This book will give you a whole new perspective on the gospels. As with his other books, it is the people he interviews who are the main focus of the book, and it is they who serve to make it interesting. Anyway, Strobel is more of a glorified interviewer than an actual writer, and he doesn't really contribute much to the overall content of the book apart from introducing each of his interviewees. I'd just as soon journalists wore their biases on their sleeves so we could easily see exactly where they were coming from. Personally, I think the idea of absolute journalistic integrity sounds nice, but realistically is little more than a pipe dream. The truth is that I found it to be both entertaining and very informative. I realize I sound like I'm attacking THE CASE FOR CHRIST, which must seem odd in light of my four star rating. The Bible scholars he interviews certainly realize from the outset that Strobel is on their side, and, sure enough, he readily concedes to their every argument. Strobel calls it 'playing Devil's advocate,' but it all comes across as being very silly and disingenuous, and it's obvious that his blustering is only done for dramatic effect. He interviews a host of Bible scholars from different backgrounds and acts as though he's grilling them in order to get answers.

I'm delighted that Strobel is a professing Christian, but I think it's cheesy that, during the course of this book, he sort of half-pretends to be a skeptic. Many people read Strobel's writing because they assume that, as a journalist, he will approach the topic from a relatively unbiased perspective and that, because of his lawyer experience, he knows how to avoid the kind of things that would lead to a mistrial. Ironically, though, this aspect of the book is also its biggest failure. His background is the main angle for the book's marketing strategy and is largely responsible for making him a best-selling author. Lee Strobel used to work as a journalist for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and was also trained as a trial lawyer-a background which he's inordinately proud of and can't help referencing nearly every other page or so, beginning with the front cover. As is always the case with Lee Strobel books, the big problem with THE CASE FOR CHRIST is that it's written by Lee Strobel.

The case of the christ