger or smaller than another infinite list. I assure you it is true or much of mathematics is wrong)
Moreland covers a lot of distance in this relatively short book including (but not limited to) Evolution, Physicalism (only mater exists), The Historicity of the Gospels, The Resurrection of Jesus and Morality. His logic throughout the book is impeccable and you may often be amazed of how the logic of most atheistic arguments lead one in a direction you (and most times the atheist themselves) do not want to go. The depth which each topic is covered is sufficient and well footnoted, some of which I will plan to read to dive into some topics with more depth than was covered here.
I only took one issue with Moreland when he used Jesus' brothers and sisters to make an argument. I understand that Moreland is not Catholic, but He must know that this would not sit well with us (as Mary's Perpetual virginity is Catholic Dogma) and he really didn't need to have it in there to make his argument, so I was saddened he felt it necessary to include it.
That small point aside this was a great book that would leave any skeptic questioning their beliefs (or lack there of). His chapter 'Science and Christianity' in which he explores the tension between the two, their proper balance, the limits of both and why we should actually put less faith in science than we do (again using inescapable logic), was a particularly good one. A point I will be sure to take with me: Consider this statement, "only what can be known by science or quantified and empirically tested is rational and true" (p.197) While I believe that much of our culture currently believes this statement as an unquestionable fact upon which their entire lives are based (whether consciously or unconsciously), Moreland exposes this as a logical fallacy by explaining that the statement itself cannot be known by science or empirically tested. Therefore the statement is not true by it's own standards. That is the type of clear reasoning you can expect from this well written book.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've spent the last couple of years slowly reading, and re-reading, this book. I chose it because it had a reputation for being one of the strongest works of Christian apologetics out there. Unfortunately, it failed to impress.

The book starts out with the classic Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of god. While ultimately not convincing, Moreland at least did an admirable job of presenting the argument, and it made for challenging reading and thought. Unfortunately, the book goes rapidly down hill from there, presenting various arguments that get progressively weaker as the get closer to the Christian god. I won't go through every chapter here, but I feel the need to mention that the chapters on the historicity of the bible were astonishingly weak. Moreland's arguments couldn't possibly have been convincing to anyone who hadn't already accepted the conclusion.

The book doesn't truly hit bottom, however, until the chapter on the relationship between religion and science. Moreland mostly uses the same worn out, ill-informed arguments against evolutionary theory that evolution deniers have been making for decades (and which have been debunked be well-informed scientists many times over). He also grossly mischaracterizes the nature of evolutionary theory. For example, he completely misinterprets Gould and Eldridge's theory of punctuated equilibrium to make it seem like it's some sort of attempt to fill in gaps in the fossil record, which it certainly is not. A person as well educated as Moreland seems to be should know better than to make such outlandish and disingenuous arguments. It really makes one doubt the sincerity of Moreland's entire book. Does he truly believe all of his own arguments? One has to wonder.

I must give credit to Moreland for at least presenting some of the counter arguments to his own theories. This is more than the average work of apologetics attempts. In the long run, however, I was greatly disappointed with a book that came with such a strong reputation. Is this the best defense that Christianity can have? Perhaps it is, and that is something that should give Christians food for thought!

[Sergio Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent! One of my new favorite apologetics books for sure. J. P. Moreland tackles the existence of a personal God then talks about the historicity of Jesus and closes the book with objections to Christianity. Laying out all of his arguments clearly, he also deals with some main objections to the arguments and shows how they are not valid. He also deals with other philosophies and points out their flaws, showing how they fail. A must read for Christians who want to learn more about the defense of their faith.

[Josiah Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has to be one of the best popular-level apologetics books, especially back when it was written. Although, I feel like I should mention that all the subject matter in this book is in "Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview", thus much of these arguments have been revised in Moreland's newer works especially in the Philosophy of Mind department. But despite that, I believe it is definitely worth anyone's time who is curious about the foundation of everything.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reads more like a reference book of apologetic arguments than an exegetical defense of Christianity, but as such it is a very valuable reference. Moreland focuses on philosophical and scientific arguments for God, pulling together most of the great high-level debates on the subject throughout history.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for a good survey of how modern theology addresses some of th major questions that arise today. It is very detailed and takes pains[return]to introduce all of the necessary theological and philosophical concepts and terms. It has a good b[return]

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A defense of "mere Christianity" that will appeal to those who enjoy philosophical, rational argumentation, e.g., the kalam cosmological argument. If you enjoy reading philosophy, you'll profit from this book.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is supposed to be an intermediate level book on apologetics. However my philosophical abilities must be declining because I found some of this challenging. Nevertheless thankful for people like Dr. Moreland who are able to do a good job with apologetics to professional philosophers.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is as heavy as it gets. Moreland is a tough read but it covers all the major Christian apologetic issues.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must read for those who want to move beyond Strobel's works in defense of the faith. A robust and sophisticated defense of the faith.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably Moreland's best...this is a common read amongst lay Chrisitan apologists...good bredth of subject matter. Moreland has a very analytical style here.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly light reading, but an excellent look at arguments for God and Christianity, starting from arguments that a God exists and ending with arguments that Jesus rose from the dead.

[Kelly Applegate · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT apologetical book. Very good and logical arguments for Christians (and non Christians to read). It makes you think...

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read most of this groundbreaking work while at LU. Definitely a great book on Christian apologetics and a must read for Christians of any era.

[Andrew]

Moreland's arguments are not overwhelming, but it is a good jumping off point for Christian apologetics.

[Mikkles]

Dr. Myatt recommended.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overview on several scientific, philosophical, and historical arguments for the existence of God.

[Jay Risner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good.

[William Dicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moreland does an excellent job in laying a foundation for apologetics.