Stand Your Ground: An Introductory Text for Apologetics Students

by Dean Hardy

"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.

182 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Dean Hardy is a Bible Teacher at Charlotte Christian School North Carolina. His resume includes working with Palm Beach County Youth for Christ and a Masters degree under the tutelage of Norman Geisler at Southern Evangelical Seminary. In his spare time he enjoys watching Nascar races and the NFL as well as dabbling in philosophy and reading the works of C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and George Macdonald. Dean's pinnacle passion are his wife and two sons with whom he lives in Matthews, NC. You can follow his adventures on Twitter @DeanHardy23 and on instagram at dhardy2.

In 2007, Dean published his first book Stand Your Ground: An Introductory Text for Apologetics Students via Wipf and Stock Publishers. The book has gained support from such apologists as Norman Geisler, Frank Turek, Paul Copan, and Alex Mcfarland.

Since then, Dean has written a middle-grade fantasy book entitled Magnus Kir and is published by Ambassador-International AND a book on George MacDonald entitled "Waking the Dead."

Reviews

[Andrew Goad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. I prefer his other works, like Railed Hard.

[Logan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally, I reserve 1 star ratings for books that I hate or strongly dislike. I don't feel that strongly about the book, but I don't think it deserves 2 stars. For what the author tried to do, he didn't try hard enough. His intent is to prepare high school and college Christians for the constant attacks on their faiths that they are supposed to face. The problem with doing this lies not within the arguments, but the fact that they are dumbed down versions of arguments from other, more well known texts. Rather than equip students with sharpened steel, he equips them with brittle wood. I only read this book because it was the textbook for the class I was required to take at the high school I attended, assigned by the author, no less. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I suspect that most purchasers of this book were in the same situation.

Not that it really mattered anyway. When I went off into the real world, the attacks didn't come in swarms, but in the rare breeze. My college professors were mostly interested in teaching their classes, and rarely used their positions to stand behind a podium, so to speak. Even the most fervent atheists and agnostics took less issue in belief than they did with organized religion, which is something I sometimes agree on.

No, I don't assign this book 1 star because I hated it. I give it 1 star because of the utility value I got from the book. It's short, has little to say, and is only useful to pass the class I had to take. Believers should question their faith and seek answers, but this isn't the place to start.