Goodreads asked Patty Houser:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Patty Houser I got the idea for this book by seeing a need while working with women in women's ministry for the past 14 years. When speaking with Christian women, I found that many women grounded their faith soely in their emotions or hearts. As a result, when hard times hit, or when books like the "Da Vinci Code" came out, their faith was deeply shaken. So much so, in fact, that many told me that "they didn't know what they believed anymore." For a long time, this was perplexing to me because I came to Christ through a 10 year journey through the world of Christian Apologetics and therefore grounded my faith in my head or intellect. How? By methodically examining the truth claims of Christianity and finding an overwhelming amount of evidence that supported the idea that it was more reasonable to believe that God existed and that He came to earth as the person of Jesus Christ to reveal Himself to mankind and that He gave the Bible to mankind to reveal this truth to humans than to disbelieve it. As a result, when hard times hit or when I read books like the "Da Vinci Code," my faith wasn't shaken because my faith was based on facts, not feelings. Recognizing this, I started asking women why they didn't ground their faith more solidly in their minds by reading apologetics books so that they could know first hand how much scientific, philosophical, and historical evidence there was to support the truth claims of Christianity and found that most women didn't because they found most of the books written on apologetics to be boring, hard to understand, and hard to relate to (as most to date have been written by men for men). In fact, Many women asked me if I would read the book for them and then explain it to them. For a while I did this, but then realized that perhaps it would be better if there was book exclusively for women. So I decided to write one. I wanted the book to be simple to understand and relatable to women. To achieve this goal, I ditched the competitive business language and sports analogies most apologetics books use, and only included stories from my own life, stories about being a wife and a mother. I also learned through my speaking ministry which questions women most grappled with, and made sure that those questions were addressed in my book. For instance, at virtually every conference I speak at, somebody asks me what the difference is between the different variations of the Bible. The reason they do is because it is a question that is almost never addressed in an apologetics book. The same is true for how the Canon was decided or for what the Apocrypha is, and why it's included in the Catholic Bible, but not the Protestant Bible. To answer these questions, I wrote a chapter called "Got Issues" that not only answers these questions, but also addresses other questions that arise from these questions. I also made it one stop shopping and only gave women what they wanted to know, no more, no less. Most women are busy and don't have time to read a 600 page book on an introduction to the Bible. But they do have time to read 20 pages. So that's what I give them in my book: A simple survey of the material, so that they have a firm command of the basics, no more, no less. This also makes the book a great book for seekers. And it is my hope that after Christian women read it, they will pass it on to the people in their lives who are seeking after God and Christ, but still have many unanswered questions they need answered. I'm hoping my book will do just that.

flag